Atari Cuts Ties To Champions Online Development Studio

[Earnest Cavalli]

Atari Cuts Ties To Champions Online Development Studio

As of March 31, Cryptic Studios is a "discontinued operation."

The Silcon Valley-based MMO developer, which Atari purchased in 2008 [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/87999-Atari-Gobbles-Up-Cryptic], is the key casualty of the publisher's latest earnings report.

"In line with the previously stated strategy of fewer but more profitable releases and further expansion into casual online and mobile games, the Company has determined that external development creates more flexibility in the changing marketplace," the report explains.

Hoping to reassure an understandably wary playerbase, Atari has pledged to continue support for Cryptic's most recent MMO titles, Champions Online and Star Trek Online, until it has finalized a sale of the developer.

A comment from Cryptic community representative "WishStone" on the official STO forums [http://forums.startrekonline.com/showpost.php?p=3543592&postcount=5] corroborates that pledge, saying "Support for Champions Online and Star Trek Online will be continuing as normal, our staff is working hard on their projects and there are no planned changes to the way any of our games and projects will operate."

The comment also claims that this news "sounds way more dramatic than it actually is," though there is no word on what, if any future plans Cryptic may have.

It should be noted that this news comes only four months after Champions Online adopted a free-to-play subscription model [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/107278-Champions-Online-Goes-Free-To-Play]. It's unknown if that has anything to do with Atari's decision to cut ties with Cryptic, though it seems likely that the developer's $7.5 million operating loss during the last fiscal year played some part in the move.

Source: Gamasutra [http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/34704/Atari_Drops_Champions_Online_Developer_Cryptic_Studios.php]

Permalink

 

[Dr. wonderful]

O-Oh my god.

My prayers go out to the entire team.

 

[Zero_ctrl]

Wouldn't it be Cutting instead of Cuts, seeing as Atari hasn't quite abandoned Cyptic yet?

OT: I enjoyed Champions Online. It wasn't great, but I wouldn't wish this upon any developer.

 

[koroem]

Sucks. City of Heroes was magic to me a number of years back. I still go back and check it out from time to time. When they split off and started Champions I was worried COH would suffer but it didn't in my opinion. It kept the same quality, and even added some great features it seems some of the original Cryptic staff was unwilling to, or dragged their feet on.

Champions Online never interested me, and playing the beta and a little retail didn't bring me in the same was COH did. I'm sure many felt the same way, hence Crypic's current issues.

Good luck to the devs. Talented people nonetheless.

 

[TsunamiWombat]

Cryptic suffered from trying to do too much, too fast. Champions wasn't ass successful as CoH, and then Star Trek Online got foisted onto them by Atari at the last minute.

 

[Chuck Hamilton]

This is why I won't be buying lifetime subs to any new mmos. Warhammer, CoH, and Fallen Earth seem to be doing well enough. Not sure what's going on with AoC or Aion. DCUO is already doing server merges. Looks like Champions' ship is sinking and it might drag STO with it. All this, yet old mmos like EQ and Runescape are still making enough to keep going and, in the case of EQ, push new expansions. Lineage 1 is shutting down but Lineage 2 is still going. Here's to hoping TOR does well.

 

[Raithnor]

This is why I won't be buying lifetime subs to any new mmos. Warhammer, CoH, and Fallen Earth seem to be doing well enough. Not sure what's going on with AoC or Aion. DCUO is already doing server merges. Looks like Champions' ship is sinking and it might drag STO with it. All this, yet old mmos like EQ and Runescape are still making enough to keep going and, in the case of EQ, push new expansions. Lineage 1 is shutting down but Lineage 2 is still going. Here's to hoping TOR does well.

I looked at the lifetime membership more as: "Will this game last more than 18 months?" At this point I at least expect to break even.

 

[Jumwa]

They did their free-to-play model so foolishly. You had to subscribe and pay up front to access all the character creation options. And since their character customization was the games biggest selling point...

You hook your customers with the options first, then once they're in you start putting on the fees gradually. That's how it works.

 

[Femaref]

This is why I won't be buying lifetime subs to any new mmos. Warhammer, CoH, and Fallen Earth seem to be doing well enough. Not sure what's going on with AoC or Aion. DCUO is already doing server merges. Looks like Champions' ship is sinking and it might drag STO with it. All this, yet old mmos like EQ and Runescape are still making enough to keep going and, in the case of EQ, push new expansions. Lineage 1 is shutting down but Lineage 2 is still going. Here's to hoping TOR does well.

I looked at the lifetime membership more as: "Will this game last more than 18 months?" At this point I at least expect to break even.

lifetime subcriptions are an indicator for me that a team isn't trusting themselves or their idea, or are in dire need of money. There are exceptions to this, but in general in turned out to be fitting.

 

[Jabberwock xeno]

Sad, CO was actually pretty fun, and it's chacter creation was much better the COH.

 

[TsunamiWombat]

This is why I won't be buying lifetime subs to any new mmos. Warhammer, CoH, and Fallen Earth seem to be doing well enough. Not sure what's going on with AoC or Aion. DCUO is already doing server merges. Looks like Champions' ship is sinking and it might drag STO with it. All this, yet old mmos like EQ and Runescape are still making enough to keep going and, in the case of EQ, push new expansions. Lineage 1 is shutting down but Lineage 2 is still going. Here's to hoping TOR does well.

