It will be renamed before the sale closes while publishing rights to Gunfire Games’ Remnant series, Heart Machine’s Hyper Light Breaker, and other unannounced titles will be retained. Lost Boys Interactive (which worked on Wonderlands and faced layoffs earlier this year), mobile 3D scanning company Captured Dimensions, and Cryptic Studios of Neverwinter and Star Trek Online fame are also staying with Embracer.

These companies would be “welcomed and integrated” into other parts of the group and expected to contribute “a positive cash flow going forward.” Embracer has seen several layoffs since a $2 billion deal fell through last year, with studios like Free Radical and Volition shuttered. Whether further layoffs will occur following the sale of Gearbox and Saber Interactive remains to be seen.

The change is essentially a “new makeover” – the organization along with its employees remains the same. All current titles for the company like Star Trek Online, Have a Nice Death and Neverwinter will continue to receive new content. Games like Remnant: From the Ashes and the Torchlight Trilogy also remain under its purview with “more amazing new games to come!”

The only real change that will be seen is the Perfect World Entertainment logo being replaced with that of Gearbox Publishing (though it will take some time before it’s reflected in its games). Newsletters and support tickets will also now come from @GearboxSF.com.

As for Gearbox Entertainment, under which Gearbox Software and Gearbox Publishing falls, it recently acquired Lost Boys Interactive. The 220-plus employee studio worked as a support studio on Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands and will look to increase this to 350 employees in the next few years.

"The story is more linear, and gives a better sense of continuity. It also gives us an opportunity to more clearly tutorialize all the aspects of the game, so by the time you get to level 20, you know how to play your class and the rest of the game before you start playing through epic-level content."

What was behind the decision to rework the game to bring it more in line with the D&D 5th Edition ruleset? What are the biggest ways this change affects the game?

The decision came more out of desire to streamline the leveling experience, especially with all the newest content designed for players who have already reached max level. When we started talking about shrinking the leveling time considerably, it made sense to give it parity with D&D tabletop from where Neverwinter gets its roots.

Instead of 40-50 hours to get to the max level — which before was level 80 — it now only takes you 10-12 hours to get to the max level, which is now level 20. The story is more linear, and gives a better sense of continuity. It also gives us an opportunity to more clearly tutorialize all the aspects of the game, so by the time you get to level 20, you know how to play your class and the rest of the game before you start playing through epic-level content.

Neverwinter’s reworked its progression to considerably de-emphasize grinding, and reaching the level cap now requires much less time than it used to. What led to this change? How does it benefit the overall experience?

Neverwinter has been running a long time — having just celebrated its 8^th year anniversary in June — and has accumulated a lot of content. We didn’t want people intimidated by a wall of content just to get to the latest update, especially if when you have veteran players who want to play with friends who are new to the game. It also allows veteran players to more quickly level-up alternate characters of classes they wanted to try.

"Neverwinter has been running a long time — having just celebrated its 8^th year anniversary in June — and has accumulated a lot of content. We didn’t want people intimidated by a wall of content just to get to the latest update, especially if when you have veteran players who want to play with friends who are new to the game."

The Adventurer’s Guild is a pretty major new addition, especially from the perspective of newcomers. Has that become an important consideration for the development team, to make Neverwinter more accessible to new players? How have you reconciled that with making sure that those who’ve invested hundreds of hours in the game don’t get a more compromised experience?

The Adventurer’s Guild was a big part of the leveling streamlining design, giving new players a single focal point for the 1-20 level progression. Even veteran players who have played through during Closed Alpha and Preview have expressed that the Adventurer’s Guild alongside the larger leveling has a much tighter flow that they enjoy.

Can you talk about the changes you’ve made to the progression system? The milestone system and gear-based progression upon hitting the level cap are interesting changes, but what led to the decision to implement these?

The milestone system is another carry-over from D&D tabletop. While you can still play used experience point progression in tabletop, a lot of the official modules have moved to milestone leveling where once you complete a major step in the story progression, you gain a level. By having milestone progression in Nevewinter for levels 1-20, you have a more focused experience that is more about story and learning the game. Then when you get into epic-level content, the focus is more on campaign-play and how to gear up your character while going through all the different post-level 20 Adventure Zones.

The bard class is Neverwinter’s first new class in a while, and has been in the works for some time, and seeing as it comes to the game at a time where it has reinvented so much of itself, it’s shouldered plenty of responsibility to highlight Neverwinter’s biggest strengths in its current form. Can you talk about how it does that, and what the process was like of deciding which new class to put in the game and how it should be balanced to fit the experience?

There was a lot of discussion about possible classes, and it included the Druid and Monk as contenders. Between what we discussed internally, what the Neverwinter community expressed, and what Wizards of the Coast gathered from public surveys, Bard seemed to be a clear choice for us. It fit the bill as being both an interesting and creative new class, and adding in the ability for players to actually do play their own music for other players was a fun aspect that was a big clincher for us.

Balancing is a big factor when you introduce any new class. Once the basic class was built, there is a lot of iteration on how it performs in a team in Dungeons and Trials since it’s filling a specific role (DPS or Healing). Then there’s a lot of how it feels solo in leveling (powers progression) and epic-level item progression. Once we got all that worked out, we knew the Bard class was in a good state and that it would be a great fit for Neverwinter.

"There was a lot of discussion about possible classes, and it included the Druid and Monk as contenders. Between what we discussed internally, what the Neverwinter community expressed, and what Wizards of the Coast gathered from public surveys, Bard seemed to be a clear choice for us."

Looking forward, what are your plans for Neverwinter in the coming weeks and months? Can players expect any other major content updates or additions anytime soon?

We’re already well into post Jewel of the North development. We definitely want to get back to getting some more content out there for all players, including veteran players, soon.

