Back in May Atari announced that it would dispose of MMO developer Cryptic Studios in an attempt to cut losses. Today it has been announced that China-based online gaming company Perfect World has bought out the studio for a total sum of $49.8m, some of which will go towards Atari’s social/mobile gaming initiative.
Cryptic Studios was established in 2000 and went on to develop City of Heroes which is still regarded as a heavy hitter in the MMO genre. Under Atari they also went on to create Champions Online as well as Star Trek Online, the former having been made free-to-play.
Though there is no information regarding Cryptic’s next project, given Perfect World’s track record there’s no doubt it will be MMO-related and will probably open a path for the publisher to breach the Western MMO market. Perfect World currently has a number of online RPGs in circulation, but has yet to make a notable breakthrough, possibly due to their oriental inspirations and source material.
Source: Gamasutra
Foxhound_Solid
Fiddy million. I only want one