Bill Roper exits Cryptic

Less than two years have gone by since Bill Roper joined Champions Online creator Cryptic Studios, but the notable Blizzard North cofounder is already parting ways with the company. In a post on the Atari-owned studio's official Web site today, Roper confirmed that he would be stepping down as chief creative officer at the massively multiplayer online role-playing game house.

"For the past two years I've had the extreme privilege of working with an amazing array of talented developers and just plain great people here at Cryptic Studios," he said. "Over the past few months my entrepreneurial spirit has become restless, and I've made the difficult decision to move on and look for new opportunities."

Roper joined Cryptic in November 2008, following the messy dissolution of his startup development outfit Flagship Studios. Flagship's first and only project, the ambitious first-person shooter/role-playing MMOG Hellgate: London, launched with a critically positive reception in 2007. However, due to myriad problems and flagging player support, the studio largely shut down in July 2008.

As for his time at Cryptic, Roper oversaw the releases of Champions Online and Star Trek Online, which launched in quick succession in September 2009 and February 2010, respectively. Though Champions Online received favorable review scores, Star Trek Online was greeted quite coolly by critics. In May, Roper said that Cryptic plans to unveil its next project this summer.