Atari has sold Cryptic Studios to China's Perfect World.

Atari has sold Cryptic Studios to China's Perfect World. The company allegedly paid $49.8 million for the Star Trek Online developer.

Perfect World became a major force with their self-titled free-to-play MMO. Last year, they made a surprising acquisition of Runic Studios, the creator of the Diablio-style game Torchlight.

Cryptic is also responsible for both City of Heroes/Villains and Champions Online. They are currently working on Neverwinter, a part of Wizards of the Coast's Neverwinter Nights crossmedia plans.
Now, this is another sign that China is becoming a driving force in the MMO industry, but there are plenty of questions about this acquisition left to ask. First off, Atari owns the Dungeons and Dragons license when it comes to all DnD-based video games. Does that mean the company will continue development of Neverwinter? If not, will another developer work on the game? Is it shelved completely? What does this mean for WotC's other Neverwinter Nights properties?

Additionally, Perfect World's success with free-to-play games could be a sign that Star Trek Online will be changing payment models. This, however, is purely speculative.

Anyone k now anything about the Chinese run MMO company Perfect World?
Startrek Online is going totally F2P on Jan 17 2012 - from what I've read and listened to on Podcasts the new ground combat is HUGELY improved (what turned me off on the 2 week free trial last year)

The Startrek OnLine forums are all over the place on the Chinese purchase. Mostly account security and identity issues......

I realize F2P is always a cash shop purchase sooner or later - not sure if they will support PayPal
If they do then I guess this post has no ground... as PayPal is a great intermediate - As proved by dealing with the Russians in World of Tanks and the people that DO NOT use PayPal and use direct Credit Card or WesternUnion are CONSTANTLY getting screwed.

An interesting thing about Startrek Online is what's called Foundry - where useer generated content is widely supported by the studio and in the dry times of studio content users offer up their own, Neverwinter (ATOMM!) will be offering this Foundry option too -

Also adding to StarTrek Online, is Episode content - once you reach a level you can start following story arks just like television episodes, each week is a new "map" that follows last weeks content running 1 to 3 months with a new useful "shiney" at the end of a story - just like a TV show season - so you can run standard quests or get involved in to this Episode content.

I'm re-interested in StarTrek Online. - Just concerned about how many owners its been through in the last year.

Duck wrote:Anyone k now anything about the Chinese run MMO company Perfect World?

I actually played Perfect World when it first came out, would still be playing it as it had some really nice features on it. Just had an issue with a guild I had joined that ruined a bit of the game for me. And I chose fun game over not fun game.

Duck, it was the Foundry stuff that my buddy complained about in STO. I was hoping it wouldn't be in Neverwinter.

I listen to STOked - a podcast dedicated to STO (duh!) and they have a weekly review called Foundry Files - and there is some real real good user content out there.... and with a whole "clan" Jupiter Broadcasting (Clan - or Fleet in STO) with over 750 people, there is a complete group of players that do nothing but try out and report on the podcast great Foundry content.

To tell the truth - Foundry content is one of the things that has me jazzed to check out STO - the reviews are really interesting to see what the players make.