Champions Online expansion is now free

Kind of makes me wonder why they were going to charge for it in the first place? I still feel very wary of Cryptic.

Ya know Tanek, that must very true. Haha.

This is simple backpedaling in the face of negative public opinion. I saw nothing in that State of the Game that apologized for or explained anything, only the quick fix band aids they intend to implement and, as ever, the hollow claim to re-commit to customer service that comes with every one of these debacles.

Be Thankful that people didn't bow down to the fan boys here and other forums who said folks should shut up and take it coz Cryptic are Gods and can make money anyway they want etc or you would still be paying for this "expansion".Only customer pressure can counter Cryptic's shady practices.

God, Cryptic is such a bad company. Damage control at its finest here, folks. Here is what they really meant to say during the AskCryptic segment:

http://corpserun.wordpress.com/2010/02/09/ask-cryptic-excuse-me-while-sit-in-the-corner-and-laugh/

Let's hope they can learn that they'll earn more with these sorts of tactics, over the long run, than by nickel-and-dimeing people. When people pay $15 a month, they expect a complete game and patches that add new content every once in a while. I don't think people care if a game is 100% finished when it's done, so long as it's running smooth and the parts that aren't finished is the endgame -- I'll point to World of Warcraft on that front, because they've always put out good expansions... but left the last few raiding zones until after launch, sometimes not even released until a year or more after. You've just got to give people enough quality content to keep them happy, which Cryptic seems to have trouble doing. Charging for an expansion off an unfinished game is NOT going to keep your customer base happy -- and that $15/month earns far more over the long run than the box-price of some mini expansion to an unfinished game.

I'm hopeful Cryptic learns its lessons.... because it really does some things very well, but not so well that it makes up for its seedier practices and tendency to rush things, leaving much unfinished and unpolished in technical respects.

Good for them for taking a step in the right direction. It will be interesting to see if they actually start communicating more... They've said that so many times since launch, it's hard to take it seriously.

They only had two choices, really: stay the course and lose, or make an effort to be sensible and maybe save face.

One of the developers is active on PA (Akinos): http://forums.penny-arcade.com/showthread.php?t=104890&page=41

It's sad to see that fanboyish sentiment found its way onto the PA boards, but hey, nobody is perfect right?

This is a good sign for Cryptic's future potential. It's too bad Daeke had to take the proverbial bullet in the heart to get them to this point.

This is a good announcement from Cryptic, but I won't give them too much credit until I actually see them follow up on it. I don't even play Champions, but after seeing the way they handled the STO beta and launch everything about Cryptic has screamed 'cash grab, stay away!'.

Everyone cancel your WoW account and maybe we can get Cataclysm for free!

They made it free and yet some folks still can't be pleased. Go figure.

FFS - They saw the err of their ways, but it seems they're damned no matter what!

I'm just done reading the comments on cryptic articles. There is absolutely NO pleasing people here.