Variety is reporting that "sources" reveal Cryptic is working on a Neverwinter Nights MMO for Atari to launch in 2011. Cryptic Studios is currently working on Champions Online and Star Trek Online, expected to launch this September and next March, respectively.

Considering that Neverwinter Nights -- developed by BioWare, with the sequel helmed by Obsidian -- was a mini-MMO to begin with, the idea of the series going totally online isn't a stretch. The only thing that's really a stretch is if Atari will be around to see it all come to pass.

[Via Massively]

An Atari financial document apparently reveals that the company expects Star Trek Online to launch no later than March 31, 2010. ShackNews read the report, which also states that players will boldly go where no one has gone before on "both console and PC formats."

We've hailed Cryptic for any official comment and will update as soon as it responds.

[Via Massively]

Atari president Phil Harrison, who joined the company last year, has taken a position as "non-executive director." According to Eurogamer, the move is a result of Atari's new focus on North American operations, following the sale of its European distribution to Namco Bandai.

Parent company Infogrames announced a loss of €226.1 million ($319.6m) for the last fiscal year, due in part to the loss of revenue that would have come in from the distribution business. As a result, Atari said it has canceled some of its projects to focus on "more cost-effective" games.

The identity of the canceled projects is unknown, but Atari released a hint of what some of the new, cost-effective, mass-market games would be: Cryptic Studios will create "a series of new games based on Atari's existing and historically successful IPs."

Originally slated to don its cape and take to the skies on July 14, Cryptic Studios' next superhero MMO, Champions Online, is staying put until September 1. The City of Heroes creator today announced a delay for the Atari-published title, with the studio's design director and Champions executive producer Bill Roper commenting, "Through our constant dialogue with our vocal and supportive community of beta testers, we quickly realized that in order to implement certain features that we all considered important the development of Champions Online would require more time."

But what features? We asked Roper, who revealed that, in addition to more instanced and scripted missions, the extra development time is being used to provide a larger variety of core powers, travel powers and upgrades. It's also allowing Cryptic that special something every developer wishes they had more of: time to polish. "We want the launch to be as smooth as possible, with the game as polished as it can be. We're glad to have the extra time to do so," he said, no doubt holding a soft cloth and a DVD to illustrate the polishing process.

[Via Gamespot]

Atari and Cryptic Studios have announced that Champions Online will ship worldwide for PC on July 14. From the team that created City of Heroes, the new MMO offers extensive character customization options, allowing players to customize the appearance of their powers and even craft their own arch-nemesis.

Alongside the release date, a new trailer has been released showcasing the game's nemesis creation system. You can check it out above. We also have another trailer (embedded after the break) showcasing one of the modes of transit, namely swinging. Throw some claws in there and our childhood dream of a web-slinging Wolverine will finally become a reality. The fabled Xbox 360 version of Champions Online, however, remains a mystery.

Make no Bones about it, folks -- memorable faces from the Star Trek universe won't be making an appearance in Cryptic's upcoming final frontier MMO, Star Trek Online. In a recent interview with MTV Multiplayer, STO executive producer Craig Zinkievich explained that the game takes place "in the future where the majority of the known characters have passed on." Except for the ones that are robots, or holograms, or ghosts. Or all three!

Don't think that Cryptic's issued themselves a license to kill canon -- Zinkievich (a shoe-in for Joystiq's Surname of the Year award) claims that the STO dev team has been in talks with folks who've been involved in the franchise to make sure they don't cut any corners, or crush any anticipation-filled Trekkie hearts. We've submitted our own terrifyingly erotic fan fiction to their think tank -- hopefully, it'll make it into the final product.

Yesterday's Cryptic Studios panel was a two-part affair. The majority of the hour-long panel was allotted to talk on Champions Online – a super hero MMO based off the original 80s paper-and-pencil RPG. The last five minutes were reserved for Star Trek Online. Both games yielded tons of new info.

First off, Champions will feature a lot of unique and odd weapons such as guitars. Essentially, this means you can create a "Guitar Hero" (hey, not our joke – blame executive producer Bill Roeper). The crew at Cryptic is also looking into implementing vehicles such as motorcycles, tanks ... and pogo sticks. Lastly, the formation of "super hero groups" will still follow the basic MMO guild structure, but with an integrated ranking system.

Moving on to Star Trek Online, the game was revealed to be set in the year 2409. That's 30 years after the events of Star Trek Nemesis, which marks the end of the ST timeline. The MMO puts players in the captain's chair as they are tasked to command their own ship either under the banner of the Starfleet or Klingon Defense Force. Ships and bridge officers are customizable. Cryptic says to expect a lot of "beaming up and down" from ship to ground for an authentic ST feel. The most interesting reveal was the race creator, allowing players to customize their own race. See that in action after the break.

Listen up fanboys, or perhaps we should say superfans, our cohorts over at Massively have landed a pretty sweet feature. From now until the game's completion, Massively will be hosting the official Champions Online DevBlog. You remember Champions Online right? It's the superhero MMO that's headed to the PC and Xbox 360? You know, the one with superheros? Right, so the first DevBlog from Cryptic Studios head Jack Emmert is now live. The subject: Why make another superhero game after making City of Heroes?