Do you have any plans to bring Neverwinter to the Switch at some point in the future?

We have no current plans, but anything is possible!

Perfect World’s free to play MMO Neverwinter has seen quite the resurgence since releasing on Xbox One. It’s witnessed more than 2 million players since launch and will be receiving a new expansion pack in the form of Elemental Evil. Along with a new trailer, many aspects of the new expansion were also revealed.

There will be new adventure zones this time around since Elemental Evil contains updates from Fury of the Feywild, Shadowmantle and Cast of Icewind Dale which all released on PC. The level cap is being raised and a new Oathbound Paladin class has been added for play. There will also be more dungeons and four new end-game campaigns to tackle along with a variety of quality of life improvements. Look for Elemental Evil to release for free on September 8th.

What are your thoughts on Neverwinter for Xbox One at this stage? Let us know in the comments below and stay tuned for more information.

Perfect World Entertainment has announced that Cryptic Studios’ Neverwinter, originally released on PC, has more than 1.6 million players on the Xbox One. The free to play MMO launched at March end for Microsoft’s console and has seen some fairly good numbers since then.

Other stats provided by the publisher state that 2.3 million characters have been created since launch (with 92,000 hitting the maximum level cap of 60); 86 million minutes have been played; 10 million parties have been formed; more than 1 billion enemies slain; and over 1000 dragons have been ended courtesy of 92 players.

Xbox division boss Phil Spencer chimed in regarding Neverwinter’s success, stating that, “We’re thrilled gamers have embraced this unique free-to-play MMORPG on Xbox One.”

Perfect World also revealed that it would be bringing five new free expansions to Neverwinter later this year, based on the Tyranny of Dragons and Elemental Evil stories that exist within Dungeons and Dragons (Neverwinter itself is set in the Forgotten Realms of the D&D universe). Expect more information in the coming months.

What are your thoughts on the success of Neverwinter on the Xbox One? Let us know in the comments.

Cryptic Studios’ free to play MMORPG Neverwinter is now available to pre-download on the Xbox One. This means you can download the game now and play it as soon as it goes live next week.

It should be noted that despite the game’s free to play nature, one will still require Xbox Live Gold to play it.

Neverwinter takes place in the famous Forgotten Realms location of Dungeons and Dragons with an emphasis on action RPG mechanics. It will include the Scourge Warlock and Tyranny of Dragons expansion packs to complement the base game and also allow one to invite their friends into games.

Neverwinter will be releasing on March 31st for Xbox One. Recently, Cryptic Studios was in the news for a large number of lay-offs, with some employees tweeting that they were a “slaughter”. How will that affect the future of Neverwinter? We’ll have to wait and find out.

It’s never a good thing when a developer is forced to lay off employees especially when it’s a long-time studio that’s been carving its own niche in the industry. Sadly, this appears to have been the case with Cryptic Studios, developer of MMORPGs Neverwinter and Star Trek Online.

The lay-offs were issued by publisher Perfect World Entertainment and though a public statement has not been issued, many of the staff are confirming the same in various social media outlets. The number of employees let go also seems to be quite severe as Massively reported one (recently deleted) tweet describing them as a “slaughter”.

The timing is quite odd since Cryptic Studios was readying to release Neverwinter on the Xbox One on March 31st. Will the recent lay-offs affect the future of the franchise? That remains to be seen but in the meantime, stay tuned for more information and an official statement from Perfect World Entertainment.

Cryptic Studios’ free to play, massively multiplayer online RPG Neverwinter will be coming to the Xbox One in March. It will be available as a digital download for Xbox Live Gold users on March 31st and will come with the original game, the Scourge Warlock and the Tyranny of Dragons expansion pack.

For those who don’t remember, Neverwinter was originally released on the PC and takes place in the same Forgotten Realms city-state as Bioware’s famous Neverwinter Nights series. This version of Neverwinter is significantly different however as it features a more combat-oriented approach. Not only will the Xbox One version be optimized for the console’s controls but it will also integrate one’s friends list, allowing you to invite friends into your games.

Will you be playing Neverwinter when it eventually releases on the Xbox One in March? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below and stay tuned for more information.

Neverwinter is already a pretty solid MMORPG on PC, if you remember our previous coverage of it. But it is also coming to the Xbox One, and if you have been curious about how the game will play on Microsoft’s console, you need to be curious no longer, asPerfect World Entertainment and Cryptic Studios announced that the game would be getting an open beta on Xbox One in February 2015, meaning everyone should be able to get some good hands on time with the game then.

It will be available from Feb. 5 to Feb. 8, players can sign-up to participate in the closed beta here. Neverwinter, more than other MMORPGs, should translate particularly well to consoles, as its fast paced combat is something that can be adapted particularly well to console controllers.

The game is due out on Xbox One some time later this year, and is already available to play for free on PC (it will be free on Xbox One as well). Stay tuned for more coverage.

Neverwinter, the MMORPG set in the world of Dungeons and Dragons that released last year, has been doing pretty well for itself since then.

“For over a year, countless heroes have carved out their sagas with spells and steel in Neverwinter. Until now, the quests and characters that have transported players to the world of Neverwinter have been limited to the PC,” said Arc Games. “As a new era dawns in the gaming world, so does a new chapter in Neverwinter’s existence. We are proud to announce that Neverwinter itself will be journeying into new territory—Xbox One!”

Neverwinter will be launching on the Xbox One in 2015, and it will apparently feature the same kind of fast paced combat and dungeon based questing that defined the PC game. No word yet on whether the Xbox One version will share servers or allow for cross platform play with PC players, but considering Microsoft’s stance in disallowing cross platform play on all MMORPGs on their platform so far, it’s probably safe to conclude that Neverwinter will not be an exception to this rule either.