Star Trek Online: Subscription Fees (& Discounts) Announced + Klingon Video & Intel Report

Star Trek Online has taken another big step today with the announcement of the subscription rates for the MMORPG, including some special discount packages. We also have a new Klingon video and intel reports on the Empire, along with new screenshots. Check it all out below.

 

Subscriptions Plans & Discounts announced
Today Cryptic finally announced the fees for the monthly subscription to Star Trek Online, and as expected they are exactly the same as Cryptic’s other game, Champions Online.

NOTE: Purchase of the game game comes with a free 30 days, so these prices are for your second month and beyond.

Regular Subscriptions

  USD CAD GBP EUR DKK
1-Month Recurring 14.99 16.49 8.99 12.99 82.45
3-Month Recurring 41.97 46.17 25.17 35.97 230.84
6-Month Recurring 77.94 85.73 46.14 65.94 428.67

You can pay with a credit card or Paypal, or pick up a game card.

They are also offering two promotional specials:

12-month subscription: $119.99 (USD), which includes

  • 2 additional character slots

Lifetime: $239.99 (USD), which includes:

  • 2 additional character slots
  • a playable Borg

To get either of the specials you have to pre-order the game (which also gets your right into the open beta). You can pre-order the game from TrekMovie’s preferred retail partner Amazon (where you can select either the Standard or Collector’s Edition). The Amazon editions also include am exclusive Borg bridge officer. Cryptic also has a list of additional retailers at their site.

 

Klingon Faction video

 

Star Trek Online Intel Report: Klingon Empire
TrekMovie has been provided with intelligence reports (via Cryptic) on the United Federation of Planets, one of the two factions in Star Trek Online. One of the reports is from Starfleet Intelligence, and the other from the Klingon Empire


Klingon Empire – by Cmdr. Bradden, Starfleet Intelligence

Physically, Klingons are quite imposing. They possess a ridged exoskeleton encasing their craniums, giving them the distinctive Klingon forehead. They also are in possession of systemic redundancy, referred to as “brak’lul.” Notably, Klingons possess duplicates of all major organs. No doubt this was evolutionarily advantageous considering their seemingly genetic predisposition toward violence.

The Klingons are a warrior race. Proud of their battle prowess, their willingness to fight, and their code of honor, they can frequently be found in conflict with members of other races. This occurs both on an individual and governmental level..

In the past the Federation has had a complicated relationship with the Klingon Empire. Initial contacts were primarily negative, ultimately culminating in the Federation-Klingon War of 2267. Over time, the Federation and the Klingon Empire were able to come to a truce in 2293 with the signing of the Khitomer Accords. During the Dominion War of the 2370s, the two became active allies.

Unfortunately, in 2399 the Klingons withdrew from the Khitomer Accords, possibly because of the negative response of the Federation to a Klingon invasion of the Gorn Hegemony. In spite of Federation censure, the Klingon Empire continued in their attacks against the Gorn, ultimately annexing the Gorn Hegemony in 2403. Since then, the Klingon Empire has also allied with the Nausicaans. This is in addition to their alliance with the Orions, dating back to 2394.

The Klingons and the Romulans, both with expansionist military empires, have a very intense history of conflict with each other. In the aftermath of the Hobus supernova, which significantly damaged the Romulan Empire, the Klingons have opportunistically begun making forays into Romulan territory. Ironically, the two species share considerable genetic similarities.

We are receiving intelligence that indicates further military preparations on the part of the Klingon Empire and their allies. The likelihood that the Federation will be able to avoid another war with the Klingons is becoming a dim hope.

 

Klingon Empire – report by Cmdr. Korak, Klingon Intelligence

The Klingon Empire is perhaps one of the greatest empires ever to have existed, and I say this with all due modesty. Our warriors are fierce beyond measure, our musician and poets beyond compare. We are the stuff of legends, even if many of them are our own!

We have seen harsh times, though. Never doubt that the Klingon spirit has been tempered in the flames of adversity. We have fought against impossible odds time and again, and won through. We took tremendous losses in the Dominion War of the 2370s. But we survived and triumphed and drank blood wine in the wreckage of the Dominion headquarters. And though they will not admit it now, the Federation and the Romulans could not have survived without us. Bah! Cowards, both!

