Bill Roper Departs Cryptic Studios

Former Flagship CEO and Blizzard Executive Bill Roper has left Cryptic Studios, where he served as design director and executive producer on Champions Online before accepting the position of chief creative officer back in March.

While Roper has not announced specific plans for the future, he did write that "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."

A little over two years ago, Roper's Flagship Studios closed following a poor launch of the studio's first game, Hellgate: London. A second game, Mythos, was not released, but members of that team went on to form Runic Games and release Torchlight.

Back in July, the executive producer of Star Trek Online resigned. Cryptic Studios currently maintains its two MMORPG titles, Champions Online and Star Trek Online. No new projects have been announced and the City of Heroes intellectual property now lies with NCSoft, the game's original publisher.