jfg17 Posted June 6, 2020 Report Share Posted June 6, 2020 Is Champions Online essentially dead? I saw this piece in my Google search results: https://www.arcgames.com/en/games/champions-online/news/detail/9131593-champions-online-returning-to-cryptic-studios-in-los-gatos%2C-california I wonder if the original licensing deal called for Cryptic paying DOJ any ongoing royalties on CO revenue after the initial sale. Of which there is likely none. Too bad. I‘d imagine that with Cryptic’s approval DOJ could allow a third party to build, or could build, an online service like D&D Beyond. (If there were ever consumer demand.) Online and TTRPGs seem to be blending in ways that might not have been anticipated when Cryptic and DOJ struck the original deal. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lord Liaden Posted June 6, 2020 Report Share Posted June 6, 2020 AFAICT Champions Online is not dead. It still has regular players, although certainly not as numerous as during the game's height. New content has slowed to a trickle, but it has come out intermittently. Everything I've read from the developers over the past few years has repeated the same thing: CO has been paying for itself, unlike many higher-profile games, and none of its owners are in any hurry to eliminate it. Of course that's partly because not a lot of resources have been devoted to it for several years. DOJ have been reticent about divulging the exact terms of their deal with Cryptic, for understandable reasons, except for one thing: their license from Cryptic to use the Champions and Dark Champions IP is perpetual, and if Cryptic collapses, all rights to the IP revert back to DOJ. So there's no risk Hero Games will lose it. EDIT: If you want you can check out the game's fan forums, which still see a decent amount of traffic: https://www.arcgames.com/en/forums/championsonline/#/categories . Granted, like everything else online, a not-insignificant amount of that is complaints. jfg17 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tech Posted June 6, 2020 Report Share Posted June 6, 2020 3 hours ago, jfg17 said: Is Champions Online essentially dead? I saw this piece in my Google search results: https://www.arcgames.com/en/games/champions-online/news/detail/9131593-champions-online-returning-to-cryptic-studios-in-los-gatos%2C-california I wonder if the original licensing deal called for Cryptic paying DOJ any ongoing royalties on CO revenue after the initial sale. Of which there is likely none. Too bad. I‘d imagine that with Cryptic’s approval DOJ could allow a third party to build, or could build, an online service like D&D Beyond. (If there were ever consumer demand.) Online and TTRPGs seem to be blending in ways that might not have been anticipated when Cryptic and DOJ struck the original deal. That Google search results is 5 years old. I play CO fairly common. An occasional player says CO is dead (strangely while being in CO) and that has happened for years now. No, it's not dead. The responses to anyone making that statement about it being dead are numerous but my favorite is essentially "if you don't like the game, go play something else". Thank you LL for the other info. jfg17 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pawsplay Posted June 15, 2020 Report Share Posted June 15, 2020 It's been months since I've logged in but I still play some. More DDO lately. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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