No time frame yet AFAIK.

In other good news, GOG Galaxy support has been confirmed.

My prediction would be August for the game to be released.

Or early September.

There is plenty of reason to get EE - there are (at minimum) fixes for game crashing bugs/security issues that servers must wrestle with on occasion. There are new script commands that enable the community to create even more awesome features and modules (I'm working on some right now). There is renewed feedback loop from the community to the dev team so that YOU can have a voice in the future of the game (where before, since about 2012, we have had none).

You don't _have_ to buy NWN:EE, we still run NWN version of our module too, but the NWN:EE version will soon have features unmatched on the NWN version (not possible to script them there).

... edit to add

NWN is NOT A NEW GAME ... let's cover the important points here (copied from wikipedia)

It was released for Microsoft Windows on June 18, 2002. BioWare later released a Linux client in June 2003, requiring a purchased copy of the game to play.[1] MacSoft released a Mac OS X port in August 2003. ... Three expansion packs were subsequently released for the game: Shadows of Undrentide in June 2003; Hordes of the Underdark in December 2003; and Kingmaker in November 2004. BioWare began selling premium modules through an online store in late 2004.

--- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neverwinter_Nights

Now, if (like me) you purchased this game when it was released and each expansion as it was released you paid about $50 per product release AND IT WAS WORTH IT. I have played, DM'd and built for NWN since 2003, and I can aver I have gotten my money's worth and then some. I have used NO OTHER GAME PRODUCT MORE THAN NWN.

Given how long it has been since these releases were new (and hence full price) and given the availability of NWN on gog and other online systems for many years at very much reduced-from-retail prices - everyone with NWN has pretty much gotten their money's worth too.

My brain reels to think anyone would be upset with the notion of dropping a paltry $20 on this new release for NWN we call NWN:EE. Yes some will balk, some will tarry and over time, they will see the folly of their ways for folly it is and perhaps the purest sort of mizering I've seen in ages; 'squeek when you walk' sort of tight. This is the best game value I've seen in my life, NWN in all it's versions. It pays to stay current.

Feel free to try running a module made in EE in 1.69 then tell us how wonderful Beamdog is.

Of course NWN has a lot of bugs but there is something called community patch which fixes basically all of them (at least if you are willing to use the NWNCX extender with it - I could even make it simpler and just distribute modified nwmain.exe so that user wouldn't need to think about that, but ultimately I dropped that idea because a lot of criticism of haters of my project, anyway).

As for that many functionalities that BeamDog added. Here this is actually funny. First of all they added two functionalities (if I don't count several graphical/model based quirks and tweaks which nobody was able to use yet afaik) duping areas and object scaling/transforming. And while this is great it is just drop in the sea from what 1.69 with nwnx.

What makes this funny is that I hear this phrase a lot and it is coming from a players. Which makes no sense. As a player, you are unlikely to see these functionalities anytime in future unless you join one of the few still actively developed PWs. Chances that you see this feature in singleplayer module are extremely low because:
- older SP modules created before NWN:EE will obviously not have this
- there are not many new SP modules coming out anymore
- even if the new SP module is released, because the way it works right now builders are inclined to build for 1.69 without these features, this is because if they make their module undr 1.69 it will be playable with NWN:EE as well, but not the other way. Of course they could make two versions, EE only and 1.69 only but it would be silly to have them differ in functionalities so this is not really expectable
- and even if there was a builder who decided to build module for NWN:EE it doesn't automatically means he is going to use those new functionalities, it might simply not be needed in his module or even if he wanted to do it he might not have required scripting proficiency to make it happen

Now, you will of course going to see these new features on some persistant worlds in multiplayer, but PWs already had these functionalities from nwnx so this is nothing new. On the contrary for many servers it is not worth it to update to NWN:EE as they would lose more functionalities than they would gained.

Also player base doesn't really seems to be so high, besides Arelith there is barely any server with players in it...

Try running a NWN module built in NWN v1.69 in NWN v1.67 and then tell me how pointless this exercise has been. I don't mean to be denegrating, but this is how versions work. Yea a new version of a module won't run on an old version of a game, that's how life works. Get the new game or just run the old modules in your old game and be happy.

1.69 was a free update on 1.67.

When EE is free, then we can talk again about that comparison.

Were SoU and HotU also free?

I know you're going to say they introduced more, but they also cost thrice the price of the EE each (not including the base game) so there's that.

And God forbid devs wanting money for their work. I guess they should just start working on a previously abandoned game in their spare time as a form of hobby only.

$30 is NOT thrice $20. It's 50% more.

And it is 50% more for:

All new 20-30 hour professional campaign with voice acting.
New Tile Sets
New Montsers
New classes.
New Skills
New Feats
New spells.

It's like a complete upgrades to every aspect of the game.

Tell me again how many of those things do you get for $20 with EE?

Would it be None?

The game is expected soon, according to the new studio producer. And he is very fond of the GOG platform

Bioware is a separate company and you willingly paid money for the privilege of playing their NWN game. Beamdog is a separate company and you have to buy their product if you want to play it. You willingly paid for each expansion. This NWN:EE is like that, think of it as the next expansion. If like me you've been playing NWN since it's release, at worst you've paid full price on each release and maybe have $150 invested in the game with 15 years of game play to show for it (a cost of about $10 per year overall). Having to put down a few dollars to get the next improvement is not too much to ask most people, but feel free to stick with what you have if that makes you happy. The rest of us are enjoying the prospect of a NWN renewal (I'm looking forward to the tablet release).

See my post above, about what a real expansion contained, and why I don't think of EE as the next exansion. You don't speak for "the rest of us", only for yourself.

If this anything near approaching the content of a real expansion, more of the "rest of us" might actually buy it, but since it has just about ZERO of the content you would get in an expansion and the game would play exactly the same for me after spending $20, I don't see the point spending money on window dressing.

Well don't buy it... and get on with your life