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As the title suggests it seems that Atari that behemoth of gaming has decided to concentrate on out sourcing their games and concentrating on mobile games. This means the future of STO is now in question as is Champions Online. Sadder news it looks like Neverwinter Nights the MMO is dead. Hopefully someone buys the company and keeps STO alive.
well...it looks like that they've increased profits considerably, so hopefully someone will grab it :|
Gee reminds me of other Star Trek RPG properties.
Oh lets publish a slick game with lots of gloss books and killer content KERSPLAT :eek:
Thank goodness a major company picked up the rights *KABOOM* :mad:
...yeah. :rolleyes:
Here we go again. :(
Atari, as it is today, is hardly a behemoth in the industry. They're "Infogrames" with a new name, a French company which is known for buying shovelware and shipping it out and forgetting it. Cryptic simply does not fit their 'fire and forget' model and they want to dump it.
I'm actually hoping Cryptic will just say 'screw it' and go completely independent at this point.
Right with you there
Some mainland Chinese company named Perfect World picked them up at fire-sale prices.
Fire sale nothing! €35,000,000? Atari made a tidy profit with that sale.Quote:
Originally Posted by Captain Marie
do we have a link on that news somewhere?
Well I found this
http://www.prnewswire.com/news-relea...122849294.html
it looks like it was a actual upgrade for monetary flow for Cryptic. I think PWI wanted access to Cryptics high speed Dev Team...if for training if nothing else. This could be good
Hmmm, I'm not sure if this is a good thing or not I've seen some of Perfect World's creations and I'm not overly impressed. However they rake in a lot of cash in the Asian market and Trek has a fairly substancial following in the region so it could be a good thing. That's probably a good thing as well though as PVP in STO is a bit weak in places. So it's the sword of Damocles again.
Scuttle but sez that Cryptic gets access to the cashflow and a look at PWI's PVP/PVE interface....which seems to be better than STO's. and PWI get's access to the Devs. so Win-Win?
Everyone has a hardon over the "fact" that it's a "given" that STO will become free to play "very soon."
Let me explain: ANY major changes or relaunch of the product will be six months MINIMUM more like 18 months away... If it happens at all.
STO is pulling in enough via monthly sales and box sales that they were able to bring significant cashflow to Cryptic. Not enough to keep the studio afloat independently mind you but enough to make it attractive to an investor.
I somewhat doubt that PW is going to flip a switch and make the game F2P any time soon. It is a revenue center right now and while the Chinese are many things... stupid they are not.
indeedQuote:
Originally Posted by Captain Marie
Now based on my "inside information..." which may be inaccurate or even incorrect this is what most likely will happen this year:
1) Season 4 launches in July.
2) The remainder of the existing episodes are remastered. These will be released over the remainder of the year.
3) New "featured episodes" launch every two weeks until September
4) New storyline episodes will be released on a regular basis until November.
5) PW having consolidated it's hold on Cryptic rebrands the game and begins issuing PW-branded digital copies of STO.
6) Patch is released rebranding the game as PW not Atari.
7) This ends this year's season of releases and updates. Sporadic updates and patches will be released until PW greenlights the next season.
Now this is pure speculation based on prior experience:
1) PW rebrands the game and resubmits the game to reviewers.
2) Depending on how the game reviews this time they either pour money into expanding the game (new season new episodes). If it sputters in the reviews they take the game F2P and release new content sporadically... maybe every two-three months.
3) If they decide to fund the game... expect new episodes and featured content every two weeks over a nine month period every year.
One thing Cryptic/PW needs to do NOW is issue a statement saying something along the lines of "hey the game is not going to F2P anytime soon please continue to support the development with monthly sales and C-store items." OR they need to say "Yes the game will be going to F2P within this timeframe stand by for more information."
The majority of gamers out there that make this kind of game work will be on the fence because of the rumors. They may hold off on re-upping this month or next month because the RUMOR says F2P is on the horizon... why waste a month or two months?