The answer, according to Emmert, is that Cryptic learned a lot from City of Heroes and wants to use that knowledge to make an even better superhero game. Check out Emmert's DevBlog for insight on customizable powers (and customizable nemeses), comic book combat and the huge world of Champions Online.

[Thanks, Ed]

The buyout game, like any other, produces sore losers. In this case it's Ubisoft, who lost out to Atari in a bidding war for Champions Online and Star Trek Online developer Cryptic Studios.

Gamasutra quotes Ubi's CFO, Alain Martinez, as saying the company was "a bit mad [about]" losing the deal. "We were a bit disappointed," Martinez admitted, though he said Ubisoft is moving ahead with other planned acquisitions. "We have about three deals within [the] five million euro range that we are negotiating," he revealed, stating that, "Most probably, one or two of them will be closed in the next three or four months." One of those wouldn't happen to be Eidos, would it?

With all of the activity coming out of Atari lately, you'd think the once-struggling publisher stumbled across a bag of cash under the house. The company, which recently has made a habit of picking up other publisher's unwanted cast offs, today acquired City of Heroes developer Cryptic Studios in what GI.biz describes as a "performance-linked deal."

The agreement includes three of Cryptic's upcoming projects, including next year's super powered MMO, Champions Online, Star Trek Online in 2010 and an as-yet-unannounced third project (Hint: something Online?) due the year after that. What's more, the report suggests that in addition to the $26.7 million in cash that Cryptic pocketed from the deal, the developer could see its coffers grow by another $20 million bonus should enough players decide to suit up in tights or explore the final frontier.

Admit it, watching that guy play the Star Trek theme on the Wiimote theremin gave you a powerful appetite for Roddenberry's magnum opus -- we highly suggest satisfying your interstellar jones with three new screenshots for Cryptic's Star Trek Online, available in the gallery below. These are easily the best-looking images to come out of the game thus far -- just look at the glow from the dry dock's hazard lights, shimmering on the tritanium hull of that majestic, spacefaring vessel. Whoa, apologies for that brief relapse to our Trekkie days. Check out the gallery while we play a few recompensory rounds of Madden.

Job advertisements are often a useful source of information and this listing for Cryptic Studios is no exception. It seems the Star Trek Online developer is looking for some PS3 coding talent to get their MMO engine running nicely on the system. if Star Trek Online (or any other Cryptic properties) are coming to the PS3 then they're the latest in a long line of MMOs that we've been promised for the system.

Between NC Soft's announcement of bringing games to the platform in mid-2007 and SOE's numerous offerings, such as DC Universe Online and The Agency, we've yet to see a single one released. Still, variety is the spice of life and we're happy to hear that there's a chance Star Trek Online will be heading PS3wards. Think you can make it happen? Apply at Cryptic Studios' official website.

Former Blizzard director Bill Roper, whose most recent stint was co-founder and CEO of the now-defunct Flagship Studios (Hellgate: London), has joined Cryptic Studios. According to the press release, Roper will serve as Design Director for the upcoming superhero-infused MMO, Champions Online.

In an interview with GameDaily, Roper said his first order of business is to dig "deeply" into Champions Online. "There's a lot of fantastic stuff here, and we'll focus on figuring out what's working, what needs some polish and rethinking other things." CO is currently in production for PC and Xbox 360 with a tentative Spring 2009 launch, although given the timing of Roper's hire and from what he said in the interview, we wonder if that'll be pushed back.

An application for the CO beta is currently available. Cryptic Studios is also currently working on Star Trek Online, due out sometime late next year.

[Via Big Download]

Think about it, is it really very strange that Star Trek Online could have cross-platform play? After all, Captain Kirk had all kinds of cross-species lovin', so why not? According to the Star Trek Online FAQ, the upcoming muhmohrpuguh from Cryptic Studios might have cross-platform play between the PC and it's console cousins. Regarding the possibility, the FAQ states "We would like that to be the case. There is nothing technologically keeping us from making it so." It's not an outright declaration that there will be cross-platform play, but it's not a denial either.

For the sake of peace throughout the galaxy, let's hope that Cryptic does indeed make it so.

[Via Joystiq]

It's the first question everyone has when confronted with an MMO targeted for both PCs and consoles: "Will console and PC players be on the same servers?" Lucky for us, the MMO nerds at Cryptic expected your (frankly) predictable inquiry and met it with the following response, helpfully contained on Star Trek Online's official FAQ page: "We would like that to be the case. There is nothing technologically keeping us from making it so." The more astute amongst you will undoubtedly taken note note that the above response is not technically the same as "yes" but it perhaps gets us one step closer to having an MMO besides Final Fantasy XI that actually plays across platforms.

Until then, we'll toss Star Trek Online into the same pile as other MMOs that are considering cross-platform play but have yet to actually deliver it: The Agency, DC Universe Online, Age of Conan, and Cryptic's own Champions Online. Wanna make it off that list, Cryptic? Make it so.