We've got some bad news for fans of Cryptic Studios, creator of Champions Online and Star Trek Online. Cryptic's parent company Atari stated in an earnings report today that it is writing Cryptic off as a "discontinued operation" and plans to sell the studio. What does this mean for the future of Star Trek Online and Champions Online? Atari says that while it attempts to sell the studio, it will continue to support all current Cryptic Studios titles.
Why did Atari decide it was time to drop Cryptic? Atari explains that the move is "in line with the previously stated strategy of fewer but more profitable releases and further expansion into casual online and mobile games" and that "the Company has determined that external development creates more flexibility in the changing marketplace." Gamasutra reports that Cryptic recorded a $7.5 million loss for the last fiscal year. If you think that sounds steep, keep in mind that this is an improvement from the previous year's posting of a $17.9 million loss. We'll have more on the situation -- and how it will affect STO and CO -- as more news arises.
If Cryptic is picked up by either SOE or EA. It will be a bad day for STO. When SOE bought Vangaurd they had a party for it going live and they fired almost 60% of the staff that worked on it that day. The staff only had like one hour to get their stuff. Also SOE has a really bad habit of messing up games. EA yeah..about them. They should stay in making sports games. The only reason why they can't touch Star Wars TOR is because George Lucas said back off from Bioware and told EA to leave Bioware alone to make the game. Now you have NCSoft, Turbine, Blizzard. Seriuosly tho if SOE or EA buy Cryptic more than likely they would "kill it" somehow.
KLATO BERRATA NIKTO. Alright your primitive savages, listen up this is my boomstick. We do not forgive, we to not forget, Expect us!
Well, it's not like they were doing anything anyways. I mean, besides encouraging their paying member base to create missions for them since they couldn't come up with a new weekly series on their own. Did anyone really not see this coming? I don't play Star Trek Online on a regular basis and I knew that given what I've seen with STO, Cryptic isn't worth the headache for its parent company.
Janeway wrote:Well, it's not like they were doing anything anyways. I mean, besides encouraging their paying member base to create missions for them since they couldn't come up with a new weekly series on their own. Did anyone really not see this coming? I don't play Star Trek Online on a regular basis and I knew that given what I've seen with STO, Cryptic isn't worth the headache for its parent company.
Your joking right?
They have no problem at all coming up with weekly series, they have just been working their butts off on things to improve the game like.... a complete total overhaul of the ground combat system.
Janeway wrote:Well, it's not like they were doing anything anyways. I mean, besides encouraging their paying member base to create missions for them since they couldn't come up with a new weekly series on their own. Did anyone really not see this coming? I don't play Star Trek Online on a regular basis and I knew that given what I've seen with STO, Cryptic isn't worth the headache for its parent company.
Your joking right?
They have no problem at all coming up with weekly series, they have just been working their butts off on things to improve the game like.... a complete total overhaul of the ground combat system.
So we should praise them for "fixing" one small aspect? pffft. How about we fix the whole game? I sometimes almost think you are Cryptic's PR mouthpiece.
Janeway wrote:Well, it's not like they were doing anything anyways. I mean, besides encouraging their paying member base to create missions for them since they couldn't come up with a new weekly series on their own. Did anyone really not see this coming? I don't play Star Trek Online on a regular basis and I knew that given what I've seen with STO, Cryptic isn't worth the headache for its parent company.
Your joking right?
They have no problem at all coming up with weekly series, they have just been working their butts off on things to improve the game like.... a complete total overhaul of the ground combat system.
So we should praise them for "fixing" one small aspect? pffft. How about we fix the whole game? I sometimes almost think you are Cryptic's PR mouthpiece.
One "small aspect?
Maybe you haven't realised, but the ground combat system affects like.... half the entire game?
Not to mention it is the one single feature of the entire game that is most disliked of all.
Besides the fact that you seem to be completely overlooking that I only chose to use "one" example, for the rest all you have to do is read the Engineering Reports.
Ok let’s get back on topic here. I see it as one of three (3) possible outcomes.
1) A good company that wants to turn STO in to a great MMO buys it and everyone wins as Cryptic gets more resources to do all the fixes everyone wants.
2) A gold digging company buys it and milks STO for everything they can and STO dies a slow death.
3) No one buys Cryptic and Atari sucks it dry just as in option 2 above.
FYI if you have Atari points I would spend them now as they might not be worth anything later.
