The most famous and recognizable D&D campaign setting finally gets the (pseudo) MMO treatment. Check inside for details.

The rumors have been churning ever since Atari scooped up Cryptic back in late 2008, and we’re finally seeing what all the hub-bub was about. That’s right folks, Cryptic Studios will be developing an MMO (or pseudo MMO) for the single most popular Dungeons and Dragons setting of all time: the Forgotten Realms. The game will be called Neverwinter and will apparently have a focus on co-op missions and player generated content.

With those simple statement, questions will quickly begin popping up all across the Internet, especially with some of the tidbits leaked out in the game’s official press release.

First, here’s the aforementioned PR blurb:

Los Angeles, CA (August 23, 2010) -- Atari, one of the world's most recognized videogame publishers and Cryptic Studios, the acclaimed developers behind City of Heroes, City of Villains, Champions Online and Star Trek Online, announced today the development of Neverwinter for PC. Neverwinter is a new online roleplaying game based on Wizards of the Coast's global property Dungeons & Dragons and the beloved city of Neverwinter.

Once a bustling location, Neverwinter has faced a great many disasters in the past hundred years. Rule of the city remains unclear following the unfortunate demise of the last Lord of Neverwinter and factions still battle for dominance after the all-consuming Spellplague took a high toll on the population. Even Neverwinter's dead are beginning to rise from their graves and march upon the city they once called home.

"We're beyond thrilled to develop a brand new version of Neverwinter. It's been years since the original became a gaming icon and we're honored to work with such a great franchise," said Jack Emmert, COO of Cryptic Studios. "We've been working closely with Wizards of the Coast and R.A. Salvatore to create an authentic D&D adventure filled with compelling fiction and exciting gameplay."

In Neverwinter, players choose to become one of five classic D&D classes and team up with friends or computer-controlled allies to form five-person co-op groups. Players also create their own storylines and quests utilizing an extremely user-friendly content generation system, tentatively codenamed Forge.

"Wizards of the Coast is excited to invite millions of fans back to Neverwinter with the launch of R.A. Salvatore's Gauntlgrym, said Liz Schuh, Brand Director for Dungeons & Dragons at Wizards of the Coast. "And we're excited about the prospects for great digital gaming experiences based on this epic world.

Neverwinter for PC is scheduled to release in Q4 2011 and is part of a multi-platform event, including a book trilogy from New York Times best-selling author R. A. Salvatore and a tabletop roleplaying game from Wizards of the Coast. Book one in Salvatore's Neverwinter trilogy, titled Gauntlgrym, releases on October 5 of this year and lays the groundwork for the Neverwinter storyline. The novel previews the settings, characters and monsters from the PC game and details the events that lead up to this highly anticipated PC gaming experience.

There are some very, very interesting pieces of information in this press release. While it’s exciting that R.A. Salvatore is now apparently lending his hand in two MMO projects at the same time (we’re not sure how that works, but I’m sure we’ll find out), the more intriguing pieces of this press release are the mention of the term “co-op” rather than multiplayer or “grouping” and the liberal discussion of player generated content.

Additionally, players will only be able to play as five of D&D 4th Editions *numerous* classes, specifically the fighter, wizard, rogue, ranger, and cleric, which seems like an interesting game decision on Cryptic’s part. This information was gleaned from Cryptic headman, Jack Emmert’s, discussion of the title with Gamespot. Ironically, as readers delve further into the Gamespot article, you’ll notice time and time again that Emmert tries to dissuade the interviewer from calling the game an MMO, even going so far as to call it a “co-RPG” and compare it more closely with Oblivion or Neverwinter Nights.

All of this information will require a bit of processing on ZAM’s part to try to filter out exactly what sort of game Cryptic is creating, but it sounds like it will certainly be a large step away from their previous games and something very different from what players might expect from a D&D-based offering from the studio.

In any case, make sure you stay pointed squarely at ZAM for more news as it comes to us!