Wednesday, May 18, 2011

Atari Strikes Again

The big news yesterday was that Atari and Cryptic have 'parted ways.'  It seems that Cryptic has been dragging down Atari's bottom line, so they have basically cut them loose.  What does it really mean?  I'm not sure.  Cryptic is still in business and there have been no reported layoffs yet.

In fact, the STO staff is still expanding.  The semi-official word is that it is no big whoop.  Would they tell us if it was?  I doubt it.  We'll just have to wait and see how it plays out.  I couldn't care less about Champions Online and their new Neverwinter Nights project, but I really like Star Trek Online.

Atari used to be the big player in video games way back when.  Since their console days, I only have a couple of bad memories of them.  The first that comes to mind is that they were somewhat responsible for Master of Orion III.  The first two installments were amazing, the third killed the series.  I'm guessing they still own the rights to the name.

Hopefully Cryptic finds a buyer or is able to stand up on their own (again). STO seems like a growing game with tons of potential still to be realized.