MMO game developer Cryptic Studios released Champions Online in September 2009 and followed it up quickly with Star Trek Online in February of this year. However it's been known for some time that the developer has a third unnamed MMO project in the works. Rumors have been posted up that state the game could be Dungeons and Dragons related but so far there's been no official word on what the game will be like.
However it looks like we will have only a few months longer to wait. In a new chat with MMORPG.com, Cryptic's Bill Roper states(Champions Online Gold), "We won't be making an announcement until late summer, and we're still a ways off from launch." While he dodged a question about if the game would be D&D related Roper did say, " . . . this is a game and a franchise we're very excited about."
According to the latest update on the Hero Games web site, "Atari, current owners of Cryptic, has changed the MMO's marketing priorities and isn't willing to provide us with the funding needed to do the book in the full-color fashion it requires." Hero Games doesn't feel the book should be a black-and-white book production so they have removed The Champions Online Roleplaying Game from their schedule. They didn't say the book was canceled, however. so perhaps they will put it back on schedule at some point in the future. In the meantime, the just revised sixth edition of the regular Champions RPG is scheduled for release in February. Champions Gold will contain a free code that will allow the book's buyer some free Champions Online play time along with a new in-game action figure.
