They have new projects in the works, like Neverwinter, but they aren’t ”cannibalising” STO and CO teams; ”not shrinking” them. Won’t ‘tick off’ fans.
”No, no,” began Cryptic boss Jack Emmert. ”These games don’t really ever peter out. Both games have a very solid subscription base right now. They’re not really shrinking.”
”Look, those teams continue to chug along on Champions and Star Trek, and those teams aren’t going anywhere. They’re going to continue delivering great content month after month after month.” Cryptic admits they’ve lacked quality in the past.
”These other projects have been under way for quite some time,” he added.
”If people are all of a sudden saying we’re neglecting it, it’s like no, we just didn’t announce it - we’ve been working on it. There really isn’t any change in the way those games are being handled; we’re not shrinking the size of those teams.”
”We’re not cannibalising those people just for Neverwinter. That’s not the case whatsoever.” The studio wants to avoid alienating loyal subscribers with future updates to both the MMOs, citing Sony Online’s updates to Star Wars Galaxies as an example.
”What is it that the person who’s been playing Star Trek for half-a-year, and the person who’s been playing Champions for over a year, wants? That’s what we’ll deliver.”
”The mistake that happens is… Look at Star Wars Galaxies, which got a massive overhaul of gameplay: they improved the game for the better - I played it. But every person who played the original version of Star Wars Galaxies was ticked off beyond belief to see the game they loved - maybe I didn’t but they loved it - all of a sudden disappear,” notes Emmert.
”And that is not something that we’re going to do; we’re not planning on making irrelevant all of the great things that already are in the game and alienate the people who like the products for what they are.”
”Now we’re going to improve it,” he said, ”but we’re going to improve it with the fans’ help. That’s what our current focus is.” Star Trek Online and Champions Online are Cryptic’s last MMO game projects, as they’ll now focus on multiplayer online games instead.
Yeah it seems hard to tell the difference between an MMO and a multiplayer online game, but they are different assures the studio and Neverwinter will show us how.
