Champions Online

Development

Champions Online was announced after Cryptic Studios had to cancel their Marvel Universe Online project and sold City of Heroes and City of Villains to NCsoft in November 2007. On February 28, 2008, Cryptic Studios bought the entire Champions intellectual property, then licensed the rights to publish the 6th edition back to the original owner, Hero Games. Those 6th edition rulebooks let players transfer their Champions Online characters into the tabletop roleplaying game. On July 10, 2008, 2K Games said they would publish the game, and closed beta registration opened on October 10, 2008. But on December 17, 2008, 2K Games pulled out because Atari took over Cryptic Studios. Atari then handled development and publishing, alongside work on Star Trek Online. The launch was first set for July 14, but on May 16, 2009, Cryptic Studios pushed it back, and the game finally came out on September 1. Executive producer Bill Roper said the delay was needed to add features beta testers thought were essential. In July 2009, Cryptic announced microtransactions, mostly for vanity items like costume pieces and action figures that don't affect gameplay, and any purchase works for all characters on an account. On July 20, 2009, a forum post addressed the lack of Xbox 360 news, saying the console release was still the plan and more details would come later. In an August 28, 2009 podcast, Jack Emmert explained the Xbox 360 version was finished but stuck in an indefinite hold while waiting for Microsoft's approval, as Microsoft hadn't decided how to handle MMOs on Xbox Live.