I ask this question because it seems like nobody else in the industry is going to ask it. Why is Cryptic Studios making Champions Online? It baffles me that they would even think about persuing another game in this direction. Don’t get me wrong, I liked City of Heroes and all that, and I fully believe in Cryptic’s ability to make awesome MMORPGs based on superheroes, but it just seems so odd. Allow me to start from the beginning.
A few months ago, Cryptic and NCSoft agreed on a deal to transfer ownership of City of Heroes/Villains over to NCSoft. Before this, the game was published by NCSoft, and was owned by Cryptic. Cryptic then announced that they had been working on a new MMORPG, one that was not yet announced. Of course, everybody, at that time, knew that Cryptic had entered into a deal with Marvel and Microsoft to create a new super heroes MMO based off the Marvel comics entitled: Marvel Universe. It was naturally assumed that this was the “unnamed” project that Cryptic would be working on (MMOCrunch.com was no different). As it turns out, however, Marvel Universe got the axe by Microsoft and the title slipped into oblivion. Of course a few days after we all heard about the Marvel Universe news, we also heard about Champions Online.
Now back to my original question. Why Champions Online? Why would Cryptic, who already had a good relationship running a successful MMORPG for NCSoft suddenly sell their old property to them to begin work on a new IP based roughly around the same idea? City of Heroes was a success, and still is (130,000 subs and counting). Perhaps it was because NCSoft refused to allow Cryptic to make a City of Heroes sequel. Let’s face it, most of the time, MMORPGs do not need/warrant a sequel. They usually aren’t profitable and players from the first game don’t want to lose everything they achieved to begin work on a new one for the sequel. So, is that it? Was Champions Online birthed simply because of NCSoft’s refusal to support a sequel? Perhaps Champions Online was actually City of Heroes 2, but upon rejection of the idea late last year by NCSoft they decided to continue to persue it under a different name. We’ll probably never really know. . .
Of course, a lot of my article here is speculations and conjecture. I don’t know why exactly we have what we have today. However, it still seems a bit odd to me that Cryptic would want to sell City of Heroes and then go out and start a new MMORPG that would put itself in direct competition with their old IP. Something must have happened that caused the split between the two. But if not my theory then what else could have happened?
IMO, this is an absolute good deal for Cryptic.
1) Emmert has been a big fan of Champions for years, and knows the pen and paper rules… he must think the transition from pen and paper to online will work. cutting down huge development time
2) no need to rebuild a game world
3) instant fan/customer base. the pen and paper game has been around for 30 years.
4) they get to make a game in a world/genre they love, where they have experience in making a profitable MMORPG
5) they BOUGHT the entire Hero Systems company, makers of the Champions system. The resources are there, to tap into everything they need to make it right.
6) the Champions system is a skill/power points system, not class based. The thing CoH really excelled in, was creating unique characters that players loved. that can only be better with unique power combinations
as a CoH player… i cant wait for Champions Online.
I’m sure part of the reason is that it’s an MMO for a new platform… a console. As such, CoH and CO are not direct competitors. Even CoH players who own a 360 will probably play both, rather than one or the other.
It’s obvious to me that this was the Marvel game, and after it was axed they decided to continue development but remove all references to the Marvel universe and release the game under another title.
Why bake a new loaf of bread when you already have some only needing to be sliced?
I think Vice is on the money with this one.
When MS axed MUO there would have been a huge amount of art and code assets already produced. It’s also possible they had licenced the Champions ruleset for MUO.
Since they were producing MUO when they sold COH/COV to NCSoft, there would not have been a no compete clause for the superhero genre.
As Vice said, with so much of MUO done, it would have been a no brainer to complete the game, removing Marvel references and tidying up the art assets to remove Marvel characters. Rather than starting from scratch on something else and spending three or four years, they can have something out the door this year (maybe.)
And maybe the people at Cryptic just really like superheroes.
Cryptic is developing Champions Online to try and create the game they originally wanted City of Heroes to be. They made certain decisions during the development process that ended up undermining their original vision for the game.
NC Soft was probably unwilling to entertain the idea of a sequel so soon, and Cryptic doesn’t have the resources to both manage/update CoH and develop a new superhero game at the same time, so they sold CoH to NC Soft outright, and moved on to MUO.
With the collapse of MUO, they migrated into Champions, a game that has long been touted as Cryptic’s inspiration for a comic based MMO in the first place.
Makes sense to me, and I’m looking forward to it. CoH was a good game, but too rigidly defined for true superhero action.
Haha, is good to have another superheroes MMO on the neighborhood, specially for COH, with the huge resources NCsoft have, you think Cryptic can make Champions bigger than Coh, if they couldn make it in the last years? And you think NCsoft wont try to smash Cryptic upgrading and gettign better coh?
Champions is a Pen and Paper RPG that came out in the 80’s, this game is based on it. It is not a sequel, using the pre-existing game world, characters and rule sets, cryptic can make a Super Hero MMO with more indepth story that has been around for over 20 years and people will already know.
Who wrote the Architech app for COX? Is it possible that could be used in CO? Cryptic would have to have the rights or buy it. Anyone know?
The biggest problem I have is the pvp is limitied and you can not be a villain. I was hoping it would be something aswome that your hero fails and become a villain but nothing ever as aswome as that. The power are cool and the game graphic is on a ok level. Over all the game not worth it time and money do to in only hal finished.
well, I’ve seen several game play videos of Champions online, and the graphics don’t convince me. Moreover, the graphics and structure of the characters make it look like if i was playing Marvel Ultimate Alliance. I currently play COX and have seen many players move to Champions, but I don’t imagine them staying there too long. Since there is no villain side, there must not be PVP zones either, just arena i assume. To finalize, my prediction i that once someone finds the perfect and most balanced combination of powers, everyone will want to have the same powers. No classes means that if the team needs a healer, instead of broadcasting LF healer, it will be LF someone that can heal and thousands will be able to… go figure