The Orions, ah, the Orions make properly grateful allies. We gave them a planet and our protection, and they gave us beautiful women to serve our great houses. The Gorn, as well, make decent allies, once we defeated them and took over their Hegemony. They swore allegiance to us, so we allowed them their own government. Never say the Klingon Empire is not generous.

The Nausicaans ally with us as well. They sense the coming the battle. They know that the Klingon Empire cannot fail.

Chancellor J’mpok leads us into a new golden age for the Klingon Empire. While the Federation rambles ever on about peace and equality and diplomacy, and the Romulans plot and murder each other, and the Cardassians desperately try to salvage what little is left of their civilization, we shall take over the Quadrant.

.

 

More Open Beta Keys
Open Beta for Star Trek Online started yesterday. As we previously reported, you can get an open beta key by pre-ordering the game. You can pre-order the game from TrekMovie’s preferred retail partner Amazon (where you can select either the Standard or Collector’s Edition). The Amazon editions also include am exclusive Borg bridge officer. Cryptic also has a list of additional retailers at their site.

Cryptic also have updated their list of available sites for beta keys, here they are:

 

More Star Trek Online Coming Later this week
Tomorrow we will have our intel reports, this time on the Klingons. Plus we have exclusive video interviews and more.

 

 

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I will pay for anything.

That lifetime deal is a steal

But what does “Lifetime” mean? Madden ’09 lifetime, or WoW lifetime?

The Matrix Online lasted 5 years with official support… it’ll be interesting to see the subscription #’s.

#3 “But what does “Lifetime” mean? Madden ‘09 lifetime, or WoW lifetime?”

Tabula Rasa lasted 15 months :)

Well crap, guess I wont get to play this game. :-( THis pisses me off. The first Star Trek game that looks awesome since Elite Force and it has a sub fee on top of the cost of the game? What crap is that? $15 is a hell of a lot to ask too. Look at xbox live. Thats $50 for a year. Who in their right mind pays a sub fee after the initial cost of the game? Makes no sense to me at all.
I have plenty of bills as it is and barely get by month to month. Clearly another bill for a video game would never make it on the list of monthly bills. This really hurts the sales of the game too, not many people let alone Trek fans will want to pay a monthly fee.
Im just really disappointed that I wont get to play this game.

@5 – its the same with all mmos, it pays for the ongoing support, game fixes and new content.

I certainly would play it, but not with a monthly fee.

I agree with 5. I cant afford 15$ a month. Was wishing that it’d be more like 15$/3 months, but i guess that was just wishful thinking. Guess i’ll have to be satisfied with open beta

for awhile there i paid 3 subscription fees for mmos, and two of them for WoW. If they could give us an “xbox live” fee for star trek online? i’d be HOOKED. i may or may not renew a subscription depending on how much they fix from now until 30 days after final release. thats MY deadline

i wish they announced that lifetime deal 6 months ago so i could save up for it. a playable borg would be badass, but i’m not going to want to level ANOTHER toon up for awhile. i mean leveling one up in beta, then one at initial release, and then another when i can afford 240 dollars + time constraints + RL commitments = bad juju. i’m not going to let this take over my life like WoW did….BUT i’m not going to pass STO up. i’ve been a trekker since the age of 4 and proud of it!

A tv show set in THIS era would be VERY interesting!

The more I see of this, the more I see “Star Wars” (and the newer trilogy at that) overlaying a Star Trek universe. I don’t buy the Klingons suddenly reverting to their 2-centuries-old behavior after the Dominion War, especially under Martok’s leadership. This all seems just a big twisting of the ST universe so they can set up a grand war scenario so players can do lots of shooting. And then ask for a subscription on top of the game cost? Pass.

#5, Where have you been?????

WOW has a monthly fee, City of Heroes has a monthly fee, Champions Online has a monthly fee. Sorry to tell you that lots and lots of people are paying monthly fees to play a game. So your logic is faulty, and $15 a month is more than reasonable.

@5

poor Craig,

you obviously havent seen how popular the open beta is, oh , and have you ever heard of a game called World of warcraft?
12 million subscriptions and still going strong after 5 years.

