Obsidian developing Neverwinter Nights 2

After much speculation, Atari has announced the follow-up to BioWare's Neverwinter Nights, and revealed that Knights of the Old Republic II developer Obsidian Entertainment will be developing it for release in 2006.

"Feargus and his team at Obsidian Entertainment are the best people on the planet to take up where BioWare left off," said Atari's John Hight, and he's clearly not the only person who thinks so. After BioWare developed the original KOTOR title, LucasArts picked Obsidian to handle the sequel there, too.

In this case though, Atari reckons the close alliance between the two developers will help Obsidian bring the D&D Forgotten Realms universe to life in the same way the original NWN did.

"They are intimately familiar with what makes Neverwinter Nights special, they know what it takes to make a great game and they have the respect of the RPG community," Hight added.

Obsidian high priest Feargus Urquhart, meanwhile, seems only too happy to carry the torch. "With Neverwinter Nights 2, we're going to take that incredible [NWN] experience to the next level by combining a huge new single-player game with deep character development and many new upgrades and enhancements to the already powerful BioWare Aurora Toolset for the modding community," he said.

BioWare's Dr. Ray Muzyka, finally, said NWN was "one of the most important titles" BioWare ever made, adding, "We certainly plan to remain involved in the production and development of Neverwinter Nights 2 and we're delighted to initiate another partnership with Obsidian Entertainment and Atari."

With the game not due out until 2006, details are obviously a bit scant, but the official site is now online here (although it's so rammed that the forums have been taken down already), and you can already find some concept art for the game online here.