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It looks like character customization is still the source of many of the most burning questions for followers of Champions Online, and another handful of these are answered in the latest "Ask Cryptic" feature. We find out that, although there are a number of crazy costume elements like tails, fins and claws, that is all they are intended to be for now -- costume elements. No wicked tail-strikes for the time being, but they haven't ruled this sort of thing out entirely, so keep your flippers crossed.

Another community member asked about the audio in CO, and whether it is an important part of development for Cryptic Studios. In response, they say that they have just tripled the size of their audio team, which roughly translates to "Hell yes audio is important!". Signature villains have unique voices, and ambient sounds and music are being paid particular attention to. The final question asked if the biggest villains (like Foxbat) would have their own musical themes; although it doesn't look like they had planned it before, they certainly sound interested in incorporating it now. Check out the full answers to these questions and a bunch more at the Ask Cryptic page.

In what is said to be only the first installment of a new video-podcast series, Cryptic Studios have invited all of us to peak over their shoulders and see some of the members of their team at work. The video, titled "Day as a Dev", introduces us to the Production Team. Chief Creative Officer Jack Emmert recaps the three titles that the studio is working on: Champions Online, Star Trek Online, and one unannounced super-secret game. Most of the developers we meet in the video are part of the large Champions team, but all three games are represented.

It's always nice to get this sort of behind-the-scenes look at the development process for an anticipated game, and to see how the different aspects come together to make up the whole picture. We also get to see how Bill Roper is doing in his new role at Cryptic as Design Director for Champions Online. However, we're going to have to award the "best quote" to Randy Mosiondz: "It's a challenging job, but at the end of the day, I make video games, and what's more, a super-hero video game, so there's nothing wrong with that."

It was a just about five months ago that 2K games' publishing deal with Cryptic Studios was announced. The publishing label in the Take-Two collective had scored the rights to publish Champions Online in the midst of a steamy summer season, and the independent developer behind the game seemed thrilled. It's cold now, and the recent purchase of Cryptic by Atari seems to have changed and reshaped that original business relationship. Gamespot is reporting that Take-Two is now officially on the outs when it comes to publishing Champions Online.

A post-earnings conference call with analysts saw Take-Two president Ben Feder specifically stating "We no longer intend to publish the MMOG Champions Online due to Atari's acquisition of Cryptic." Gamespot further wonders whether the game will attempt to launch in early 2009. The loose "Spring 2009" timeframe was suggested when the game was first announced, and it remains to be seen whether the developer can stick to that timeframe post-acquisition. Massively will continue to follow this story as it develops.

The surprising news this morning that Infogrames, the parent company of Atari, would be purchasing Cryptic Studios prompted us to get in touch with Jack Emmert over at Cryptic Studios in order to shine a little more light on the current situation. Here's what he had to say:

Massively: How will the Atari acquisition change or affect the 2k Games publishing agreement for Champions Online?

Jack Emmert: I'm afraid I can't comment on this. I can only say that I enjoy working with 2k games; they're a great company and even better people.

Can you give us a bit of background on Cryptic's relationship with Atari? Where did the idea for this collaboration emerge?

This evolved after numerous discussions. John Needham, our CEO extraordinaire, had been doing the rounds to look for funding opportunities. We crossed paths with David Gardiner and Phil Harrison of Atari; all of us really hit it off. One thing led to another...and here were are!

This is obviously a very positive step for Cryptic. Can you speak to what kind of benefits you see in your new relationship with Atari?

Atari has a great pool of resources – PR, marketing, distribution, etc. Atari also has a number of terrific IP's that would make great MMO's. Mostly, this acquisition allows Cryptic to focus solely on the business of making great MMO's.

Is this going to alter the beta and release schedules for any Cryptic projects?

Not at all. We're still moving ahead with Champions – Q2 next year, and STO later in the year. Development priorities are the only thing that can shift those dates.

In a piece of news that comes out of nowhere, Atari has announced that they've bought Cryptic Studios, the developer originally responsible for creating City of Heroes. Right now, Cryptic has three upcoming games: Champions Online, Star Trek Online and a third unannounced title. As part of the acquisition, Atari will have access to Cryptic's technology for use their games as well as for their website portal.

