It looks like the various online rumors that a new Neverwinter Nights game coming from publisher Atari and developer Cryptic Studios was in the works have been proven to true - kind of.Today Atari officially announced that game, which is simply called Neverwinter.

The game, due out in the fourth quarter of 2011, is oddly enough not being called an MMO but a "co-op role playing game" where players can pick from one of five Dungeons and Dragons-based character classes and then team up with friends or with AI-controlled characters to form five-player teams. The game will also have support for user-generated content via a new system called Forge, much like how the Neverwinter Nights games developed by BioWare also had such tools.

While the game isn't due out until late 2011, the fictional backstory behind it will be launched on October 5 by author R.A. Salvatore in the novel Gauntlgrym. It's due out on October 5 and is the first of a planned trilogy of novels based on Neverwinter's world and storyline. Dungeons and Dragons owners Wizards of the Coasts also plan to release a Neverwinter-based tabletop RPG game. More info on the game is revealed on GameSpot in an interview with Cryptic co-founder Jack Emmert.