Neverwinter is a Dungeons & Dragons (D&D) free-to-play massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) for the Microsoft Windows platform. It was developed by Cryptic Studios and was released on June 20, 2013. Based in the fictional Forgotten Realms city of Neverwinter, the game was originally scheduled to be released as a cross media event coinciding with the release of a series of four books by fantasy author R.A. Salvatore and a tabletop game from Wizards of the Coast.[6] Announced on August 23, 2010, Neverwinter is a standalone game and not part of the previous Neverwinter Nights series.[7] The game ran closed beta testing from February 8, 2013 to April 14, 2013. Open beta began on April 30, 2013.[8]