#5 Has to get with the massive multilayer program. If you didn’t expect a subscription fee that’s your own fault.

#12, While I agree that the plot is a bit tortured, it does work in game.

As for your mortification that you have to pay for the game and a monthly fee, it’s standard practice in the genre, and doesn’t deter a huge number of people from playing. And as far as I can remember most articles about STO have always indicated that their would be a monthly fee, so your rant really carries no weight.

Hey #12. If you took time to actually read the histories, Martok got ritually slain by J’mpok, who is now the aggressive one. The Federation only got involved because they don’t like the Klingons pouncing on what’s left of the Romulans and the Gorn. The Federation made itself involved. The Empire held no real hostility with the Federation.

I can’t play the game! WHHAAAAAAAAAAAAA :(
My computer won’t except anything related to the game for some reason and my internet isn’t fast enough.

Would love to get the lifetime subscription, but I am hoping they offer it longer than the pre-order period. I am not sure I can come up with that kind of money in less than a month.

I can’t afford it.

50 dollars for the game then 15 a month.

Nope, not for me.

I wish all of you who are going to buy the game a lot of luck., and fun.

I’ve already ore-ordered it before these things. How can I get my beta key???

Thank you for your time.

20- I CAN afford it, I just refuse to. It’s why I have never gotten into any MMORPG. Either the software or the subscription should be cheap or even free. I refuse to pay monthly to play a game in my mind I already purchased.

Server’s don’t grow on trees, and admins to configure the servers and keep them running don’t volunteer their time. Choices? Pay a fee or get spammed with advertising that subsidizes the cost.

I think I’ll pay the fee.

21.

Where did you pre-order from? You should have got an e-mail with a key.

FYI,

I’m currently playing the beta and I can all tell you that all notions of star wars disapear within minutres of starting and you do get a feel of star trek and that the developers are fans as well. IMHO

Even though this game is stunning, I just don’t see the logic of monthly fees. I cannot get past the idea of paying for the game once at $50 to $60 dollars, and then you have to pay each month for using the game you just bought.

I have always thought of MMOs as an old 1-800-000-0000 type of scam.

Why bother paying $50 to $60 for a game, which requires you to pay an additional $X amount of dollars each month to use? In order to play “Star Trek: Online”, you have to pay $49.99 to buy it and then $14.99 to play it per month.

$49.99 (plus tax)
$179.88 (per year @ $14.99)
—————————————
$229.87 (not including credit card fees and interest rates)

– or –

$49.99 (plus tax)
$119.99 (per year @ Pre-Order Special Price)
—————————————
$169.98 (not including credit card fees and interest rates)

Since I am a casual computer game player, I am not going to sign up for the lifetime or yearly subscription. No thanks.

Woo Hoo… I just received an open beta key… I may not come out of my room for the next week or two… Depending on how long I have…

The subscription is pretty high for an unproven MMO but as I typically hang with these things for six months to a year I may purchase one of the longer term subscriptions to take advantage of the savings… It all depends how much I like the open beta…

When I played LOTR Online the often offered promotional discounts that kept me playing much longer than I originally intended. I am hoping for the same here….

It’s a bit late in the game to be complaining about the cost of paying a monthly fee. Once it was announced that it was an MMO, people should have understood that more than likely there was going to be a monthly fee involved.

The only MMO that I have played that was without a monthly fee is Guild Wars. I don’t know how they keep the quality up with only selling the expansions, but that is a great game.

STO is interesting, I hope they do some minor fixes before launch, but I think I am going to stay with it :)

The game looks amazing, but the monthly fee is definitely not for me. I can see it for people that love one game enough to play it all the time (for example, the WoW fans), but I have a tendency to play a game for a few months then get sick of it.

The music from the first video sounded like Star Wars. The music from this one sounds like wha?? Not Star Trek!

For those who have not played MMOs before I understand how the monthly fee may not seem like something you are used to. However, there is a big difference between a regular computer/video game like Halo or Bridge Commander and a MMORPG like World of Warcraft or STO

Firstly the MMO is based on an online community of thousands of players playing simultaneously in a ‘persistent’ universe. That costs money.

