Infogrames Entertainment, the parent company of Atari, has entered into a definitive agreement to fully acquire Cryptic Studios Inc., the creators of ‘City of Heroes’ and ‘City of Villians’.

As part of the sale, Atari will gain control all of Cryptic's proprietary IP, tools, technology and work-in-progress as well as the studios’ current staff of around150.

The purchase price has been reported $28 million with up to an additional $20 million in sales-based incentives.

Market experts believe that this acquisition is a critical step in the implementation of Atari's strategy to become a leading online game developer and publisher.

Established in 2000 and headquartered in Los Gatos, California, Cryptic is one of the world's leading developers, publishers and operators of Massively Multiplayer Online (MMO) games.

In addition to ongoing released projects Cryptic is presently working on development of ‘Champions Online’ for a 2009 release and ‘Star Trek Online’ for 2010. The company's revenues for the fiscal year ending June 30, 2008 amounted to USD 17 million.