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Champions Online: Atari Divests Itself of Cryptic Studios
SBFord
Former Associate EditorMember LegendaryPosts: 33,129
According to an earnings statement by Atari, it has divested itself of Champions Online developer, Cryptic Studios. The move became effective on March 31st. According to Gamasutra, Atari will continue its support of Champions Online and Star Trek Online until such time as the studio is sold.
"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," Atari wrote in justifying the move.
Read more at Gamasutra.
Comments
That didn't take long, maybe someone else will get their hands on the Neverwinter Nights IP. Although it does say development continues as is, at least right now. One can hope though right?
For every minute you are angry , you lose 60 seconds of happiness."-Emerson
I dunno about that though Atari has had the Neverwinter rights forever. They published NWN and NWN 2.
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
I'm aware of that, I was saying maybe they'll give it to someone else to finish
.
For every minute you are angry , you lose 60 seconds of happiness."-Emerson
Oh....well, Obsidian wasn't very successful with NWN 2...hated that one.
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Can't disagree with you there.
For every minute you are angry , you lose 60 seconds of happiness."-Emerson
So, if I understand it correctly, STO and CO go with Cryptic to wherever they land? I know one of the devs just mentioned that several of the "new devs" will be starting in June, so I guess that will be the case.
I want a mmorpg where people have gone through misery, have gone through school stuff and actually have had sex even. -sagil
Looks like cryptic will die now a company cant run at a loss of 20 - 7.5 million each year.
Eh I liked it... Sides just think what Cyrptic would do with their OMG...
I will not play a game with a cash shop ever again. A dev job should be to make the game better not make me pay so it sucks less.
Dont worry! SOE will buy it. Place the games on Life support and ad them to their incredibly popular and wildly successful Station Lineup.
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Watch your actions; they become habits.
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Lao-Tze
I knew they wernt doing well, but...
"The studio, which recently took Champions Online free-to-play, showed a €5.3 million ($7.5 million) loss for the 2010/11 fiscal year, up from a loss of €12.6 million ($17.9 million) the previous year."
Somewhat of a shocker to me that they were still losing this kind of money.
Pizza and stripper parties?
For every minute you are angry , you lose 60 seconds of happiness."-Emerson
Has to be going somewhere
Yeah SOE after their recent accounts issue has the loose change to buy these. Something tells me SOE has other things to do with their money, like pay for credit monitoring for nearly 100 million players.
SWTOR. Face it, in the Scooby Doo Mystery Solving Van of coolness, this game is Velma. In this current MMO climate it has about as much chance for survival as a group of inquisitive teenagers in a 1980s slasher flick. -Tardcore May, 2011
Definitely wasn't to their games.
For every minute you are angry , you lose 60 seconds of happiness."-Emerson
Well, switching to F2P was definitely not the game saver they were hoping it would be. Interesting news to say the least.
"Mr. Rothstein, your people never will understand... the way it works out here. You're all just our guests. But you act like you're at home. Let me tell you something, partner. You ain't home. But that's where we're gonna send you if it harelips the governor." - Pat Webb
They are losing that kind of money because they pumping lots into Neverwinter development and still paying off the costs of developing STO & CO.
Think of this more like the RTW/APB scenario. In their current state the games are and Cryptic are making a loss, but once sold they have essentially wiped out their debt, so they, in theory, would be much more viable, maybe even profitable.
Not sure what I'd like to see happen here to be honest, a management buyout would be nice, alternatively another western publisher, last thing I want to happen is some Chinese company pick them up. Not because I have any issues with any of the Chinese MMO companies, but because they tend to put their own territory first and I don't think that is in the best interest of the current players.
Anyone want to explain exactly what it means to "divest itself" of Cryptic? I read that without Cryptics numbers included in their report that Atari actually showed a small profit. Does this mean that Cryptic is now its own company and has to figure out what to do about its annual multi-million dollar loss?
Atari is such a terrible company.... I'd be glad to lose ties with them.
sto and co are both terrible rush to market games that have damaged cyptics well hard and well earned reputation with city and heroes, they will never recover from the tripe they have released since the latter and this is the begining of the end.........
Playing: FFXIV
Future: wishing for SWG 2, World of Warcraft Classic
Played: Most current and extinct MMO's - 18 Years in....
Interesting Fact - I own 27 Tarantula's
The reason that the switch to the "F2P" or rather "Freemium" model didn't work for Cryptic like it has for Turbine and DDO/LOTRO is because they are obscenely over-charging for "premium" goods and services in the game. I voiced this concern several times when CO was the "F2Pbeta" but I don't think they ever addressed it. It feels like Atari gave them this completely insane ultimatum profitability target and in a panic (and probably fit of greed) Cryptic shot way too high with their prices and this is the result. I firmly believe that if they had brought their prices more in line with what Turbine was offering they would have actually done a lot better.
I am going to be really interested to see what happens now. We may very well see CO and STO sunset because I can't see anyone wanting to take the risk on funding Cryptic at this point.
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"Searchers after horror haunt strange, far places..." ~ H.P.Lovecraft, "From Beyond"
Member Since March 2004
Well, although I'm failry certain that NWN MMO being developed by Cryptic would have sucked just as much as STO and Champions Online I would have still liked to see if they could have performed a miracle.
Ya'll MUST be blind. If they lost only 7.5 million this year as opposed to 17.5 million this year, then they MADE money. 10 million more this year. Are they still negative? Yep, but at least not as much as last year.
Not to mention development costs of NWN. I hope they can continue to improve and become profitable. I know it's popular to hate CO and STO but I think they're fun games to play. CO more than STO, but everyone has their preferences. And a NWN MMO could be an awesome thing so it'd be great to see what they can manage to come up with.
"further expansion into casual online and mobile games"
Still shaking my head on this one.. This is where companies are going to start looking for their gold mines.. We R DOOMED...
I can't speak for STO, never played it, but I'm a gold subscriber to CO & still play on a regular basis. I can't say that its a great game but it is fun & it could be great if they'd fix a few of its problems. Never happen now tho.