Perfect World Buys Cryptic Studios

Things have been crazy here and this almost slipped completely past us. It seems that Cryptic, who we reported was on the chopping block, is being picked up by Perfect World which is cryptic fantastic news since it seems that Cryptic and their properties will be in great hands.

The purchase is supposed be worth over $50 million for Atari who will hand over 100%.

"We are very pleased to sign the agreement to acquire Cryptic Studios. This strategic acquisition will add attractive game titles to our portfolio, which will help us further penetrate into the U.S. and global online game markets. More importantly, Cryptic Studios’ highly reputable development team and its technology platform will further strengthen our well-established R&D capabilities. We deem this as another noteworthy achievement of our global expansion efforts," said Michael Chi of Perfect World.

Since Perfect World makes great games and understands the MMO industry, I think this is by far the best possible place that Cryptic Studios could have landed aside from perhaps managing an employee buyout.

Perfect World already has the following MMOs:

Perfect World
Forsaken World
Battle of the Immortals
Jade Dynasty
Rusty Hearts
Ether Saga Odyssey
Raiders
Torchlight
Legends of Martial Arts
Heroes of the Three Kingdoms

Now they have just recently announced Blacklight Retribution, the sequel to Tango Down. Blacklight Retribution will set the new standard for free-to-play shooters, by fully leveraging Unreal 3 technology and implementing DirectX 11 to give gamers cutting-edge graphics that will blow away expectations as well as minds.

"Blacklight Retribution will be the first FPS in Perfect World Entertainment’s diverse portfolio of online games and highlights our commitment to providing players with new and unique online gaming experiences," said Alan Chen, CEO of Perfect World Entertainment Inc. "With Zombie Studio’s vast experience in developing high-quality first person shooters, we look forward to working closely with them to bring this free-to-play online experience to PC gamers everywhere."

If you take Cryptic’s artistic vision and apply it to Zombie Studio’s FPS experience that could make for a great looking and playing MMOFPS.

Of course, Cryptic is working on Neverwinter as well which is eagerly awaited by the GDN offices. We’ll try to catch up with Cryptic and Perfect World when at E3 next week.