Daybreak Game Company is now being headed by a founder of Cryptic Studios, and it isn’t Bill Roper. In a press release posted yesterday, we learned that Jack Emmert is joining the former Sony Online Entertainment studio as chief executive officer stationed at the studio’s San Diego headquarters.
“I’m very proud of what we accomplished at Cryptic Studios, and I’m ready for a new set of challenges,” said Emmert. “As a lifelong comic book fan, I’m thrilled to become part of the DCUO team and eager to engage and play alongside new communities of players. I look forward to being a part of the future of DCUO, as well as guiding our roster of new titles out of Daybreak Austin.”
Emmert founded Cryptic Studios in 2000, leading his studio in creating much beloved MMOs like City of Heroes.
Better late than never, I suppose. Champions Online is a game that, despite its potential, has seen some neglect over the years. The game has been subject to a number of updates over the years that are either never fully realized or have spent their lives in a perpetual prototype or broken state. It appears that even Cryptic Studios is aware of this, because the developer recently announced the opening of Cryptic North in Seattle, Washington with the function of taking the ailing MMO and bringing it up to snuff.
In an interview with Gamasutra, Jack Emmert discusses the idea behind opening up an entirely new studio. Cryptic North is made up primarily of the old Flying Lab Software team responsible for Pirates of the Burning Sea. The team wants to give Champions Online the polishing that it deserves, and depending on their success may branch out into new projects.
Make better games. Make cost effective games. Treat our players better. Take care of our talent. Focus on working business models. A tried and true way to mitigate risk is diversification. And we also have a crazy diverse portfolio of games at [Perfect World Entertainment].
On another positive note, Cryptic is once again looking at porting their games over to consoles, with the upcoming PS4 and Xbox One. You may remember that Cryptic had plans to port Champions Online over to the Xbox360, but the project was cancelled last minute due to Microsoft’s lack of cooperation. With at least Sony having an open platform for MMOs, the likelihood of seeing a Cryptic MMO on the next generation consoles seems all the brighter.
When Cryptic Studios announced that Champions Online would be going free to play, you couldn’t find a single conversation that did not turn to “will Star Trek Online follow?” Well that is what the community has been asking Jack Emmert, who came back with a simple proposition: If you eat your dinner, you will get dessert. Cryptic is taking a chance with Champions Online going free to play, and if that venture does well then the company will consider taking Star Trek Online in the same direction.
“We’re not sold one way or the other with Star Trek yet. If people want Star Trek to go free-to-play then get in and play Champions and help make it a great success, because that would send a strong message.”
This and more can be found in a Eurogamer interview with Jack Emmert, who wanted to be clear that the decision is not solely up to him.
“There are more people than just I on that decision and I can’t begin to say it would be an automatic ‘Yes, we’d do it.'”
Emmert goes on to talk about a few other projects, like user generated content that the team hopes to start in Star Trek Online and then move to Champions Online. Neverwinter, and a few other unnamed projects that Cryptic has in the works that will no doubt lend their features retroactively to Champions and Star Trek Online.
“It is definitely not fantasy-based. I can say that. It is something that’s pretty exciting. It’s under wraps and hopefully we can talk about it soon.”
Wouldn’t it be funny if Cryptic were picking up the Stargate MMO? Just saying…
“The big change is the development philosophy. There are some more changes coming in terms of the games, but we’ll cover that in the months to come. The big change is that we’re not making MMOs, we’re making online multiplayer games.” -Jack Emmert, CEO, Cryptic Studios.
Things are really bustling over at Cryptic Studios. Bill Roper and Craig Zinkievich are gone, and the throne has been passed to Jack Emmert, who wow’ed us with the announcement that Star Trek Online would be putting less emphasis on cash shop items in the future. Both Champions Online and Star Trek Online boast healthy numbers, according to Emmert, which intrigues us (read: me) here at MMO Fallout all the more with Cryptic’s announcement that they are no longer developing MMOs.