Secondly the game is not one where you play for a 20-40 hours and finish. You dont ‘win’ an MMO, it is an ongoing adventure. There is new content being added all the time. That new content costs money to make.

It is like paying for cable TV, you pay a fee and you get regular programming every month.

According to Cryptic they have about 60 people working full time on STO, and that team stays in place after the launch and continues to develop the game. When a developer releases a game like Halo, the team move on to the next game,

The fee that Cryptic is charging is no suprirse, it is exactly the same fee as World of Warcraft and their other game Champions.

All that being said, the game is not for everyone to be sure. You should only commit to STO if you feel you will be spending time playing the game, at least a few hours a week.

We should be done some more articles between now and official launch that explain MMOs and STO in more depth for those who are unsure what this is all about

What’s funny is the lifetime subscription is the same cost as a new Neo-Geo game back in the day. In my warped sensibility that almost makes it justified. :P

I’ve downloaded the open beta and played it, and like almost everyone else I’ve run into issues but I think I’ve found a work around. In the game launcher window in the top left corner their is a ‘options’ link. This opens a new window with several check box style options for you to select. One of which is ‘Safe Mode’. Selecting this starts the game in a smaller window and lowers the graphics settings way down. After getting back into the game you are then able to make it full screen again and adjust your graphics settings.

I have discovered that sometimes when the game locks up if I restart using ‘Safe Mode’ I am able to proceed where normally I could not.

awfully tempted…

actually, when standard math is applied it is cheaper to get the 12-month subscription rather than paying 14.99/mo. now, granted therer will be some who won’t be able to sustain that long of a gaming period (i myself am unsure as to my ability to keep fast internet in the near future), but for everyone unhappy with subscription fees Anthony is totally right: it costs money to maintain the game (they could always go the route of releasing expansions every few months at high prices to make up for no subscription fees).

This is my first MMO.

The closest I ever came to playing one was while I watched my brother play the star wars one. While it looked neat it seemed to take too long to do anything fun for me.

I have about 8 hours of this game and am hooked for life.

As for all the nay-sayers about paying an online fee: Go work 2 extra hours a month and pay for the dang thing, you cheap lazy people!

$15 a month is not a bill.

Besides, it’s worth the $ for me and my brother to work together to kill the Orions and their dry doc’s. Who can put a price on that?

So much fun.

But….WoW DOES have expansions that you have to pay for AND subscription fees

#37

That’s a good point…. If they start rolling out expansion packs every few months I am dropping my subscription immediately. I expect a load of added content for the monthly fee…

Good thing I can’t play the game for a while and I’m glad I bought regular edition. All that extra money I was going to spend on Super Special Awesome edition is going toward my lifetime fund which by my math should pay itself off in 16 months if I did a month to month subscription.

Just to correct a few things, and things to note …

1. Pre-order is $59.99 via steam
2. Honest mmos give you the first month “free”, since you bought the game, this one does not.
3. This one is still in ALPHA testing. There are so many bugs with this game that have no business being in any beta at all.
4. They want it released in 2 weeks but cannot get basic functionality working.
5. Either management is holding a knife to the devs, or the devs are plain stupid. Either way, this is a complete embarrassment.

With the rate this game is going, it may be lucky to last as long as TR.

Lifetime isn’t worth it, it won’t be around long at all. Oh yeah, and Klingons are not available to play ATM.

As a game player, I suck. So I don’t have to worry about paying any fees. I would be a miserable and consistent failure at it.

I do look forward to hearing how much fun everyone is having, though.

#40

I just want to correct statement #2 in your post. STO, like all other MMOs that I know of, does offer the first month free. If you read all of their posts on the official site, they even mention that if someone is crazy enough to buy several compies from different retailers, in order to get the various extras, the free month for each copy will stack.

I canceled my pre-order and decided to use the money to import the Hokuto Musou Treasure box instead for PS3. There are so many good games coming out in March. Why invest in a MMO like Star Trek Online when it costs $59.99 right out of the gate without a month of gameplay? I had the Collectors Edition pre-ordered till I read about all the bugs, glitches and monthly fees. Hopefully this title will be a success but I would much rather have Secret of Vulcan Fury.

