Perfect World buys Cryptic

According to VentureBeat, Chinese game publisher Perfect World - maker of such games as Perfect World International and {Forsaken World} and publisher of Runic Games' {Torchlight} - has bought Cryptic Studios from Atari. The report says that the price tag ended up at €35 million, or $49.8 million.

Exactly what this will mean for Cryptic's current games is still unknown, and the same goes for the Dungeons & Dragons-game based on popular D&D franchise Forgotten Realms and the secret project Cryptic is supposed to be working on. Perfect World does publish many free to play MMOs, and while {Champions Online} has already adopted that particular business model, it remains to be seen what happens to {Star Trek Online} under the new management.

Cryptic Studios reported a loss of €5.3 million for the last financial year, which lead to previous owner Atari calling the company a "discontinued operation."