I looked at the lifetime membership more as: "Will this game last more than 18 months?" At this point I at least expect to break even.

Free to play is an indicator for me that a team isn't trusting themselves or their idea, or are in dire need of money. There are exceptions to this, but in general in turned out to be fitting.

F2P is actually a very viable economic model- more viable then a sub, really. Whenever an MMO comes out subscription based, I snort and roll my eyes, because there's no way they're getting that phat Blizzard cash like they want.

PS: Guildwars, Guildwars 2.Nuff said.

 

[Femaref]

This is why I won't be buying lifetime subs to any new mmos. Warhammer, CoH, and Fallen Earth seem to be doing well enough. Not sure what's going on with AoC or Aion. DCUO is already doing server merges. Looks like Champions' ship is sinking and it might drag STO with it. All this, yet old mmos like EQ and Runescape are still making enough to keep going and, in the case of EQ, push new expansions. Lineage 1 is shutting down but Lineage 2 is still going. Here's to hoping TOR does well.

I looked at the lifetime membership more as: "Will this game last more than 18 months?" At this point I at least expect to break even.

Free to play is an indicator for me that a team isn't trusting themselves or their idea, or are in dire need of money. There are exceptions to this, but in general in turned out to be fitting.

F2P is actually a very viable economic model- more viable then a sub, really. Whenever an MMO comes out subscription based, I snort and roll my eyes, because there's no way they're getting that phat Blizzard cash like they want.

PS: Guildwars, Guildwars 2.Nuff said.

ah bollocks, I meant life time subscribtions. Of course, F2P is viable.

 

[Scars Unseen]

Does this mean that Cryptic isn't going to be able to destroy the Neverwinter Nights series after all? My birthday isn't for months yet, but thanks anyway.

 

[Scars Unseen]

This is why I won't be buying lifetime subs to any new mmos. Warhammer, CoH, and Fallen Earth seem to be doing well enough. Not sure what's going on with AoC or Aion. DCUO is already doing server merges. Looks like Champions' ship is sinking and it might drag STO with it. All this, yet old mmos like EQ and Runescape are still making enough to keep going and, in the case of EQ, push new expansions. Lineage 1 is shutting down but Lineage 2 is still going. Here's to hoping TOR does well.

I looked at the lifetime membership more as: "Will this game last more than 18 months?" At this point I at least expect to break even.

Free to play is an indicator for me that a team isn't trusting themselves or their idea, or are in dire need of money. There are exceptions to this, but in general in turned out to be fitting.

F2P is actually a very viable economic model- more viable then a sub, really. Whenever an MMO comes out subscription based, I snort and roll my eyes, because there's no way they're getting that phat Blizzard cash like they want.

PS: Guildwars, Guildwars 2.Nuff said.

ah bollocks, I meant life time subscribtions. Of course, F2P is viable.

I, on the other hand, am always wary of F2P games. They always feel like crippleware scams designed to lure in people who are prone to losing rack of how much money they spend in microtransactions.

 

[Nesrie]

Does this mean that Cryptic isn't going to be able to destroy the Neverwinter Nights series after all? My birthday isn't for months yet, but thanks anyway.

That would be the light at the end of the tunnel, if Cryptic didn't release NWN and a quality studio picked it up instead.

 

[Therumancer]

I have nothing against Cryptic, but I can see why this went down the way it did. To put it bluntly neither "Champions Online" or "Star Trek Online" really seemed to have any major success. "Champions" had potential, but never seemed able to live up to it. I think STO mostly got as far as it did based on the liscence, I'd tried it twice and all I can say is that while I can see what they wanted to do, they just weren't able to get it to work properly, that game (to me at least) is a giant mess.

I wish Cryptic the best with future project, and hope they are able to find a decent producer/publisher. I have to at least give them credit for trying things that no other developer was willing to touch.

 

[theultimateend]

7.5 Million dollars of lost money.

Dear sweet god...

The things I could do with 7.5 million dollars. How does this money vanish so easily from companies? :/

 

[Abedeus]

That's what happens when you release 2 MMOs in one year and expect people to be happy.

I mean, you release a superhero MMO, while there's already a successful superhero and suppervillain MMO with a LOT more content, superpowers... and your game only has looks to go for it.

Also months of bugs and optimization problems.

 

[UnravThreads]

PS: Guildwars

... isn't an MMO. Even the devs say it's not an MMO. GW2 will be, but GW wasn't.

I enjoyed what I played of Champions Online, but it felt like it lacked a little direction, and was a bit confusing. It was fun, though, at least to start with.

 

[Rack]

Looks, massively improved character builder, massivley more fluid combat system and a massively moredetailed world. Since it was so throttled for content though it never really stood a chance, it couldn't do a proper F2P setup since there just wasn't enough content to sell. It's a real shame that they didn't just do 1 MMO instead of STO, CO and NWN, they had some real potential but spread so thin they never had a chance.