However, the most interesting part is that after an initial USD 26.7 million upfront payment to Cryptic, they stand to earn even more money through a performance-related bonus. How much? Try another USD 20 million in cash or stock, so long as the 2010-11 revenues of Champions Online and Star Trek Online outperform specific undisclosed targets. It would appear that Atari is expecting Cryptic's upcoming games to perform fairly well, and to launch fairly promptly. We can only hope, Star Trek and Champions fans.

Phil Harrison, director of Atari, has said in the past that the company's main focus would be online games and digital delivery. So while this news isn't out of the ordinary in that respect, it certainly came out of the blue. This also may fuel the fire of the rumor that Cryptic is bringing both of their upcoming titles to the PS3. There's no word yet on whether or not this affects the 2k Games publishing deal made for Champions Online.

[Thanks, Stan]

Gamers in that sweet spot where massively multiplayer online games and comic books intersect have long enjoyed playing City of Heroes, and are likely to well into the future... but clearly there's more room in the superhero game genre. Some MMO players are looking forward to a superhero-themed game with a different take on the genre than what's been done before. For them, the upcoming game Champions Online has some appeal. G4tv's X-Play recently took notice of this and interviewed Bill Roper, the Cryptic Studios Design Director, about what Champions Online has to offer gamers.

The video interview, "Hands On: Champions Online", is in two parts. First Roper speaks with Adam Sessler, introducing the game concept, its setting, and creating your own personal nemesis in Champions Online as you progress. Afterwards Morgan Webb delves a bit more into the core game mechanics of Champions Online, such as how loot will augment your avatar, and the incentives to play in groups with other people -- one of the key reasons gamers jump into MMOs in the first place. Roper goes on to address the possibilities of gameplay on both PC and consoles. In fact, the gameplay shown throughout the videos is done with an Xbox 360 controller. Roper also reiterates the Champions Online release date, which he says is still slated for Spring 2009. If you'd like to see what all the fuss about this new superhero MMO is about, we've got both videos embedded for you below the cut.

A special edition of Ask Cryptic for Champions Online is out now and it features Bill Roper answering all sorts of highly interesting questions. The most interesting answer from Bill concerns his involvement with the game, as it's now beyond concept and initial design stages. Apparently, Bill's past experience at Blizzard involved coming in during the polish and release phase of a game -- which is something he was never involved in at Flagship. That and the continued support for future content will be Bill's role at Cryptic with concern to Champions Online. Oh, he also expresses an interest in doing voice work for the infamously awesome Foxbat. Intriguing.

The other thing we took away from this was that the game is getting pretty close to beta, which would mean that it's on track for an early 2009 release date. We must admit our shock at the possibility, as most MMOs suffer at least one delay during the development process. Could this one prove to be an exception to the rule? We certainly hope so.

Matt "Positron" Miller, NCsoft's NorCal Senior Designer, was snatched and grilled by the gang at Ten Ton Hammer just recently. Among the topics touched on were speculations about the impact of upcoming costumed nemeses in the super-hero-themed MMOG genre.

City of Heroes/Villains was, back in the day, something of a dark horse. While Cryptic Studios and NCsoft were working on the game, there was intense speculation and skepticism about the material. How could it even work?

Well, work it did, and very well. Miller is confident that it will continue to do so.

Miller acknowledges that it's hard to predict what impact the new games will have on CoX's player numbers. We wouldn't be putting any money down on predictions ourselves, but it's going to be interesting.

Character customization seems to be the big focus in the newest Ask Cryptic for Champions Online. Questions about multi-limbed heroes (not at launch) and different stances to give your character (big yes!) receive the more strikingly straight-forward answers. It wouldn't be a big leap of logic to imagine that four-armed characters will eventually be possible, with the revealing of Grond (pictured above) last Halloween. We also learn that Cryptic is planning for plenty of wings and tails from the get-go, which should please a lot of players.