I wanted to talk, today, about comments I’ve been seeing both in my own emails and on other forums, on Cryptic’s shift to these CORPG’s (Cooperative Online Role Playing Game), and why this is causing fear in a few players. Culminating in CEO Jack Emmert’s statement above that Cryptic is moving away from MMOs and onto online cooperative games with Neverwinter Wonders, the question inevitably comes up as to what this means for longevity in Star Trek Online and Champions Online. Cryptic’s two MMOs have come under fire in recent months with concerns that the games may not have much in terms of long term viability, and statements like the one I presented above just add fuel to the fire.
Jack Emmert refers to the status of Champions Online and Star Trek Online as “healthy” and “significant,” respectively, and really all we can do is take his word on it. Champions Online recently reached its first birthday, and is still receiving updates and booster packs (with Demonflame on its way). Star Trek Online has somewhat turned into Cryptic’s main product, and is still receiving regular content updates in the form of weekly episodes and occasional larger updates. Cryptic is set on getting in touch with their community with regular question and answer sessions, as well as monthly “state of the game” addresses.
So when I say that the concerns are understandable, and even justified, I want it to be clear that they are overreactions. Cryptic’s change in pace to non-MMO titles may actually be a good thing, as keeping Champions Online and Star Trek Online as their only two MMOs ensures that the titles won’t have to fight one another to the death in order to obtain attention from Emmert and crew. Remember, Sony and NCsoft may have major libraries of MMOs, but most of their games are being worked on by completely different developers. Cryptic has separate teams, but they are still one company. If Paragon Studios went under, for example, the Aion team would be unaffected.
I have my concerns about Champions Online passing the MMO Turing Test, but I have a lot more faith in Star Trek Online’s long term viability.
Remember, if I see any concern that something is going terribly wrong with any MMO, this website is the first place you will find it. I expressed my concerns greatly on All Points Bulletin, and on the flip side I said over a year ago that Star Wars Galaxies wasn’t going anywhere, and it is still trudging along with regular support. This wasn’t the greatest choice of words for Emmert, and he needs to address this quickly on the forums/website for both games.
It didn’t take long to figure out that Cryptic was working on a third MMO, what with both Cryptic and Atari dancing around giggling like little girls and shouting “I know something you don’t know” in a sing song voice, all the while Turbine shouting in the litigation background, “THEY’RE WORKING ON A NEVERWINTER NIGHTS MMO!” At Gencon, Atari boosted rumors by claiming that they were working on a D&D game, and began buying up Neverwinter Nights domains like they were going out of style (they did, several years ago).
So Gamespot announced today an exclusive interview revealing that Cryptic is indeed working on a Dungeons and Dragons title set in the Forgotten Realms campaign setting, but it is not an MMO. Instead, Cryptic are creating a cooperative online game (Ala Guild Wars?) that focuses on group play and works by players connecting and playing sessions, much like the role playing version. Players will be able to solo, not to mention create their own content and storylines.
You can read the entire interview and information page on the link, but it appears Cryptic wants to stress that this is an OMG (Online Multiplayer Game) rather than a full fledged MMO. Surely, more details to come.
It didn’t take long to figure out that Cryptic was working on a third MMO, what with both Cryptic and Atari dancing around giggling like little girls and shouting “I know something you don’t know” in a sing song voice, all the while Turbine shouting in the litigation background, “THEY’RE WORKING ON A NEVERWINTER NIGHTS MMO!” At Gencon, Atari boosted rumors by claiming that they were working on a D&D game, and began buying up Neverwinter Nights domains like they were going out of style (they did, several years ago).
So Gamespot announced today an exclusive interview revealing that Cryptic is indeed working on a Dungeons and Dragons title set in the Forgotten Realms campaign setting, but it is not an MMO. Instead, Cryptic are creating a cooperative online game (Ala Guild Wars?) that focuses on group play and works by players connecting and playing sessions, much like the role playing version. Players will be able to solo, not to mention create their own content and storylines.
You can read the entire interview and information page on the link, but it appears Cryptic wants to stress that this is an OMG (Online Multiplayer Game) rather than a full fledged MMO. Surely, more details to come.
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