Cryptic Studios has announced that they have pushed the expected release date of their upcoming MMORPG Champions Online from July 14th to September 1st of 2009.

We wanted our fans to hear this from us first... We’re changing our Champions Online launch date from July 14th to September 1st of this year.

Why? Here’s what our own Bill Roper, Design Director and Executive Producer on Champions Online, had to say about it:

“It is critically important for an MMO to be as good as it possibly can be at launch. Through our constant dialogue with our vocal and supportive community of beta testers, we quickly realized that in order to implement certain features that we all considered important the development of Champions Online would require more time. So that's what we're going to give it. Cryptic has a proven track record of releasing solid games and we want to maintain that with Champions Online.”

What does this mean for you? Simply, more beta play time right now and a better, more polished game at launch.

Check out the news on the official website.

Finish your job calmly boys, better to release late than bugged or incomplete. One can only cause a first impression once

Better later than early and more unpolished.

Glad to hear that. I'm in the Preview Play Test and we got a  lot more work to do. Shes good, but not showroom ready.

yep, dont rush this grrr

Sigh ... oh well.  The summer will be spent taking sister's baby out for a tour, I guess, instead of making a superhero that looks like the baby and tour the digital world.

Oh well, what can we do?  Wait and wait.

 i wish more MMOS would take this philosophy of "if it isnt ready it isnt ready, give it more time"

a bad launch can make or break a mmo.

Aww, I'm very disappointed to hear this. Hopefully it will be worth the wait at least. 

Originally posted by nekollx

 i wish more MMOS would take this philosophy of "if it isnt ready it isnt ready, give it more time"

 

a bad launch can make or break a mmo.

This is starting to become a common theme, all gamecompany's might aswell have this in print for every other game that is gonna use the delay excuse.

So please do not wish something that has happend with almost every MMO ever released,, unfortunaly none of hte MMO's that made such statement has actualy delivered a polished game.

Of course I do hope they got it right, but kinda getting tired of every company saying the same thing.

I am dissapointed somewhat but then again I am about to max my char in City of Villians and just got into some new instances that are unbelievable.   Damn its a good game ahead of its time.  Still have COH Char to level up too.  Started coh when it first came out 5 years ago, got sidetracked for 3 years with everything else that came out and got 3 months free from the Tabula Rasa shutdown and glad I tried it again.    Whatever,  I like it a lot :)

1 extra month and a half

to implement important features

deadline: beggining of Sept

its blatantly obvious that this guys are rushing CO to release before Aion...even WAR took 1 extra year and still it sucked badly...1 more month LMAO,more unfinished crap....

2009 will be remembered as the year when Devs still didnt learn

Glad they are pushing it back.  Rather have a game that is good when it comes out like WAR did.  I would love to have it out but its far better for the game to have it pushed back.

Originally posted by Reklaw

Originally posted by nekollx

 i wish more MMOS would take this philosophy of "if it isnt ready it isnt ready, give it more time"

 

a bad launch can make or break a mmo.

 

This is starting to become a common theme, all gamecompany's might aswell have this in print for every other game that is gonna use the delay excuse.

So please do not wish something that has happend with almost every MMO ever released,, unfortunaly none of hte MMO's that made such statement has actualy delivered a polished game.

Of course I do hope they got it right, but kinda getting tired of every company saying the same thing.

I first thought you didn't read these forums too often but then I saw your post count of 2k +.

How many rants are there about nearly every MMO under the sun on this website? it's easily into the thousands now, and continually growing on a daily basis with players/ex players/observers creating them at an ever increasing rate.

An underlying theme is that MMO's needed more time in beta to sort out issues, yet again the vocal ranters/haters who rip a released MMO apart tend to forget the abundant QQ posts posted here and elsewhere when a game suffered a setback on it's release date.

I don't believe delaying a product is an excuse from the developers, they know what a fickle crowd we all are, and they want to ensure that what they release will be able to deliver what has been promised.

Cast yoru mind back to when CoH was released, it was a damn near perfect release for an MMO, one of the best I've had the pleasure of being part of in a long time, and with that in their portfolio I'm sure Cryptic want to get it right a second time.

So yes it's frustrating when a game gets pushed, but is it really that big of a deal? Gone are the days when we only had 1 or 2 MMO's to choose from to fill our free time with, but now we have hundreds to choose from while we wait.

Lets just hope they have pushed it back far enough not only to polish the game, but to implement EVERYTHING they had intended for launch.  I'm tired fo gaming companies delaying games and still releasing crappy, half finished, buggy monstrosities.

I'm also hoping that the development of Star Trek Online isn't affecting the quality of both games.  Cryptic isn't a very large company and it's difficult to make a single MMO, let alone two at the same time.

 With no apparent competition on the horizon this summer, Champions should be able to take its time. I guess they have enough capital to afford the delay as well. Especially since they are working on STO as well.

I was looking foward to trying this MMO. Has the NDA been lifted?

Aww drat. That sux. I was looking forward for this. Now how to kill the time...

But then, better be good then releasing too early. But isnt this the 2nd or 3rd delay now? Meh. :/

The whiners crack me up.

If the game is released with problems they cry about it and raise all kinds of hell because "the game wasn't ready for release."

If the release date is pushed back they cry about the game being delayed.

Ignore the ridiculous simpering infants and make a good game. It's ready when it's ready. If you can't wait... find something else to do.

I was hoping game developers had learned their lessons last year, with the death of excellent games being released in the glut of the end of the year. Now this is not specifically aimed at Cryptic, and includes single-player games. But WHY are the first 8 months of the year a wasteland for new games, and everything is pumped out at the end? I understand the holiday season mentality, but no-one can play all games at once, some are gonna lose that don't deserve to. Ah well, maybe next year.

Seriously when was the last time a major MMORPG was released on it's original announced release date? I can't remember one. Developers need to just start announcing dates with at least a year longer then they expect. That way a game can be launched on time or be a big surprise and be released "early".

In general, I'd say this was a smart move.  Taking a few extra months to make sure that it's ready for public release is something more developers should do.  There is too much at stake here, with all of the time and money they've already put into the game.  First impressions will make or break a game, especially an MMO.

I'm hoping that they'll open up their beta a bit more, giving some of us who have been waiting for the game a chance to try it out.

Major kudos for not wanting to release a buggy game. It gives them 31/2 more months to polish up, hopefully everything will work out for them. 

Dammit. I knew they were gonna pull this crap.

There will never be an end to the polishing...the game is never going to be perfect, and waiting for it to be perfect means delaying the launch forever. I'd rather play it now than wait.

They need to pull a Spore and release a character creator. One of the few MMOs where it would make sense. I'd even lay down $10 on one if it acted as a downpayment on the full game.

Guys Im in the beta on this one, and let me tell you it is worth the wait. That and it needs the extra time.

I really can't say more due to the NDA. But I will say I am already very impressed and that is rare for when I am beta testing.

Originally posted by Slackerboy

Guys Im in the beta on this one, and let me tell you it is worth the wait. That and it needs the extra time.

 

I really can't say more due to the NDA. But I will say I am already very impressed and that is rare for when I am beta testing.

I know, and do not ask me how I come to know.

Champions Online is a must buy for me.  Decision made.