cryptic-studios posts

While it's been in beta testing for the past several months, developer Cryptic Studios has finally and officially launched the Foundry mission editor for its sci-fi MMO Star Trek Online. This mission editor makes the game one of the few MMO titles that will allow players to create their own missions and have them be played by others.

While players won't be able to do things like import new character and ship models into the game they will be able to use Star Trek Online's current content to create new missions in space as well as planet-based storylines. So now anyone can create that Star Trek fan fiction storyline you have been keeping under your bed.

Just a couple of days after Cryptic Studios CEO John Needham announced he would be leaving the MMO game developer, Gazillion Entertainment announced today that Needham is joining the company as its new CEO. Needham will be working with David Brevik who was named as Gazillion's president just a couple of months ago.

Needham takes over Gazillion at a time where the company has announced that it will be concentrating its efforts on developing free-to-play browser-based MMOs. It sold off its development team for its October 2010 game Lego Universe to the Lego Group just a few weeks ago. It still operates several game development studios including one that's making a Marvel Universe Online MMO title.

[Via email press release]

Jack Emmert, perhaps the most well known of the faces behind Cryptic Studios, is now the game developer's new CEO. It's parent company Atari announced today that Emmert would take over the position of CEO following the departure of John Needham who is leaving "to pursue other opportunities within the games industry." Emmert was previously Cryptic's Chief Operating Officer

Emmert co-founded Cryptic and helped to design its first game, the MMO City of Heroes which was later purchased by its publisher NCsoft. Atari purchased Cryptic in 2008 and launched two more MMOs for the publisher; Champions Online in 2009 and Star Trek Online in 2010. Cryptic is currently working on the non-MMO fantasy RPG Neverwinter as well as at least one unannounced game for Atari.

[Via email press release]

Champions Online went to the free-to-play route in late January and so far the switch for the super hero MMO from developer Cryptic Studios has proven, at least so far, to be a big success. According to a press release from publisher Atari, the game has seen increases in "online concurrent user, unique login and revenue totals by over 1,000 percent" since the switch. (Specific numbers were not revealed).

This is just the latest example of an MMO game that has seen better success after switching from a subscription only business model to a free-to-play model. Turbine's Dungeons and Dragons Online and Lord of the Rings Online have both reported much more interest in the game since going the free-to-play route.

Last August Bill Roper, formerly of Blizzard North and then infamously part of the failed Flagship Studios, announced he was leaving his last regular game development gig at Cryptic Studios. In a new interview at Gamasutra, Roper goes into detail about what happened at Flagship where he and the rest of the team launched the online action-RPG Hellgate London and then watched as the game fell victim to launch bugs and poor reviews that caused Flagship to shut down completely less than a year after the game was released.

Roper states in the interview that in his opinion, "The biggest failure with Hellgate is we just tried to do too much." That included having a game with a single player component, a free online component and a subscription-based online component in one game. He also says, "I mean, I think when Hellgate: London came out... we knew it needed another four to six months." However the game's publishers, Namco Bandai and Electronic Arts, were unwilling to give Flagship that extra time, according to Roper.

And what is Roper doing now that he has left Cryptic Studios? He states, "I've been talking with a lot of different companies. I've been doing different game designs and talking with everything from publishers to investors." However he added that's its been hard to get investors to fund his ideas, saying, " .. they were all like, 'Wow, that's a really awesome idea. I would totally play that game. You'll never get funding right now.'"

Today one of the most well known MMO games becomes the latest to switch from a subscription-only business model to letting players check out the vast majority of its content for free. It's Champions Online, the super hero MMO from developer Cryptic Studios and publisher Atari.

Other MMO games have switched to the free-to-play model and found considerable success but will Champions Online do the same? Big Download decided to get more info on the new version of the game via an email interview with Cryptic's Executive Producer Shannon Posniewski.

Download the Champions Online Free-To-Play Installer Client at Big Download

This client installs the free-to-play version of Champions Online, a superhero themed massively-multiplayer online role playing games. Visit the official website for more information and to create an account. System requirements are shown after the jump.

Note: The client will install the game, but the free-to-play servers are not expected to come online until tomorrow - January 25, 2011, 9:00am EST.

Download Champions Online Free-to-Play Client (2.9 GB)
Check out all Champions Online downloads

Even though Champions Online is moving to the free-to-play business model on Tuesday, the super hero MMO will still give players the option of paying for a monthly subscription that will give them access to more content. There's also the lifetime subscription option that will still be available.

Starting on Tuesday, players who pick that particular option in both Champions Online and developer Cryptic Studios' other current MMO Star Trek Online will get a 20 percent discount on their respective lifetime subscriptions prices. Both are normally $299 each but the sale will reduce that price to $239.99. The sale ends on February 5.

We have a bunch of weekend and other PC game sales to write about so let's not waste any time with the talking; we have some money to save:

• Steam has cut the price of the original Dead Space game to just $6.80 this weekend, a 66 percent savings. Also if you pre-order Dead Space 2 from Steam you can save 75 percent on the original game.
• The newly released RTS game Apox is now on sale via Steam for $9.99, a 33 percent savings, for the next week.
• Impulse has a number of games on sale this weekend including the Master of Orion collection for just $5.43.
• GamersGate also has a number of games on sale this weekend including King Arthur for just $4.99.
• EA's online store has all of its games on sale for 20 percent off from now until 7 pm Eastern time
• Games For Windows Marketplace has 7 Wonders: Treasures of Seven on sale for the next week for $4.99.

So, what do you think of THQ's new logo design? Personally we think it looks like a company logo for a new clothing retailer but that's just us.

• Cryptic Studios has revamped its web site and revealed it has at least one unannounced game in the works.
• Steam has a new automatic update available for download for the beta version of Counter-Strike Source.
• Steam also has the Mac version of Doc Clock The Toasted Sandwich of Time available to purchase and download.
• The next beta event weeken for the upcoming MMO Rift is scheduled to begin on January 25.