Cryptic Studios Bought By Chinese MMO Operator

[vansau]

Cryptic Studios Bought By Chinese MMO Operator

It certainly didn't take Atari too long to find a buyer for Cryptic Studios ...

<a href=http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/9.284710-Atari-To-Divest-Cryptic-Studios>Earlier this month, fans of Champions Online and Star Trek Online got a bit of a shock when Atari announced that it was was selling the developer behind those games, Cryptic Studios. Apparently it didn't take long to find a buyer for the studio, as <a href=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beijing_Perfect_World>Chinese MMO operator Perfect World has bought the developer.

Perfect World is paying for &euro;35 million ( $50.3 million) in cash for Cryptic. The company is well-known in Asia for its MMOs like Perfect World, Battle of the Immortals, and Dragon Excalibur. On top of that, this is the same company that purchased a majority share in Runic Games back in 2009.

According to Michael Chi, Perfect World's CEO: "This strategic acquisition will add attractive game titles to our portfolio, which will help us further penetrate into the US and global online game markets. More importantly, Cryptic Studios' highly reputable development team and its technology platform will further strengthen our well established R&D capabilities."

What will be interesting to see is what kind of projects Cryptic starts working on for its new corporate parent. So far, Perfect World's appeared fairly hands-off with Runic Games, so it doesn't seem unreasonable to assume that Cryptic will receive similar treatment.

Source: <a href=http://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2011-05-31-perfect-world-acquires-cryptic-studios-for-USD50-million>GamesIndustry.biz

Permalink

 

[Zeetchmen]

Pity I liked City of Heroes/Villians

Now all they are going to pump out are asian grindfests

 

[Rigs83]

So does this mean that STO will now have more lead in it.

 

[KarmicToast]

In order for fans of CO and STO to be in shock at the news, there would first need to be fans of CO and STO.

 

[KarmicToast]

In order for fans of CO and STO to be in shock from the news, there would first need to be fans of CO and STO.

 

[Sabrestar]

Pity I liked City of Heroes/Villians

Now all they are going to pump out are asian grindfests

On the positive side, Cryptic hasn't been involved with CoH for some time now. They're still credited because they created it, but for a while now it's been run by Paragon Studios ever since NCSoft bought out the rights to it (Paragon Studios is, I believe, a division of NCSoft that was set up just for CoH).

 

[daftalchemist]

At first I thought Cryptic would never be bought because, seriously, who would want them? Pumping out new MMOs before the ones they've already released are anywhere near a semblence of a complete game kind of spells "fail". But honestly, this is so fitting that it's hilarious.

 

[samsonguy920]

Perfect World is a pretty solid game in its own right, for a free to play MMO. I don't know of the other properties.
This doesn't surprise me as I have had serious doubts that Atari was gaining much interest in hanging onto Cryptic or anything it was working on. But then again, Atari has had a habit of stupid decisions that end up hurting itself.
I would laugh my ass off if Perfect World turned CO and STO around to be hot items. I like STO's space combat myself, it is the groundplay that leaves it lacking. PW fixes that and then they are in business.

This makes me wonder, though, do chinese goldfarmers farm from chinese MMO's as well or are they sacred land?

 

[coderanger]

Pity I liked City of Heroes/Villians

Now all they are going to pump out are asian grindfests

On the positive side, Cryptic hasn't been involved with CoH for some time now. They're still credited because they created it, but for a while now it's been run by Paragon Studios ever since NCSoft bought out the rights to it (Paragon Studios is, I believe, a division of NCSoft that was set up just for CoH).

Also, just a minor note, CoH was published by an asian company from the start (NCSoft is Korean). Too bad about those asian grinders though!

 

[viranimus]

.... Such an Alien concept.

Star Trek, being controlled by a Chinese company. I think Paramount/CBS should pull their support of the franchise tag from the game. Game can still exist, but would have to be modified. Though I have to wonder if Paramount/CBS even know that they have something using their franchise name considering the game was in dev hell for almost a decade.

 

[standokan]

It's a happy day for people who live in China everywhere.

 

[Sabrestar]

Pity I liked City of Heroes/Villians

Now all they are going to pump out are asian grindfests

On the positive side, Cryptic hasn't been involved with CoH for some time now. They're still credited because they created it, but for a while now it's been run by Paragon Studios ever since NCSoft bought out the rights to it (Paragon Studios is, I believe, a division of NCSoft that was set up just for CoH).

