Kotaku
When I first started playing City of Heroes, NCsoft's MMO developed by Cryptic Studios, my very first thought was, "Wow, this is like an online version of the Champions RPG!" Well now Cryptic officially announces their next MMO, Champions Online - an online version of the Champions RPG! As with the pen and paper game, Champions Online is all about customization - players create their name, back story, costume, powers, and even design their own arch-enemy that follows you through your career, guaranteeing a unique experience for every player. I'd imagine they're going to try to 1-up the City of Heroes character creation, which means you can pretty much expect to spend a couple weeks in chargen. The game will tie directly into the sixth edition of Champions and the HERO System, which will feature rules regarding recreating your Champions Online characters for pen and paper scenarios. Neat! Hit up Champions-Online.com for more info on the game, which is currently slated for a Spring 2009 release. An exciting new superhero MMO or a rehash of City of Heroes? That's all up to Cryptic now.
Cryptic Studios Announces Champions OnlineLOS GATOS, CA - February 20, 2008 - Cryptic Studios™, one of the leading independent developers of Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Games (MMORPGs), announced today Champions Online™, their first ever self-developed and self-published MMORPG. Champions Online, based on the popular pen-and-paper Champions RPG, will give players the power of total customization of their hero experience while they explore a vast universe of richly detailed 3D environments. Champions Online is slated for release in Spring 2009.
Cryptic Studios also announced today that it has acquired the Champions intellectual property (IP) from Hero Games. First published in 1981, the Champions role-playing game is one of the first RPGs to forgo the traditional dice-rolling system of character generation in favor of a point-based system. Cryptic Studios has licensed back to Hero Games the right to produce Champions RPG books, and the sixth edition of HERO System and Champions, set to release in 2009, will include rules on how to recreate Champions Online characters and scenarios.
"We thought carefully about which IP to select for our next game," said Jack Emmert, chief creative officer of Cryptic Studios. "I've been playing the Champions RPG since it first came out and I love both the rich history and the wide array of compelling characters which made this an obvious choice for Cryptic Studios."
"I am very excited to be working on Champions," said Michael Lewis, president of Cryptic Studios. "We have a powerful development team, a better engine, more resources, and a vision for a new kind of MMO experience. Bringing the operating side of the business in-house enables us to be more efficent, get our developers even closer to the customer, and ultimately make a better game and long-term experience."
Champions Online is all about total customization - it will offer a near infinte amount of character customization so that all players will have a unique game experience. Gamers will be able to create their hero's name, back story, costume, powers and abilities as well as design their own personal arch-enemy and his or her back story, which will guarantee a truly unique experience.
"Champions Online brings a lot to the table. Gamers have literally billions of options to create their own fully customized hero," Emmert said. "Couple that with the unique character generation system and tons of beautiful, expansive environments in which to roam, and Champions Online is going to be unlike anything MMO fans have seen before."
For more information on Champions Online and Cryptic Studios, please check out the feature story in the March issue of Game Informer magazine on newsstands now, or visit http://www.crypticstudios.com/
Comments
Finally, an MMO I could give a shit about. Anyone remember the RPG Golden Heroes?
Tears of joy...been waiting 25 years for this. I haven't been to the Complete Strategist in a while. Kind of makes me want to visit for old times sake.
I am liking the artstyle here on the models and the textures in some of the SShots. Looks like it could be good.
...As a current HUUUUUUGE fan of City of Heroes fan, this news is the biggest thing since sliced bread since half the fun in CoH was character customization. Taking it to the next level can only mean good things.
seems really cool.
I'm confused...is this a sequel to City of Heroes/Villains?
What I mean is...will it act AS a defacto sequel to those games?
Yeah, I would happily settle for a "rehash of City of Heroes" coming to a console - that game belonged on something with a control pad from its initial inception. Here's hoping for a teeny-tiny subscription fee, knowing that free is a long-forgotten notion...
I'm officially excited. What made CoH so great was the fact that your character ALWAYS looked different from other people (unless you made Mr. Generic Character).
Customizable powers? Holy shit, I hope that is as good as it sounds (it would be amazing if we get to pick everthing related to the power all the way down the particle effect representing it).
@Doomstink: I can finally be the GUYVER.
I just noticed it has a cell-shaded look to it... nice.
Well, if they can make the gameplay more fun, because I got bored with CoH pretty fast and the controlers was killing me when trying to fly. I love heroes, they are good people :) So a game about them and me playing it is wonderfull, I want to see more for sure.
Anyone knows if Sony/SOE still makes a DC comic MMO? I know MS canselled their one :(
@Doomstink: Hopefully you do not customize everything. I can think of a few exploits already due to limited animations and invisible particle effects. Too much freedom will lead to the game being exploited very easily, so hopefully there are some general restrictions in place to keep everything fair.
If this delivers, it will be truly awesome. The Heroes system (Champions) is one of the best and most flexible out there. If they can translate that into an MMO faithfully it will be amazing and I will definately be playing.
Looks awesome......I am going to keep an eye on this one.
The slew of features this MMO claims to offer have lit up my rainy day!
@Spoony Bard: no, it will share some similarities with coh,but it will be like eq and daoc, similar theme but not related in any way. due to jacks involvement, but coh/v still continues with almost all of its original developers, plus several new ones, due to its change of ownsership.
I am so incredibly excited for this game. City of Heroes was a lot of fun, but lacked the depth to really keep me around. Every now and again though I think about going back.
Now I know I just have to wait for CO.
There was a really good article in GI on this.. Sounds pretty awesome and looks promising. I'm definitely keeping an eye on this one
As long as they keep that jackass Emert in the marketing department and far away from the 'game balance' department, this will be FAR better than City of Heroes. Hell, it'll probably be the game CoH SHOULD have been.