€59.99 to buy it on Steam, plus €12.99 a month?

Not happening. WoW is free except for subscription cost and optional expansion packs, how about going that route? There’s a reason it’s the most popular – because it doesn’t rip you off before you’ve even run a tutorial. For €59.99, I should have had at least 3 months gametime before subscription costs kicked in.

Count me out Cryptic. Me and many others.

I also really wanted to play Secret of Vulcan Fury but it’s not going to come out…EVER! Move along. I did.

Agree with #44. I think I will wait for it to come out for XBOX360. Supposedly it is coming out later this year. Maybe through XBOX LIVE it will be a little more reasonable.

Just wanted to chime in with a non-hyped view of the game. I’ve been a fan of the Star Trek universe since the ’70s (you can guess my age) and an avid LOTRO player. I pre-ordered the game from Gamestop and received the beta key on Tuesday. I have broadband, but it took _two days_ to download the game! Average bitrate was about 10-15kbits/sec, with two client crashes (one at night shortly after turning in). Now while I expect a slower-than-normal download the first day of beta, that was _terrible_ compared to LOTRO’s opening week! The reason that concerns me is it’s a preview of support to come. (LOTRO download rates are _always_ 10-20 times faster!) Okay, so… teething problems. Start up the client. After customizing my character (and there are a LOT of customizations… rather cool I thought), you’re dropped into a scenario where the feds are under attack by the Borg. Nice opening… but you’re hindered by a painfully slow update rate with the server. Lot’s of stutters, and the occassional “rubber band” effect. Okay, so… teething problems. (This is still in beta after all.) Your sent down to another deck by a rather tyrannical medical hologram (when did they ever take charge?) to combat some Borg intruders. You notice the interiors are _way_ too roomy for a starship, and poorly laid out. (I found myself wondering whether Abram’s use of the Budweiser plant for the Enterprise interior shots was more convincing!) Borg drop like flies — and obvious indication of fed’s tech improvements over the intervening century :p — and you’re never really in any danger, but I’m willing to cope with that for the tutorial. After getting the hang of the controls in firt person, you’re whisked off to take command of a starship (as an ensign — I guess feds were dropping like flies, too). Now there’s a nice, picturesque third-person view of your ship, the U.S.S. Fisher Price. Controls seem reasonable enough, and you kick it into full impulse to find some Borg probes to kill. THEN the deal breaker: I’m flying a starship in 3D space, but the flight dynamics are that of an F-15 (read: airplane). I steer right. It _banks_ right. I let go. It levels out. I pull up. It pulls up — to a maximum 70 degrees. Can’t go vertical, or straight down. Can’t continue a roll left or right. I suddenly realize I’m stuck in a “2D+” plane a la Kahn in Star Trek II! WTF?? I was looking forward to the flight dynamics of Klingon Academy, with three axes of control, ventral & dorsal shields, etc. etc. Instead of flying a starship, I’m steering a submarine. Now I’m sure the designers — nay, the executives of STO opted for this approach to simplify gameplay and increase accessibility (read: more $$$), but COME ON!! With that, the juvenile plot lines, big advertising budget and flirtation with paid download sites, I came to the conclusion that this would NEVER be a serious MMO meant to stay true to Roddenberry’s universe, but rather just a money-making venture meant to milk we poor saps with a wish to immerse ourselves in anything Star Trek. I went straight away to the Gamestop site and canceled my pre-order for the deluxe edition of STO. These guys need to take some lessons from the team that developed LOTRO and stay true to the universe they are creating in software. There are things in LOTRO which had me going back to Tolkien’s books to find out about. I seriously doubt STO will pay as close attention to Roddenberry’s work. WHAT A DISAPPOINTMENT!! :-/

But not this.

@40,

Axe grinding gets tiresome.

#2 – Your wrong about that as far as STO is concerened, first month is free. So either you were mis informed, or you intentionally mistated the facts.

#3 – Bugs, yes. Show stoppers no. This is no more buggy than City of Heroes was at this point and it was a pretty damn good game. This is a far cry from an Alpha version. It’s obvious you have never dealt with an alpha release

#5 – Tell us about your experiences developing a massive multi-player online game.

This game blows!!!