Jack Emmert

July 11, 2008 - Though the major announcement at Cryptic Studios Media Day wasn't quite what many in and around the industry were expecting*, plenty of new information was made available regarding Champions Online, Cryptic's new superhero MMORPG project based on the best-selling Champions tabletop roleplaying game, based on the fairly complex Hero System and dating from the early eighties though continuing to sell strong in its fifth edition.

The biggest news: Cryptic will explore the roles of publisher and publishee with the Champions brand - authoring, designing, and publishing the pencil-and-paper edition of the game right at Cryptic's Los Gatos, CA studios while simultaneously developing the massively multiplayer online version of the game with its just-announced co-publisher, 2K Games.

2K Games is no stranger to console and PC games publishing, pushing out cross-platform, platinum selling titles such as Bioshock and The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, while skillfully handling venerated PC franchises like Stronghold, Dungeon Siege, and of course the Sid Meier repertoire (most notably Pirates! and the Civilization series). Both ideas will be important for Champions Online, which is being developed for PC and X360 and is, of course, based on a well-developed IP. However, Champions Online will mark 2K Games' first foray into MMORPG publishing and the most significant big-name entrant into the MMORPG marketplace since Activision Blizzard was announced in late 2007.

But publishing in any form is secondary to the development of the IP, and it's obvious that Cryptic believes in their product. "[Champions] is the number one superhero RPG," comic book store owner turned multiple MA degree scholar turned MMO mogul Jack Emmert, Chief Creative Officer at Cryptic Studios, explained. "There are 29 books in print, and I have every one. We just received the submission for the next one too."

Backtracking a bit, Emmert explained why the development relationship between Cryptic Studios and the Champions IP will be so seamless. "We did not license [the Champions IP]," Emmert stated. "We love Champions, so we bought it. We own Champions lock, stock, and barrel. I did it because I love it, it's a tremendous IP, there's a great fanbase. We know the people that own the IP, so I said 'Steve [Steve Long, RPG author and co-owner of Hero Games], I want to buy it.' We worked it out in under a month, and win-bang-boom - we had it." Emmert later stated that, moving forward, the integration between the print product and the online game would be "100%", with only slight stylistic changes to several of the iconic Champions characters and a number obvious concessions for the MMORPG transition. For the more hardcore players familiar with Champions, we were able to confirm that players will be able to choose their own disadvantages / weaknesses as well as their nemesis character in the game - two tributes to what makes Champions so novel among classic RPGs.

Integration was one of the overarching themes of Cryptic's presentations throughout the day, from details of Cryptic's publishing and co-publishing plans to the integration of the X360 controller in our playtesting sessions - a testimony to Cryptic's desire to "natively" develop the game for the Xbox 360 console as well as PC. Emmert cited 2K's strength in cross-platform titles and working with Microsoft with regards to the Xbox Live environment as key benefits of the co-publishing relationship.

That, and 2K's industry saavy. Says Emmert, "I've talked to just about everybody in the gaming industry, and I'll say this: there are a lot of doofuses. I mean, really stupid people. We were looking for a co-publisher - thank God we found 2K - and a guy said, 'Wow, this is cool! It'd be even better if it were online.' And I just about wanted to throw a chair at him. But 2K - these are some pretty smart guys. Christoph [Hartmann, President of 2K Games] really impressed me. They're really smart people... I feel really lucky that we ended up together because I feel like we're in really good hands."

*"No comment" was the only response to questions about Star Trek Online at the July Media Day (though there was plenty of tongue-in-cheek banter about a possible Lost in Space MMORPG for our efforts).