Champions Online - Development

Development

The game's announcement followed the cancellation of Cryptic's Marvel Universe Online as well as the sale of their Intellectual Properties City of Heroes and City of Villains to developer and publisher NCsoft in November 2007. On February 28, 2008, Cryptic announced they had purchased the entire Champions intellectual property, licensing the rights to publish the 6th edition back to former owner Hero Games. The 6th edition books will synergistically allow players to adapt their Champions Online characters to the pen-and-paper roleplaying game.

On July 10, 2008, 2K Games announced they would be publishing the game. Registration for the closed beta testing period was announced on October 10, 2008. However, on December 17, 2008, 2K Games officially dropped the publishing of the game due to the take over of Cryptic by Atari. Atari then developed and published the game along with the ongoing development of the Star Trek Online MMO.

Release was originally set for July 14, but on May 16, 2009, Cryptic announced that Champions Online would be delayed and the game was officially released September 1. Executive producer and design director Bill Roper cited that the team needed more time to implement important features that the beta test group felt were necessary at launch.

As announced by Cryptic in July, 2009, the game includes Micro-Transaction purchases. Most items available for purchase are vanity items that do not affect gameplay, such as costume pieces and ingame action figures. Any items that do affect gameplay are also accessible through gameplay only. All items purchased are available to all characters on the account.

On July 20, 2009, a post on the official Champions Online Discussion Forum from a Cryptic online community representative addressed the lack of any announcements regarding plans to release Champions Online on Xbox 360. It stated that "it has always been, and still remains our intent to release on consoles, and as soon as we're able to share more information about it, we will", and alluded to unfinalized business deals with other, unspecified companies which prohibited the disclosure of more specific details. The community rep's post also noted that the Xbox 360 FAQ had been removed from the Champions Online website. In a podcast interview for the gaming website vg247.com dated August 28, 2009, Jack Emmert elaborated on the issue, stating that the Xbox 360 version is "ready to go" but is facing an indefinite delay while awaiting Microsoft's approval, which is not readily forthcoming due to Microsoft's indecision on how to implement MMO's across Xbox Live.

On August 17, 2009, Cryptic opened up their Beta servers for access through August 25 to allow the community to test and trial the system as well as submit bug reports, and the game officially launched September 1, 2009. Those who pre-ordered the game gained instant access to the Open Beta on August 17, and some of those who pre-ordered (depending on their retailer) also gained access to an "Early Start" on the live servers beginning on August 28.

On September 1, 2009, Champions Online became available for purchase instores as well as shipped out from online stores. Pre-Order players were given until September 4 to enter their new product key to continue playing. The purchase included one free month of play and a special item specific to the retailer.

The game was originally available to paid subscribers only, but moved to the Free-to-play model on January 25, 2011.