Star Trek: Online MMO's Cryptic Studios, Inc., has been bought out be the parent company of Atari.

As reported by Star Trek: Online and Wired, Infogrames, the parent company of Atari, has purchased Cryptic Studios, a leading developer of Massively Multiplayer Online (MMO) games. Cryptic Studios is the developer of Star Trek: Online, which is due to be released in 2010.

"The acquisition of Cryptic Studios brings to Infogrames an outstanding creative organization, with a proven track-record of success in the fast-growing MMO category," said David Gardner, Infogrames CEO. "Cryptic's success is founded on leading-edge technology and the vision of a seasoned executive management team. I am impressed with the tools and technology that Cryptic has developed to make MMOs less expensive to build. Creating vast worlds and interesting interactions can be very people intensive but with the use of Cryptic's toolset they have a proven way of cutting average production costs in half. This is exactly the type of company we wanted to acquire in order to build Atari for the 21st century."

"We share a common vision with Atari and their leadership team,” said John Needham, CEO of Cryptic Studios. "With our game development and online platform technology skills, we're very excited about the opportunities that this unique combination with Atari creates. I am committed to helping Atari grow into a leading online game company and look forward to being part of the team."

Meanwhile, as reported by Star Trek: Online, the background history of the Star Trek universe for the MMO game has been updated. The year is 2382 and according to the story, the situation with the Romulans is unstable and is a source of concern in both the Alpha and Beta quadrants. The Romulans are reluctantly forced to accept limited aid from the Federation due to the loss of some of their former agricultural planets. The Romulans also have political problems with internal political issues. And Klingons are waiting to take advantage of the Romulan woes.

In addition to the Romulan storyline, there are updates on the Federation, including the controversy over rights for artificial life, Bajoran-Cardassian war crime issues, and Vulcan-Romulan reunification. Familiar Star Trek characters mentioned are: Donatra, Tomalak, Spock, Owen Paris, the EMH and Ro Laren.

Someone has to create these stories for the game and Star Trek: Online has posted an interview with one of its writers, Christine Thompson. Thompson is writer and researcher, who makes sure that the story is as accurate as possible. "I was a writer and editor in the newspaper industry for about thirteen years before coming to Cryptic Studios," said Thompson. "There is so much about this game [Star Trek: Online ]that is awesome, but I'm really excited about our episodic mission structure. We're creating content that's not 'typical' MMO quests, we want to reflect what you've seen in the shows, with a variety of locations and actions in each one. I want people to be excited during episodes and eager to find out what happens next, not just wanting to finish quickly so they can get some XP and move on."

To read more about the sale, head to the articles located here and here. To read the new background story, go here. The interview with Thompson can be read here.

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