Blizzard veteran Bill Roper joins Cryptic Studios

by Ross Miller { Nov 3rd 2008 at 8:30AM }

Former Blizzard director Bill Roper, whose most recent stint was co-founder and CEO of the now-defunct Flagship Studios (Hellgate: London), has joined Cryptic Studios. According to the press release, Roper will serve as Design Director for the upcoming superhero-infused MMO, Champions Online.

In an interview with GameDaily, Roper said his first order of business is to dig "deeply" into Champions Online. "There's a lot of fantastic stuff here, and we'll focus on figuring out what's working, what needs some polish and rethinking other things." CO is currently in production for PC and Xbox 360 with a tentative Spring 2009 launch, although given the timing of Roper's hire and from what he said in the interview, we wonder if that'll be pushed back.

An application for the CO beta is currently available. Cryptic Studios is also currently working on Star Trek Online, due out sometime late next year.

[Via Big Download]

Tags: bill-roper, blizzard, breakingnews, champions-online, cryptic, cryptic-studios, hellgate-london

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

FSK405K @ Nov 3rd 2008 9:03AM

I've never seen someone's career arc as strongly as his. After smashing successes Warcraft 1 & 2, Diablo, Starcraft, Diablo 2, and Warcraft 3, he then produced Hellgate: London, and will now will man the helm as another drivel Star Trek game is released. Only Newt Gingrich can rise and fall so far so fast.

t_m @ Nov 3rd 2008 9:15AM

or Sarah Palin...

Huey2k2 @ Nov 3rd 2008 9:45AM

I love it how you assume STO will be bad when none of us have even had a chance to play it yet.

For all you know it could actually be really good.

dark_inchworm @ Nov 3rd 2008 9:59AM

Bill Roper was a genius with Blizzard. I guess he's simply lost his way outside of that company.

gb @ Nov 3rd 2008 11:49AM

or maybe the company was the real genius and bill was only a cog. Who knows.

Best of luck to him

Blazur @ Nov 3rd 2008 1:16PM

Cryptic Studios just got flagshipped!

TrojanGuy @ Nov 3rd 2008 5:24PM

I was already looking forward to Champions Online (City of Heroes was lots of fun, and this looks even better), and now I'm even more excited for it. Sure, Hellgate wasn't that great but I think that Cryptic has some really great people and a great concept. Now if only I can get into that beta...