Bill Roper on Champions Online's launch, current state and future
by Kyle Horner 
Nov 20th 2009 at 6:00PM
Filed under: Interviews, New titles, News items, Champions Online
Of particular note, there's a mention of how Champions Online will handle DC Universe Online's 2010 launch given that the superhero MMO market hasn't really expanded of late. Curiously, Roper says he feels that the Xbox 360 version will help to vastly expand Champions' user base. There's a chance Cryptic could be pushing to get into the console market by or before SOE releases their superhero MMO. Although given the headaches Cryptic has expressed at getting an MMO on Microsoft's console, we get the feeling much of the developer's focus is presently on Star Trek Online and continued live game support.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
-Drexel- said on 9:42AM 11-21-2009
Well he says all the right things but I am still so very skeptical of any decent MMO ever hitting the console. Every MMO that has claimed to be going to the console has ran into the same snags of Microsoft and Sony just not getting the patching and updating process. I personally think they intentionally discourage console MMOs because they don't have a way to monetize it beyond a small cut of sub fees. Not to mention they HATE MMO players because we buy one title and settle into it for a while whereas they would rather we buy the latest flavor of the week for $60 a pop 4 times a month.
I alos don't like how he glossed over the Blood Moon/free Weekend total disaster....anyone who tried to participate in that knows why "it went well" couldn't be further from the truth.
All in all I don't want to hate on the guy or cryptic...they are making games that interest me and i wish them the best...especially with STO :)
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Sean said on 11:28PM 11-21-2009
Great interview and great answers from Bill Roper.
I have to wonder though where all the trolls have wandered off to. Any article on Roper or Champions generally is usually fresh meat for the internet-monkeys of a vitriol-slinging bent.
If anyone was interested in this interview, I would highly suggest reading Jeff Green's interview with Roper after Flagship Studios closed. One of the best pieces of gaming journalism I have ever read. It should still be hosted on 1up.com.
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T said on 10:14AM 11-23-2009
This particular "troll" has moved on. I tried Champions Online, found it lacking, and found Cryptic's behavior even more lacking. Not much left to say since I'm not playing a Cryptic game at all. They continue to underwhelm.
I'm looking forward to Star Trek Online, but that is a ways off yet.
Lee Weaver said on 7:02PM 11-24-2009
I bought champions online, and am sorry i wasted my money. With the great things I had heard about city of heroes, I expected an outstanding game. What I received was substantially less. Champions online is clunky, and the quests are poorly written and the game play experience is horrible. With everything being instanced, it’s just poorly conceived. Now keep the extremely flexible character creation that it has and make it play like WOW and they would have a stellar game. As it stands now I have uninstalled it, and terminated my account.
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