Meh. I'm one of those one million accounts, but I don't sub to either game. No doubt, there are lots more like me. Without some kind of active sub data, this is pretty meaningless.

Honestly, given how much hype surrounded CO prior to launch and then how much more hype surrounded STO -- not to mention the fact that the Cryptic site has been up for a good two to three years now -- it's really not very impressive at all.

They're basically saying that over the course of a couple years and the release of two games they've managed to pique the interest of only about 5%-8% of the total MMO player base.

WAR hit a million beta tester applications and did so in a shorter period of time, all before the game had barely even started inviting testers.

Sorry, Cryptic but let's be fair. Even if I was in love with your games I still wouldn't be very impressed by this announcement. What's more, the fact that you tried to spin it in your initial announcement as specifically being all this huge enthusiasm for STO just shows me how deceptive your practices are. The fact that you've since printed a clarification merely reminds me of Bill Clinton saying that "it depends on what your definition of 'is' is."

@aurickle

I dunno - I wouldn't mind having that many customers ;).

Verit
They're not customers. They're people who merely signed up on their site. That's all.

Yeah, and sadly I know three of those accounts are mine...
(forgot the password of the first two accounts, then made a 3rd one to register a beta key.)

One of those accounts is mine too, because I signed up for Champions Online closed beta (I didn't get in) and then briefly played it in open beta. The only time I've ever given Cryptic any money was years ago via NCSoft, back when Cryptic were still involved with City of Heroes - which I still play (and I am really glad that Cryptic are no longer involved!).

Poor Cryptic - they can't even get it right when they're fluffing up statistics - at least when Blizzard quote a potentially spurious number they just stay quiet afterwards and don't try to explain it. Sure, I personally prefer transparency, but being misleading about a number and then undermining your "exaggeration" like Cryptic have is just daft.

@Havok

Was it really necessary to lash out at Venix like that?

@Havok

I was pointing out the typo so the writer would correct the mistake. I don't really understand the hostility for it.

Havok clearly has issues and is trying to compensate for them by bullying people on the internet. So sad.

@ HooliganBFLO

Did you miss this?

http://www.massively.com/2010/02/04/anti-aliased-a-cryptic-opinion/

I absolutely read that post, which is why I referenced the fact that I'm not someone who believes they are compensated for providing extremely positive coverage for Cryptic while posting every minuscule detail of the company (unwrapping the STO box, etc).

Even that post is more about the defense of Cryptic than about the actual problems huge segments of the Champions Online community have with that game, or the poor suckers who doubled-down and bought another Lifetime Sub for a second game that is light on content while being heavy on bugs and microtransactions.

This post, which clearly shows the company backpedaling after making an incredulous claim that made most peoples "bullshit-o-meter" redline, doesn't address the fact that Cryptic knowingly said something dubious. It doesn't at all call them to task for blatantly fudging numbers.

Again, I don't think Massively should be held to some incredibly lofty journalistic standard or go bat-shit crazy when something minuscule happens, but I would like to see posts without the heavy dose of positive spin for this particular studio than what is generated on a daily basis by Massively.

Speaking as a former contributor to the sister site Joystiq, these spins are difficult to avoid. Blogging is a ruthless business, especially when it comes to news. When info comes down the pipes, you just don't have much time to verify. Wait too long, even so much as an hour, it becomes old news. This pressure to keep up with the competiton let's stuff like yesterday's Cryptic announcement through. The risk of not posting accurate news is greater than posting innacurate news and clarifying later.

I personally couldn't handle the news blog culture. I'm an analytic person that likes to put time researching a subject in depth. I'm not suited for snap judgements.

Basically, lay off. Positive news isn't about some bias, it's what's available. Massively does a good job. They disseminate the news quickly and have a good editorial team who can create a more in depth analysis on that news later down the line.