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

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.

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.

When I read the title I said SOE.

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.

...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.

Dollars to donuts the only folks out there with cash on hand to take the risk are Chinese companies looking to get into the U.S. market.

Originally posted by Gruug

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.

 All I can say is who's biased ?   " STO's fortunes have turned around very quickly from with some big updates." Based on what information ? Look empirical observation is just that , just because you see what you percieve as an increase in  people in an instanced zone doesn't mean the game has turned around. It comes down hard numbers of which you really aren't qualifed to comment on , and neither am I . There are financial reports availible and companies that monitor or report traffic which can be used to get an idea of what going on. We can infer from Atari's action that something isn't going well at Cryptic , or that Atari is desperate for cash and selling an asset.  

" 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." At least the article didn't confuse the issue with blatantly emotional response. It's obvious you like the game , but it's also obvious not enough people like the game to make it what Atari had hoped for , a substantial profit , or an assest worth holding on to.

" 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. After all, they sold themselves to Atari so way not buy themselves back. "  This may have been a possiblity 4 years ago when the economy was better. The problem is that the Banks are simply not lending  without guarntees equating to the value of/or more then the assest.  How many takeovers have you heard about recently ? How many companies have gotten construction loans ?  The one thing you'l notice about my question , regardless of the numbers is how little the banks  are prepared to release money for things like this. One other thing to consider , if Cryptic were profitible enough to pay for itself, why would Atari sell it ?

How about Cryptic just dies?

They have a poor business model, develop bad games, have stupid executives.

I don't think they deserve to exist anymore.

Imho, nobody should.

It`s time for Cryptic to go the way of the dodo bird and take a trip down extinction avenue, they had more than enough chances to produce quality products and instead chose to repeat the same mistakes over and over and over and over again while holding out there hands waiting for our cash to line the palms.

Cryptic has had its day, the best course of action would be to let it die.

Depends on the CBS/Cryptic contract.  If it lets the buyer make another Trek MMO, then who ever wants to make a Trek MMO.  If it doesn't no one should.

Who will?  SOE, because they are the ones willing to buy a game and let it just sit there till it dies.  ((VG, MO, etc..))

Who should buy Cryptic?  Cryptic should.   Its always been my idea that Cryptic isn't full of bad developers,  just poor direction.  Their games weren't ever necessarily bad,  they just lost a lot of appeal because the scope was too small and mundane in many of their aspects,  and with Atari at the helm, the payment models always started too high for what was offered.

If Atari is going to rid themselves of Cryptic, and if there are no buyers, or if the developers can somehow manage enough capital,  I'd like to see them buy themselves out.  I think working freelance or for themselves would prove to be a better course of action for them.  They can make the games they want to make and hopefully not be pushed too hard by whatever publisher ends up backing them so they can put out the best possible game they can.

Originally posted by PhelimReagh

Dollars to donuts the only folks out there with cash on hand to take the risk are Chinese companies looking to get into the U.S. market.

 

Hmmm...Blizzard?

j/k  I have played both games and they came up way short in the "sticking" category.  I played for a couple of days and then went back to the better mmo's.

I know next to nothing about Cryptic but if we are using those 2 games as examples...let it die!

Don't think that Cryptic can be a good prey for bigger companies.

Turbine means Warner Bros (meaning DC comics). They already have a comic/superhero game that has it's own share of problems. Don't think they can be interested in another game that can feed on the same audience.

I'm betting more on Gamigo, Nexon and those companies that release MMOs like they were cars out from a factory. But they would be interested in the "engine" more than the two IPs.

After this state, I guess we're going to see in a short time the announcement that Neverwinter has been put on hold.

Good luck to Cryptic, really. But i should say, with all due respect, that the best CoH growth and improvements weren't made by Cryptic/Emmert...

I say, let CO and STO die and have Turbine or someone with a half decent dev team buy the leftovers of whatever Cryptic has in the works. 

On a side note, can the current Cryptic game engine, the one used in CO and STO be expanded upon to allow open world instead of all instances?  If not, scrap it!

Having given it some thought , there are only a handful of companies that would buy Cryptic.  EA, Activivision/Blizzard, Sony and Microsoft. I'd eliminate EA and Activison for the simple reasons that EA is launching SW:ToR and Activision/Blizzard don't need the expense .

Sony and Microsoft would be a good fit for Cryptic on the basis of the game designs. CO and STO were both designed for consoles.  Cryptic had a former Microsoft employee who worked on the engine , so it actually favors Microsoft.  The games would add to the catalogues of both companies consoles .  The real question then is would they be profitible enough to warrant  purchasing the company ?

Originally posted by Gruug

 

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.

This would likely depend on Sumner Redstone, and he may be sour on the VG market in the aftermath of Midway Games.  If Redstone is interested he could (as majority owner) push it through either Viacom or CBS.

I would also consider Comcast or TW as potential buyers.  IMO both companies are looking to expand/diversify their content offerings and an MMO company might be a foot in the door for this.  The price and terms would have to be right though.

Originally posted by erictlewis

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

I'll never touch NeverWinter if SOE gets involved.  I'm not that happy that Cryptic is involved.  Cryptic + SOE= #nailinthecoffin.

"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 don't agree at all.  CO, in over 2 years, has 1 new zone and a handful of raids.  There have been some improvements in overall playability at all levels which is good, but their instance content, despite being almost as cookie cutter as CoX, comes at a remarkably slow pace.  Compare that to LotRO, which had 3 and a half new zones and was about to release Mines of Moria at about the same point in its life...

STO isn't much better.  Back when they were giving out free weekends to ex-players, I was able to get through the new content easily.  I guess that explains why they aren't giving them out, anymore.

I hate to see anyone lose their jobs, but I'd just as soon Cryptic get dissolved, so someone not so gamer-cynical can get their hands on their 3 great IP's.  Someone who sees MMO gamers as more than munchkin "pew pew pew!  Gimme loot!" types.