http://massively.joystiq.com/2011/05/17/atari-cryptic-studios-a-discontinued-operation/ (//http://massively.joystiq.com/2011/05/17/atari-cryptic-studios-a-discontinued-operation/)
Interesting development...what do you think this means for the future of STO?
Should all note what Wishbone says at the bottom - no immediate changes. I think that I understand why Atari is disappointed with Cryptic... but I don't think we need to worry.
I'm not sure what you mean Veritas... the figures quoted on there are only the development costs of about one game, Cryptic is working on three (and not being given the staff it needs to at that). If anything Cryptic is the only sub-company of Atari still bringing in cash for them (net).
My guess is that Cryptic refused to do something Atari wanted them to do that would affect players in a bad way. Probably by increasing the price of C-Store Items so Atari makes more from the Atari Point sales. Either that or they wanted them to start turning each Season into a fully purchasable Expansion Pack, Which I can see why they would want that. WoW makes a neat profit from having its Expansions put on CD then sold in Store even though you can just download it.
So do other MMO's with their expansions for sale. The only MMO that does very well in terms of proffit without selling its Expansions or having Micro Transactions would be EVE Online.
The only people I can see buying Cryptic would be Electronic Arts but then the game would be milked for all its worth
However CBS or Paramount could buy it out. It would be their first ever game but as Owners of Star Trek it would be a good thing. Who better to have a Star Trek game than them? Or Activision. They have made a ton of great Trek games.
I wouldn't mind Bethesda Softworks. I love their games they always have great plots and the acting is always emotional. The only problem is they have this slight tendency to use buggy Game Engines... But said engines are easy to use and dont require alot of GPU and CPU power to run.
My best bet is Activision Though. Not Activision Blizzard but Activision (I seriously dont see the point in having Activision Blizzard but still have the parent companies of the Merge as single entities doing their own thing..)
http://uk.gamespot.com/news/6314193.html?tag=newsticker%3Bheadline%3B5 (//http://uk.gamespot.com/news/6314193.html?tag=newsticker%3Bheadline%3B5)
Their Sales are down 50%. This could be why they are selling Cryptic...
Just a thought.
As far as I know, STO will continue under new management basically. There will be no immediate changes. Cryptic's just going to be shut down. Im guessing that the original staff that worked on STO is still going to be on and Season 4 will still go up. It's pretty easy.
Quote from: "Stark"As far as I know, STO will continue under new management basically. There will be no immediate changes. Cryptic's just going to be shut down. Im guessing that the original staff that worked on STO is still going to be on and Season 4 will still go up. It's pretty easy.
That is wrong. Seems like Atari already made a deal (//http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/05/31/idUS41278+31-May-2011+HUG20110531) with Perfect World. What I get from this is not that Perfect World only bought Cryptic but also all of Cryptic's titles. So Cryptic will most likely continue their work on their titles and all of them will turn into F2P (as long as they aren't yet) as Perfect World is strong company in the F2P MMO market.
You're both incorrect! :P
See the post on the acquisition - Perfect World owns Cryptic's equity. Cryptic continues to be a separate entity, but is now owned by Perfect World. There are no immediate changes to their games, but we could see things happening moderately soon - probably in a couple months.