Atari Purchases Cryptic Studios For $26.7 Million

Trevor DeRiza writes "Early this morning, Atari announced that they had purchased US MMO developer Cryptic Studios for an initial 26.7 million USD, along with a possible 20 million USD bonus for future performance. Cryptic has three games coming out in the next three years: Champions Online (2009), Star Trek Online (2010), and a secret project (2011). All three will now be released under the Atari logo." This is welcome news in light of all the recent troubles in the MMO market.

Comments

a secret project

[u4ya]

ooooh... do I see a duke nukem forever mmo in the works?

Re:a secret project

[brygl]

Pong Forever?

Champions Online

[Metapsyborg]

Hopefully Champions Online gets some additional funding due to this buy out. It could be a really awesome game if it gets enough funds. Cryptic and Jack Emmert designed City of Heroes and they learned from the mistakes made in that game. If Atari can just keep from meddling in the development cycle of CO (ie pushing it out too soon or trying to WoW-ify it), they might have a great game.

Re:Champions Online

[Bieeanda]

Emmert was basically a developer only in name, and he was the only one of the main City of Heroes developers to remain with Cryptic after CoX was sold to NCSoft. Not to mention that they've brought Bill Roper on, one of the idea men who leapt from Blizzard and sank to the bottom with Flagship.

Assuming that Champions will be worth the plastic it's pressed on, just because the Cryptic name is involved, is like assuming that Tabula Rasa would be good because Richard Garriott was involved. Or, more accurately, assuming that the Tekwar novels would be good because William Shatner acted in science fiction parts.

Re:Champions Online

[FnordX]

Funny, I thought it didn't do well because it wasn't fun.

Guess us "masses" should just sit down, shut up and buy what people tell us, even if we don't like it.

Can't possibly be any good.

[DreamsAreOkToo]

Sorry if I sound especially critical, but almost all MMOs just aren't worth playing. Not only are they expensive ($50 + $15 a month), but they also require huge time demands, so typically people have especially high standards.

If the company is producing three in tandem, I can't see how they could possibly finish all the content and polish an MMO needs.

Re:Can't possibly be any good.

[grahamd0]

If the company is producing three in tandem, I can't see how they could possibly finish all the content and polish an MMO needs.

Three distinct teams?

Re:atari HAS 47 million dollars?

[Anonymous Coward]

Actually, this is Atari in name only. The brand has been handed around for some years, and now Infogrames owns it. They've been slapping it on stuff to try to cash in on the nostalgia factor. Atari of today has absolutely nothing in common with the console maker of yesteryear.

Re:Sharing my first experience

[larry bagina]

[citation needed]

Re:atari HAS 47 million dollars?

[grahamd0]

I am surprised Atari still exists, even more so that it has tens of millions to invest.

Atari, the company that made those cartridges you remember, doesn't exist. The name is still around, and they've published some good titles.

I played Champions online at Gen Con, it looks pretty cool. I wouldn't be surprised if it prints money for them.

Re:atari HAS 47 million dollars?

[LingNoi]

They went bankrupt, that only thing that is still the same about Atari is the name.

2009, not 2010

[Swordopolis]

STO is projected for a late 2009 release, and nothing I've seen related to this merger has changed that.