Making another stride towards financial security (or bankruptcy), Atari has officially acquired Cryptic Studios, developers of the upcoming MMORPGs Champions Online and Star Trek Online, for 26.7 million dollars cash, and 27.5 million future stock.

"The acquisition of Cryptic Studios brings to Infogrames an outstanding creative organisation, with a proven track-record of success in the fast-growing MMO category," said David Gardner, CEO of Infogrames/Atari in a statement.

Cryptic, previously owned by NCSoft, has several titles out in the next year or two, and has been a company focusing on online titles for the past several years. This is in line with Atari's previous statements, detailing their plan to focus on multiplayer titles.

At first, most doubted ex-Sony head Phil Harrison's choice to head to what was referred to a "sinking ship" at Atari, but the company's movements have been in the right direction since the shift. It might not be long before we're eating our words and buying Atari games. Or he'll eat his words, or something. We'll see.

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