Atari has announced the sale of Cryptic Studios, the maker of online games such as Star Trek Online, City of Heroes and Champions Online to China’s Perfect World. Perfect World is paying 35 million euros, or $49.8 million in cash to fully acquire Cryptic Studios. Beijing-based Perfect World operates a number of its own self-developed MMO titles, with the company recently preparing to publish its first external MMO later this year in the form of Korean action game Rusty Hearts.
Mr Michael Chi, CEO of Perfect World, mentioned that the acquisition will add popular game titles to the company’s current stable and help further penetrate into the North American and global online gaming markets. He said he had admired what the development team and technology platform at Cryptic has developed over the years. Atari’s CEO, Jim Wilson, stated that Cryptic Studios has found a very strong platform to boost its Free to Play titles’ portfolio.
