EL33TONLINE: News tag archive: championsonline

Atari recently announced its financial results for the fiscal year ending March 31st, posting a reduced full-year loss of $23.8 million (19.4 million euros) compared to the previous fiscal year (loss of $272.4 million, or 221.9 million euros), with considerable drops in revenue, falling 15.2 percent year-over-year.

Revenues for the second half of the year fell even more sharply, down 42.4 percent, although this period also saw Atari return a profit to the tune of $4.7 million (3.8 million euros) – a vast improvement over the same period during the last fiscal year when the company recorded a loss of $210.3 million (171.3 million euro).

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In Take-Two’s earnings call yesterday, president Ben Feder announced that Take-Two will no longer be publishing the upcoming massively multiplayer online game (MMOG) Champions Online, currently in development at Cryptic Studios.

This is a result of Cryptic Studios’ acquisition by Atari. Announced last week, Atari’s ownership of Cryptic obviously puts a different spin on things, making it difficult for Take-Two to continue on with publishing duties for the game. Feder cleared up the confusion in the earnings call by simply saying:

“One change to note in our 2009 pipeline as a result of Atari’s recent acquisition of Cryptic Studios, we no longer intend to publish the MMO game Champions Online.”

It is now assumed that Atari will continue the task of publishing Champions Online, due out next year on PC and Xbox 360.

Take Two has announced that it will be publishing Cryptic Studios’ MMO Champions Online under its 2K Games label. The publisher also revealed that Champions Online is being developed for the Xbox 360 and PC. The game is scheduled to be released in Spring of 2009.

Cryptic Studios are well known for creating the City of Heroes and City of Villains MMO titles. Champions Online will be based on the Champions pen-and-paper RPG. It will enable players to customize their experience and explore a vast comic book universe.

“2K Games is excited to work with such a talented group as Cryptic Studios,” said Christoph Hartmann, president of 2K. “Given their stellar pedigree and amazing grasp of the MMO genre, we are confident that Champions Online will deliver an innovative and exciting action MMO experience to gamers.”

“2K Games is a terrific publishing partner for Champions Online,” said John Needham, CEO of Cryptic Studios. “Cryptic is proud that Champions Online will be 2K’s first MMO title and we look forward to working together towards a tremendous launch next year.”