We present to you with our deepest of symptathy the announcement that Dave Arneson has passed away at age 61 on April 7th after a bout with cancer. Dave Arneson, for those who didn’t know, was one of the co-creators of Dungeons & Dragons, the roleplaying board game that put RPGs on the map.

This horrible news comes to us in an email that was released by Mr. Arneson’s family that assures us he was with his family and in a peaceful state of mind when he passed away.

From everyone here at DigitalBattle, rest in peice Dave Arneson, roleplaying won’t be the same without you.

Seeing as how Atari is struggling financially, it only makes sense that the publisher will revive its long dormant popular franchises. The franchises in question are Baldur’s Gate, Dungeons & Dragons and Test Drive.

“You will hear more from these but not today, because we’re focused on 2009,” said Phil Harrison, president of Atari owner Infogrames.

It has to be noted that the Baldur’s Gate series has traditionally been developed by BioWare, which is now owned by monolithic publisher EA. The last entry in the series was released back in 2001. Meanwhile, Test Drive Unlimited, the latest in the racing series, hit PC, PS2, PSP and Xbox 360 last year; it was developed by Eden Games.