Atari fiscal Q3 results indicate revival for embattled publisher
Atari may not have published a ton of games in 2009, but that doesn’t mean the company hasn’t been picking up the bottom line. In a press release that reads like the exact opposite of those we saw from the company just a few years ago, CEO Jeff Lapin celebrates the €92.5 million ($126.25 million) in revenue earned in the nine months ending December 31, saying “the company has now strengthened its equity and is in a position to work on an expanded publishing plan.” In so many words, Lapin’s suggesting that Atari is financially bouncing back and maybe even gearing up to (dare we say it?) make more games.
The company cites sales of Ghostbusters, Chronicles of Riddick, Backyard Football, and Champions Online for bolstering revenues in fiscal Q3 and looks forward to a better 2010. The recent release of Star Trek Online certainly doesn’t seem to be hurting his confidence in that department. Lapin says that he’s “very enthusiastic about the launch” of the “promising MMO game.”
But things aren’t all gumdrops and money hats — the Q3 revenues were still down by 1.9% year-over-year. We won’t find out the full year’s earnings until late May, but for now we’ll comfort ourselves with the knowledge that the publisher’s next title, Project Runway, is coming in a few short weeks. Finally!
Source 1 - Big Download
Source 2 - Atari (warning: PDF link)
Atari fiscal Q3 results indicate revival for embattled publisher originally appeared on Joystiq on Tue, 16 Feb 2010 21:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Cryptic Makes Next Champions Online Expansion Free to Appease Angry Subscribers
Things aren’t going well for Champions Online, Cryptic’s half-baked MMO that I tried to warn you about before the game even released. In an attempt to appease angry subscribers, Cryptic has decided to make the next planned expansion, Vibora Bay (now called Revelation), available for free. I guess Cryptic saw the light and thought it may not be in their best interests to rip-off the same people they screw on a daily basis, especially those poor bastards who purchased lifetime subscriptions.
Revelation will be available on March 10, 2010.
Cryptic State of the Game, Wherein They Act Humble and Apologetic:
We have a lot going on right now both at Cryptic, and with Champions Online in particular. There are huge changes afoot, and rather than spend a lot of time with the preamble, let’s sink our collective teeth into the meat of the matter.
Scrubbing the Kitchen Sink
As we all know, the Kitchen Sink patch had numerous issues that made it onto Live. The reasons for this boil down to two key areas:
Things That Used to Work Stopped Working:
Basically, there were changes to the core code that automatically merged with our older code and we didn’t see all of the effects of these before they went Live. Token changes, for example, caused a lot of things to stop working properly in Champions. We use tokens for a lot of things in Champions and when the token system was recently optimized, it caused any token-based missions to stop working properly – namely UNITY and Patrol missions. There was also the AI fixes which were made which affected the attack rates of every enemy in the game that slipped past us all.
Lack of Comprehensive Testing
There were only a few players on during the time the Kitchen Sink Patch was on the Public Test Shard, and we simply didn’t allocate enough QA testers. There were so many issues we were anxious to address, that our desire to get fixes out to the players as soon as possible completely backfired. There are truly an astonishing amount of changes in this patch, and we simply should have spent more time testing them before pushing the build Live.
Moving forward, our updates will spend more time in internal test before going to the Public Test Shard. We’ve already increased the size of our Champions QA group, and the designers have been playing much more on the internal servers. We are also much more aware of the changes coming into the core game engine through other projects and have taken steps to increase communication internally to avoid being surprised by those changes.
Currently, we’re putting new builds up on the Public Test Shard, addressing the current reported issues with the Kitchen Sink patch. If you’d like to help us make sure we’re getting it all, play on the PTS and provide us your feedback in this thread.
Improving Communications
We’ve had a real failure with communicating to our community over the past couple of months. You’ve been vocal about it, and we hear you. In fact, we’ve taken some pretty big steps to fixing this, and I wanted to share our goals with you to address this. There are a lot of things we used to do that fell by the wayside, and now that we have StormShade back on the team full-time, we’re going to be bringing back a lot of the things you have always told us you look forward to seeing and hearing:
Ask Cryptic
Bi-weekly posting by the developers answering your questions as compiled by StormShade.
GM Blog
A general support-oriented Blog where our Game Masters discuss what’s being done to address your concerns, talk about bug status, and so on.
Developer Chat
A monthly live IRC chat with developers from the Champions Online team.
State of the Game
Bi-weekly posting by me (Chronomancer) to provide insight into the high-level vision for the Champions Online universe and address hot-button issues.
