General: Who Should Buy Cryptic?

SBFord

This week Atari announced that it was looking to sell of Champions Online and Star Trek Online developers, Cryptic Studios. In his latest column for MMORPG.com, Lead Writer Bill Murphy wonders who should buy Cryptic. See if you agree with Bill's thoughts and then leave us a comment or two.

First, let’s cover what we know Cryptic has at their disposal. We know they have two games which failed to perform to expectations, but for all intents and purposes appear profitable. We are also aware that they can create a well-designed “Freemium” experience, which let’s face it is all the rage right now in an industry searching for new revenue models. We also know they have access to a fairly robust and agile development package which allows them to create content at a rather quick pace. I’m not here to argue the merit of said content, but the fact that a somewhat small studio (for MMO purposes) was able to churn out two AAA MMORPGs in such rapid succession speaks volumes for the development package… even if it’s not best suited to the traditional MMO payment model.

Read more of Bill Murphy's Who Should Buy Cryptic?

Kenaoshi

Well i bet 1000 internet points on EA. For the money and the same philosophy of "rush to make game, launch half baked, sell DLC in launch day".

A Neverwinter mmo by them would be their redeem, lots of fans outthere and all, but i dont belive cryptic, or any big house, can deliver it "well".

 

Regards,

Kabaal

With Cryptics strategy of pumping out quickly developed, unfinished, content light games id rather no one buys them and they just fade away.

 

CoX is their only success so far and when they parted with NCSoft their direction completely changed and morphed them into a money hungry disinterested company far removed from what they were when creating CoX. More half assed games by Cryptic? No thanks.

Ozmodan

Getting away from poisonous Atari could do wonders for this studio.  Problem is Atari will probably ask for far more than they are worth.

stefanakisgr

I for one , will never , ever , go anywhere near a title from cryptic . I have little patience left for companies looking to score fast money with unfinished games . And Im guessing most people here feel the same ... 

pmaura

first off they did not release two AAA games, they released to CCC games, they may of had hype but there were far from AAA games, just becuase your priced that way does not mean your a AAA game.

Second they have already bothced NWN. they are only have 4 playble races and 5 classes. this will be the least amount of options ever released in a D&D game to date. They are getting rid of to hit rolls and AC.

In short its not a NWN game.

erictlewis

I would love to see SOE take over cryptic and do some changes to STO.   Turbine should be dead last in the running.

warmaster670

Originally posted by pmaura

first off they did not release two AAA games, they released to CCC games,

rofl, theres no such thing as CCC.

 

AAA, AA, A, B, C etc

Beanpuie

Solid Article Bill,

 

As far as who's to buy cryptic, i am also thinking about the  "if they do buy them, what will they do to them" approach.

 

in EA's case, sure they have a portfolio of buying studios that are at their peak and bringing in a profit as well as being well recieved in both audience and corporate standing. i cannot say i dont know if cryptic meets all those requirements, but if not then EA, if they were to buy them, would move to the tendency of stripping them down to have them work on other current projects from other more established groups within their umbrella. having Cryptic run around freely on EA's bank roll just sounds too fiction.

 

what about SOE?, ya SOE perhaps is in no position of doing anything right now due to their recent issues; lets put that aside for a moment. SOE may let cryptic continue with their project(s) and perhaps even let cryptic continue with NWO development.

but either before or after NWO become a reality, cryptic will be facing the same fate as all the other studios that were placed in the SOE web of influence; large amount of lay offs , having cryptic work with a skeleton crew to maintain their games under the station pass.

NCsoft getting a hold of cryptic "again" just seems like punishment waiting to happen. http://www.mmorpg.com/blogs/UnSub/042008/1472_Sometimes-Divorce-is-Best-for-the-Kids-Cryptic-NCsoft-and-City-of-Heroes-Villains    [in short, ncsoft may tear cryptic apart and collect their organs to sell on  the black market]

Theirs other studios around such as turbine, which i would agree maybe cryptics best choice out of the bunch due to the freemium model looking to be up their ally, cryptic would have to change though if turbine takes them, not sure how and to what extent, but the change may put STO into the free to play model much sooner.

 

just my thoughts ,  thanks for the article

Darth_Osor

Originally posted by Ozmodan

Getting away from poisonous Atari could do wonders for this studio.  Problem is Atari will probably ask for far more than they are worth.

 You realize Cryptic sold themselves to Atari by promising they could turn out AAA MMOs in under two years, right?  Yeah, Atari is terrible to expect to get what they paid for, just like all of Cryptic's other unhappy customers.

As to who should buy Cryptic...no one should.  Why would anyone buy a studio that loses money and turns out crap games?

warmaster670

Originally posted by pmaura

In short its not a NWN game.

No, its not, and it was never touted to be one, its a D&D game set in Neverwinter, not Neverwinter Nights 3 like some people seem to think.

Originally posted by pmaura they are only have 4 playble races and 5 classes. this will be the least amount of options ever released in a D&D game to date.

 

No, its not, D&D heroes had less, and old D&D games also didnt have much more, if there even was more.

blackravenuk

there only one thing i really want to say

 

BIOWARE

Sanguinelust

There's always activision.

drowelf

well ity is not likey Turbine as Lord of the Rings online uses Atari points as well...that is to say it Looks like Turbine is onwed and part of Atari as well. I know as i Do play CO and Lord of the rings as well and the points i buy for CO also shows up in Lord of the rings online cash store.

Kabaal

Originally posted by blackravenuk

there only one thing i really want to say

 

BIOWARE

In an ideal world perhaps. Bioware are only just dipping their toes into the MMO market and have yet to build a reuptation in that sector, being linked to Cryptic would damage that reputation before it even got established.