I have been engrossed in the forums there all day, and I have to say that I am very impressed in what has been revealed so far. If they can live up to all the promises they are making Cryptic will be able to surpass their previous brainchild.
@Hiero Glyph: Exploits like you are talking about only matter in a pvp environment, MOBs don't care if your particles are invisible.
I doubt they will be 100% customizable though, but even being able to choose from multiple pre defined animations and pick the color of your powers will be a HUG improvement over CoH.
Man, when this comes out CoH/V is going to go dead in the water isnt it..
Needs more Marvel license.
I'm happy we're getting a console MMO like this, but I'd love to hear what went wrong behind the scenes with Cryptic and Marvel.
@Mattjay: Everything I have seen basically makes it sound like Microsoft just couldn't find a way to make it the right level of profitable. The Champions deal came after MS pulled their publishing of Marvel and is actually being published by Cyrptic themselves.
@DarknessMyOldFriend: when did you leave? inventions added a good bit of depth to the game, and there have been a lot of good qol changes, so you may want to give it another look to hold you over till 09
The main site says that you design your own arch nemesis. That alone gives me a geekgasm.
@Guild_Navigator: ooohhh somebody tie my hands :P
@Mattjay: It wasn't Cryptic and Marvel... it was Cryptic and Microsoft:
[kotaku.com]
Microsoft said it wouldn't make them enough money.
Man, I used to love playing Champions with my friends ... this might actually get me to play an MMO again.
@Tenth: It is pretty funny, they consider that to be a risk but not Too Human and some other titles. Meh. I bet they had other reasons.
@ryanfrost: I disagree with inventions adding more depth, because mostly it's just more "different" enhancements. More enhancements doesn't really improve depth much. I played for about November-December of last year, and was engrossed for about a month of it, before falling back into the same old rut.
But about this game, it looks awesome, sounds awesome, but I'll have to wait and see if it tastes awesome, if you know what I mean. CoH also looked this promising before it came out. This time I'm adopting the "wait-and-see" method.
@Hiero Glyph: I completely agree that the amount of customized animation should be limited. I wasn't thinking of unfair, combat-related exploits though. I just don't want to log in to this game and see that half of the heroes have some kind of flying penis attack.
@Irenicus-the one and only: The main thing that you need to remember with the publishing costs of an MMO is the recurring costs associated with maintaining the game. Too Human is basically a fire and forget game for Microsoft, where MUO would have been a continued drain if it failed.
The website looks exactly like COH/COV.
Does that help answer the latter question?. Even the animation and the particle effect looks just like COV.
I haven't delved into it more then a month, but my roommate was an absolute fanatic :/.
@Randomcitizenx: Hmm, but they could have failed and close it down though, but maybe you are right. I still think it is lame to not take the risk with such a great license and basically no MMO competition on the 360. Age of conan is not gonna come out for the 360 until 2009. Seems 360 won't get any MMO's like the old xbox (except Phantasy star and FF.) I'm still pissed off and sad that I never got true Fantasy for the old xbox :(
Hmmm I hope this comes to consoles, but i know it wont. Console makers say they lose money from MMOs. Thats why the only console MMOs are FF11, PSU and that everquest game for the PS2.
@Irenicus-the one and only: If it failed there would still have been some people who had picked it up, and most companies will keep their servers running in case the game will pick up later. As far as Champions goes, it is actually a pretty good IP that has been in print for over 20 years. If you are interested in comics it would definitely be a good idea to check it out in 09 when it hits PC and 360.
Must have now!!!
This game sounds awesome and I really like the cell-shaded look of the artwork.
I really really want something different than the usual "fantasy" mmo stuff that has been coming out in waves lately. =(
Oh man, I LOVED the Champions / HERO rule set when I was younger.
My friends all preferred Fantasy stuff like D&D and RoleMaster, but I made many a Hero just because it was so much fun!
Keen to check this out, and hopefully by 2009 they would have gotten rid of all the bullshit in MMOs that just bores me to tears!
@Randomcitizenx: Oh I am :) I think is sounds great man.
Gameinformer has all the great exclusives :D. But this developer has some other really cool projects in the works, one is Aztecs/Lovecraftian and the other is fantasy
Can I hear a price tag of 'free' please? No? Then I guess I might actually pay for this one.
I am really really looking forward to this. If they can take a lot of what they did right in COH and change a few things, I'm in.
Here we have City of Heroes' younger, amibitious brother.
The next couple years are gonna be pretty damn interesting.
hmmmm, I'm intrigued. I liked CoH, it was just a tad too grindy and group-based for my liking. Definitely going to be watching this one.
This. is. AWESOME.
I totally agree with some earlier comments that CoH/V was fun, but could stand to be a little more in-depth.
Honestly though, the fact that you can create a hero and his arch nemesis? That alone is enough to make me want to see it in action for at least a month or so. Foregoing the fact that it appears to be a pretty gorgeous game, even if these are bullshots.
The real challenge will be if this game can branch out from the suuuuper repetitive structure of CoH/V.
argh, why only good characters to start with? villainy should be available as well!!! =\
Yeah I remember Hero's... I did art for them and they screwed me out of 2k. At the time they told me they were going out of business.... well, I guess this means they weren't going out of business. Hero Games = dogshit.
Man, there are a lot of MMO's. This one sounds fun too. Guess I'll have to look into it.
Hmm...if the us army decided to make a FPS as their video game, what branch would make an MMO? RTS? More?
Say what you will about the lack of content in city of heroes post-release, the execution of it as a pure comic-feel game was impressive (only rivaled in sheer "i'm a superman" feeling by the PS2 Hulk game).
I've never even heard of Champions before, but I am now eagerly awaiting it.
Looks alot lik