Also, just a minor note, CoH was published by an asian company from the start (NCSoft is Korean). Too bad about those asian grinders though!

True enough (forgot to bring that up). I don't think CoH is quite the grindfest that some of their other games are, though (Lineage springs to mind).

 

[koroem]

Now scummy chinese slaves/inmates don't need to fight past proxies, moderators, gms, or account bans to gold/resource farm in these games as it will be perfectly acceptable by the ownership. Yay for China!

 

[coderanger]

Pity I liked City of Heroes/Villians

Now all they are going to pump out are asian grindfests

On the positive side, Cryptic hasn't been involved with CoH for some time now. They're still credited because they created it, but for a while now it's been run by Paragon Studios ever since NCSoft bought out the rights to it (Paragon Studios is, I believe, a division of NCSoft that was set up just for CoH).

Also, just a minor note, CoH was published by an asian company from the start (NCSoft is Korean). Too bad about those asian grinders though!

True enough (forgot to bring that up). I don't think CoH is quite the grindfest that some of their other games are, though (Lineage springs to mind).

The only side effect of NCSoft being Korean that affected players was random derpy text in missions sometimes because they wanted to localize to Korean originally (oh dear lord was that a money sink). Also worth noting, Runic (the guys that made Torchlight) are already a subsidiary of PWE (which is actually based in Seattle, not China). I would say that is better company to be in than Eden ...

 

[coderanger]

EDIT: Double post.

 

[StriderShinryu]

In order for fans of CO and STO to be in shock at the news, there would first need to be fans of CO and STO.

My thoughts exactly. While they may be a known name in MMO development, Cryptic really hasn't made anything worthwhile for a long time.

They also don't tend to listen when anyone tells them what's wrong with the games they create. If a large part of that contingent are now speaking Chinese, be it their bosses or their players, at least they'll now have an excuse as to why they aren't listening.

 

[DaHero]

Perfect World is a pretty solid game in its own right, for a free to play MMO. I don't know of the other properties.
This doesn't surprise me as I have had serious doubts that Atari was gaining much interest in hanging onto Cryptic or anything it was working on. But then again, Atari has had a habit of stupid decisions that end up hurting itself.
I would laugh my ass off if Perfect World turned CO and STO around to be hot items. I like STO's space combat myself, it is the groundplay that leaves it lacking. PW fixes that and then they are in business.

This makes me wonder, though, do chinese goldfarmers farm from chinese MMO's as well or are they sacred land?

In all honesty, if anyone can do it, it's Perfect World Entertainment. PWE has completley done away with gold farming in their games by using a premium shop that allows the items to be traded. So in essence, if a player wants an item they buy it from the store, or trade the premium money for in-game money. Also, PWE treats their players right, adding new stuff at reasonable intervals.

 

[TsunamiWombat]

As crazy Asian MMO dev's go, Perfect World is more or less the top of the heap, poised to become a 'legitimate' international game maker away from their f2p asian mmo money funnel grindfest roots.

So, this could be good for Cryptic. Gotta hit bottom to start climbing back to the top.

 

[samsonguy920]

Perfect World is a pretty solid game in its own right, for a free to play MMO. I don't know of the other properties.
This doesn't surprise me as I have had serious doubts that Atari was gaining much interest in hanging onto Cryptic or anything it was working on. But then again, Atari has had a habit of stupid decisions that end up hurting itself.
I would laugh my ass off if Perfect World turned CO and STO around to be hot items. I like STO's space combat myself, it is the groundplay that leaves it lacking. PW fixes that and then they are in business.

This makes me wonder, though, do chinese goldfarmers farm from chinese MMO's as well or are they sacred land?

In all honesty, if anyone can do it, it's Perfect World Entertainment. PWE has completley done away with gold farming in their games by using a premium shop that allows the items to be traded. So in essence, if a player wants an item they buy it from the store, or trade the premium money for in-game money. Also, PWE treats their players right, adding new stuff at reasonable intervals.

I like the way Perfect World plays, and felt welcome everytime I came in even though I was taking advantage of the F2P. That's what gives me hope that PWE will breathe some new life into Cryptic's properties.

 

[8bithero]

There is no need to farm gold in either game as the ingame market barely exists. Gold farmers tried when CO was fist released, but were laughed out of the game. You have no idea how nice it is not to be constantly spammed to buy gold.