 

I honestly can't see any of the big companies buying them now other than those who just deal with F2P. As sad as i am to say it, i was a huge CoX fan, but that may be the best thing for them right now as 2 out of 3 of their games are only worthy of that market.

Talonsin

It was already reported that Cryptic lost 7.5 million over 2010/2011 and the year before that they lost 17.5 million.  How can you say that they appear profitable?  You can say they have have development costs from working on the Neverwinter game but they also dont have the hardware/service cost of running a third game which will more than make up for the few developers that can be let go once the Neverwinter game is released.  Estimates for sub base puts both games at 60k each or less with about half those being lifetime subs which will be playing for free very soon. 

I'm also surprised that you qualify these games as AAA titles and I would like to know what criteria you base that on.  If it is just based on monthly sub price then yes, they certainly do charge the premium rate but if you judge it by content and reviews, neither of those games would make the AAA rating. 

Cryptics business model sounds great on paper, lets build games fast, use instancing to reduce hardware costs and keep using the same engine.  The trouble is, the majority of people do NOT want to play in heavily instanced games while paying a premium monthly fee when we can do it for free in GW and the upcoming GW2.  After 2 poorly performing MMO's, you would think Cryptic would get the message.  Why do people keep doing the same thing over and over again and expect different results?  The only way Cryptics game would start being profitable is if they drastically changed there business model.

Lets take Neverwinter as an example.  Release the game like GW and have people pay for the box and no sub fee.  Next have monthly content packs that sell for $5 to $8 and have each content pack take 10 to 14 hours to complete.  Also release an expansion every year or 18 months with new classes or abilities and now you have a profitable business model that does not compete with WOW and allows people to play casually and not have to pay a monthly fee. 

AG-Vuk

I don't think it really matters. Companies are not looking to add to the payrolls that they already have . Nor are banks likely to float loans for such a purchase at this point . There are very few companies that could finance this kind of purchase and the risk reward numbers probably don't pan out. The only way this company is sold , is at bargain basement prices , and probably in parts in this current economy .  Cryptic has nothing to offer other then the STO IP and an engine, that compared to the other companies that could buy Cryptic, is inferior.  This is Atari trying to be proactive and sell an asset while it's still an asset. It's obvious Atari's earnings projections for Cryptic don't fill Atari's needs.  So things are not as rosey over at Cryptic as people would like to believe, and much more dire at Atari'.

Gdemami

"But here’s the question: who should buy Cryptic? "

They should be bought? Really? Bill somewhat skipped the part explaining why they should be bought...

 

"What do you all think?"

I think people should not be paid for 'articles' like this.

 

 

Tardcore

Maybe these guys could get some use out of Cryptic

I would really love to treat this question with the seriousness it deserves, but after watching Cryptic half ass their way through two IPs I dearly love for the sake of their assembly line MMO manufactuing scheme, I can't help but hope they don't get a buyer at all but instead just sink into oblivion. Fail companies should fail.

depain

I personally think that the only thing worth while is the name "Star Trek Online", which has become completely tainted.

However, it's impossible to argue, as nobody here knows the numbers were talking about. How much profit (if any) do these games generate? How much are they selling for?

Darth_Osor

Regarding Neverwinter...isn't the question of who actually owns the right to the IP still in court?

Senadina

If anyone bites, I predict it will be an Asian company looking to gain a foothold in the west. Since I am completely clueless about the names of Asian companies I can't give a specific buyer, but my money is on this happening.

Gruug

I took two things away from the article. One, that the author didn't state all the facts correctly. And two, that the author has a biased stance on Cryptic current line of games.

First of all on the facts. Cryptic buyers. The author mentioned selling to "Turbine". That won't happen because Turbine is now OWNED by Warner Bros.  Any "purchase" in that line would be by WB and not Turbine. While WB might bundle Turbine and Cryptic together in the same sub-division, Turbine would most likely have not management over Cryptic UNLESS WB were to mandate some forced co-operation between the two studios. Same would be true in regards to Bioware (not mentioned by the author but someone else in these comments above me). EA would call those shots NOT Bioware.

Second and finally, the author has some obvious bias against both STO and CO. The reason I say this is that the author only mentions the less then stellar launch of both titles. Yet, he fails to mention the major (and they have been major) changes that have taken place at both IP's. STO's fortunes have turned around very quickly from with some big updates. The additions in the first six months to one year alone have changed the look and feel of the game in tremendous and very good ways. People playing the game has also jumped by a very good amount. CO has also undergone a very large change (for better or worse) while making the change over to "f2p". Many areas of that game have undergone alterations for the bettr. New areas have been added as well. The only question on CO is if the "f2p" payment model has been a success or a failed experiment.

I would also like to suggest that the author missed on option that is also available in the "sale of Cryptic" story. Cryptic themselves could buy themselves. Afterall, they sold themselves to Atari so way not buy themselves back.

Another option, CBS/Paramount. CBS owns the rights to Star Trek. So, CBS may consider it a win-win to put the gaming IP of STO under direct control rather then just liscensing approval. It also brings up the conflict and fact that CBS may not wish to share the IP liscense with  WB as mentioned above as it would be in conflict with the WB and CBS/Paramount. While I am not sure of CBS's desire to own a gaming studio it is still another possible.

Saryk

When I read the title I said SOE.

levsix

I am not here to weigh in on any of the speculation but I wanted to point out that Turbine has been a subsidiary of the world's largest media conglomerate, Time Warner, for a while now. If there was truly a desire to snatch up Cryptic,  their bosses have a few dollars.

levsix

...or more accurately, Time-Warner is one of the biggest. Their ranking has shifted a bit over the years but they are definitely one of the Big 6 media masters. I wish Cryptic the best but can't say I have a lot of love for them right now.