Atari To Complete Cryptic Puzzle News

Atari's new online strategy has today taken another step forward, with confirmation that the group is to acquire Cryptic Studios.

The developer, which originally worked on City of Heroes/Villains for NCsoft, is currently producing three new MMO titles, including Champions Online (due 2009), Star Trek Online, and an unannounced third game.  A full statement announcing the deal is so far restricted to French territories, but online industry specialists GI.biz have released comments from both parties:

"The acquisition of Cryptic Studios brings to Infogrames an outstanding creative organisation, with a proven track-record of success in the fast-growing MMO category," said David Gardner, CEO of Infogrames/Atari in a statement. "Cryptic's success is founded on leading-edge technology and the vision of a seasoned executive management team.

"I am impressed with the tools and technology that Cryptic has developed to make MMOs less expensive to build. Creating vast worlds and interesting interactions can be very people intensive but with the use of Cryptic's toolset they have a proven way of cutting average production costs in half. This is exactly the type of company we wanted to acquire in order to build Atari for the 21st century.

John Needham, CEO of Cryptic and former Sony exec, added: "We share a common vision with Atari and their leadership team. With our game development and online platform technology skills, we're very excited about the opportunities that this unique combination with Atari creates. I am committed to helping Atari grow into a leading online game company and look forward to being part of the team."

Cryptic is the latest acquisition by Infogrames, which in recent weeks has secured Ghostbusters: The Videogame, the US subsidiary Atari Inc, and Chronicles of Riddick: Dark Athena, and also forged a distribution deal with Namco Bandai Games of Europe.