Game with Cryptic
We’re putting together a new all-company supergroup so you can find us in the game and share adventures. We’re also going to do more PVP events so you can pit your skills in The Hero Games against the devs!
Buyers Remorse Hitting Champions Online Players
I tried to warn you, I really did. When I tore Champions Online a new a-hole for sucking in every conceivable way except character customization (apparently the only aspect of design Cryptic can do successfully any more), you all called me names and insisted it was a stunt to increase traffic. Now, several months after release, players are discovering that I was right, evidenced by this nifty editorial from MMOCrunch titled, quite simply, “Why I Quit Champions Online”.
Plan and simple, Champions Online lost its hold on me. I continued to dive into the game, move around the world, soak up the atmosphere, read about its future and most importantly, evaluate the content beyond my reach. What I definitively learned, and I hope my review hinted at, is that the game lacks legs. The atmosphere has always been incredibly disjointed thanks to the instancing of most zones. Even though all of the settings make sense in the universe, they lack a cohesive flow. And the multitude of characters aren’t employed effectively either. Because of these continued slip-ups through the middle to later levels, Champions Online gets boiled down to its diverse arcade-y combat. In essence, it becomes a soulless experience.
When I tore Star Trek Online a new a-hole for the very same reasons, I was once again called every name in the book and, like Champions Online, it will take a few months before I am once again proven correct. I’m trying to save you people money, I swear. I die a little inside every time I hear someone has foolishly purchased a lifetime subscription.
Champions Online: The Next Hellgate London?
[Disclaimer: The following opinion is based on a beta-version of Champions Online, one week prior to release. The final version of Champions Online may resolve many of the issues raised in this editorial.]
I’m not sure why Champions Online exists. After playing a considerable amount of the beta, leveling up a wide-variety of characters, I come away with an empty feeling. Overwhelming impression? It’s as if Cryptic Studios simply renamed everything in City of Heroes and was quite content to add a smattering of new features that don’t add up to very much.
It currently stands as a mammoth disappointment.
One riddled with a ridiculous amount of bugs, a clunky interface, uninspiring combat, weak animation and terrible voice-acting.
“But it’s a beta!” I hear you yell. These things are to be expected. True, up to a point. Problem is, the game hits retail shelves in one week (September 1st) and should be much further along in its development than what I am seeing in the beta.
What we have here is yet one more case of an MMO shooting itself in the face by rushing its release date.
You’d think Bill Roper, former producer of Hellgate: London now working for Cryptic Studios as Executive Producer, would know better. Perhaps financial pressures make further delays economically impossible, especially in light of Champions Online having already been delayed from its initial release window of last May.
It needs another delay because Champions Online is a mess from top-to-bottom.
Barring divine intervention, there is no way Cryptic will get this game into proper shape for next week’s release. Early adopters are bound to be frustrated. As long as you know going in that Champions Online isn’t some polished gem (far from it), perhaps you won’t be so disappointed.
Here are just some of my problems with Champions Online as it stands now.
Champions Online: The Next Hellgate London?
[Disclaimer: The following opinion is based on a beta-version of Champions Online, one week prior to release. The final version of Champions Online may resolve many of the issues raised in this editorial.]
I’m not sure why Champions Online exists. After playing a considerable amount of the beta, leveling up a wide-variety of characters, I come away with an empty feeling. Overwhelming impression? It’s as if Cryptic Studios simply renamed everything in City of Heroes and was quite content to add a smattering of new features that don’t add up to very much.
It currently stands as a mammoth disappointment.
One riddled with a ridiculous amount of bugs, a clunky interface, uninspiring combat, weak animation and terrible voice-acting.
“But it’s a beta!” I hear you yell. These things are to be expected. True, up to a point. Problem is, the game hits retail shelves in one week (September 1st) and should be much further along in its development than what I am seeing in the beta.
What we have here is yet one more case of an MMO shooting itself in the face by rushing its release date. You’d think Bill Roper, former producer of Hellgate: London now working for Cryptic Studios as Executive Producer, would know better. Perhaps financial pressures make further delays economically impossible, especially in light of Champions Online having already been delayed from its initial release window of last May.
It needs another delay because Champions Online is a mess from top-to-bottom.
Barring divine intervention, there is no way Cryptic will get this game into proper shape for next week’s release. Early adopters are bound to be frustrated. As long as you know going in that Champions Online isn’t some polished gem (far from it), perhaps you won’t be so disappointed.
Here are just some of my problems with Champions Online as it stands now.
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