However, the most interesting question asks Cryptic whether or not any of these community questions have actually changed their minds concerning design decisions. The response is fairly frank, with lead designer Randy "Arkayne" Mosiondz saying that fan response has definitely shifted the way that the team was implementing certain things. He goes on to point out that there haven't been any complete re-designs of systems, though. It's not surprising that Cryptic's listening to their community, as they've always been a rather smart developer in that way.

The folks at Kotaku were tipped by a reader to the possibility of a new twist in the MMO console wars. The popular job board/want ads service Craigslist is currently playing host to a job posting from Cryptic Studios. Developer of Star Trek Online and Champions Online, the company already has deep roots in development for the Xbox 360. They've shown their second superhero game playing quite well on Microsoft's console at events all through the summer con season. Now it seems as though they're looking to bring those games to the PlayStation 3 as well.

The Craigslist listing specifically calls for a "PS3 Engine Programmer", and the job description includes daily duties touching on the company's massively multiplayer games. "We have developed a flexible, cutting edge MMO platform to power games like Champions and Star Trek Online. It runs on PC and XBOX 360 - now we want to support PS3 too." Kotaku labels this as a rumor, and rightly so; no confirmation or announcement from Cryptic means that this may be nothing more than fact-finding.

Even though former Blizzard veteran and Flagship CEO Bill Roper just recently joined Cryptic Studios as a design director, it hasn't taken them long to sit him down and put together a brand new "Meet The Team" segment for his position with the Champions Online team. If you haven't read many (or any) of these often interesting interviews just yet, we highly recommend giving this one a chance. Not only does Bill speak about his time with Blizzard, but also the essential lessons he's taken from being the CEO of Flagship and how he plans on applying them to his work at Cryptic.

Attentive readers will notice that the interview also hints at the progress of Champions Online. With Bill discussing his interest in implementing the crafting system, which isn't in the game yet, but also mentioning that the title is pretty far along. Most MMOs in development experience a delay or two, but by the sounds of it we may actually get to play this one on time.

With the future of Hellgate: London on thin ice, it should be no surprise that Flagship Studios co-founder and CEO, Bill Roper, has sought greener pastures. As was just announced, Roper has joined Cryptic Studios as their new Design Director for Champions Online. Cryptic's CEO John Needham is optimistic about the acquisition: "Bill brings a ton of creative energy to the Cryptic office and we're thrilled to have him join our team. His years of gaming and online experience are huge assets to all of our projects, and Bill will assist us in furthering our studio's vision to create innovative, exciting MMO gameplay. "

These years of gaming and online experience Needham mentions include a long list of impressive titles. Not only did Roper work as a producer and developer on many classics like the Warcraft trilogy, StarCraft and Diablo, but he also dabbled in some voiceover work for many of these games as well. Roper is now a key asset for Champions Online, and we look forward to more news on his work with the game.

City of Heroes kicked off the MMO superhero genre back in 2004. For several years it's led the field, due to being the only superhero MMO out there, but now direct competition is appearing. Cryptic Studios, the original developers of CoX, recently sent their own title Champions Online into Closed Beta. Sony's DC Universe Online, which at one point had gone so quiet that people wondered if it was still being made, has recently produced gameplay footage, stacks of art and a detailed analysis of how the game will work.

So what's with all the cape games? Although the superhero genre has been a steady burner outside of the MMO context, it's not the most obvious kind of world to set an MMO in, and designers trying to adapt comic-book themes and events to MMO gameplay face some pretty stiff challenges. We're going to walk through all three games, explain the differences, and try to answer that question.

Cryptic Studios has just announced that players can now sign up for a chance to participate in the first Closed Beta of their forthcoming superhero MMO, Champions Online, with the Beta beginning in mid-November 2008. Applications can be made at the official website. The Beta is for PC only.

Jack Emmert, chief creative officer of Cryptic Studios, announced 'This closed beta is an exciting step in the evolution of Champions Online... All of us here in the Cryptic offices have been playing the game for a while now, and we're excited to invite others in to have as much fun with Champions Online as we've been having internally.'

As we've covered in considerable depth here at Massively, Champions Online features highly customizable character costumes as well as the option to create a super-powered nemesis for your character, action-based gameplay, and a large-scale comic-book universe to explore. The game is scheduled to be released in the Spring of 2009.