Tomorrow Cryptic Studios holds their "Star Trek Online Revealed" panel at the Las Vegas Star Trek Convention (with a little help from Leonard Nimoy), but some details of this new MMORPG have already emerged. Cryptic’s Chief Creative Officer gave a pre-show interview to the AP that provided some details, plus CBS showed a few new screenshots at their Products presentation on Friday.
After running a countdown clock in their website for over a month, Cryptic Studios has officially announced they are the new developer for the Star Trek Online MMORPG. As predicted by TrekMovie on Sunday, Cryptic re-launched the official website with a few details, screenshots and a new countdown timer to Star Trek’s big Vegas convention in two weeks.
Since January when TrekMovie first linked Cryptic Studios and the MMORPG Star Trek Online (formerly being developed by Perpetual), it has become one of the worst kept secrets in the gaming biz. In early June Cryptic put up an un-labeled (but clearly Star Trek Online related) countdown timer on their website, and it hits 0:00 at midnight tonight (Pacific).
Since January when TrekMovie.com first reported the demise of game developer Perpetual Entertainment, the future of the “Star Trek Online” MMORPG has been uncertain. Although TrekMovie has reported that sources indicate Cryptic Studios picked up the license, Cryptic continues to refuse to comment on any speculation, but today they dropped pretty big hint.
In January TrekMovie.com was the first to mention Cryptic Studios as the possible new home for the “Star Trek Online” MMORPG. Since then evidenced has mounted that Cryptic has the license, with the latest clue coming from sleuthing by board members of StarTrek-Games.com. Although Cryptic will still not officially acknowledge they are the new license holder, TrekMovie.com has independently confirmed with sources that they definitely are.
In January we reported that P2 Entertainment was looking to transfer the license for the MMORPG “Star Trek Online” after failing to secure new funding. Since then P2 shut down entirely (as their blank website indicates). In February both the official STO site as well as the largest fan site also shut down. However, in the last couple of days the official site has suddenly reappeared with the same old logo, but a new message “COMING SOON.”
For the last few months there have been mounting troubles at Perpetual Entertainment, the company making the “Star Trek Online” MMORPG, and now it appears that it has finally come to a head. TrekMovie.com has learned from a source that after failing to secure additional financing the company has stopped development on the game. However, all hope is not lost.
Last week Perpetual released their first in-game image from ‘Star Trek Online,’ which showed a space shot. Today WarCry have nabbed the first land-based avatar shot. WarCry also talk to Perpetual’s Daron Stinnett about recent reports and rumors…
There has been a lot of concept art from the folks at Perpetual, but in their latest DevLog they finally let loose with an actual in-game screenshot for the MMORPG Star Trek Online. Details below
Last month Perpetual Entertainment, the company producing the “Star Trek Online” MMORPG announced they were scrapping their launch title (Gods and Heroes) to focus on the Trek game. In the last couple of days some new reports indicate there are more changes in store for Perpetual and the Trek game. Shack News reports that Perpetual has been acquired by a new company and that this new owner wants to make changes in the plans for STO. Specifically changing the game to make it more appealing to ‘casual players’ by changing the payment model from a monthly fee to a free game where you pay for optional in-game items with real money (a new model being adopted by some MMORPGs, mostly in Korea). Shack News also reports that some Perpetual employees are not happy with changes and have left the project. But other reports cast some doubt on Shack News article
Looks like there is a bit of trouble over at Perpetual Entertainment, the young company that is building the "Star Trek Online" MMORPG slated for early 2009. Their launch title, the Roman-themed "Gods & Heroes" game, was to premiere sometime this year but has suffered from various delays and now it appears it is being put on indefinite hold. According to an official announcement the move was to allow the company to focus on Star Trek Online, and TrekMovie.com has been told that STO is still on track and will actually benefit from the move.
Perpetual’s Star Trek: Online MMORPG is still over a year away, but in a new ‘DevLog‘ they are showing off quite a bit of new artwork for the game. In the past they have shown large matte painting vistas, such as this Vulcan Village… …now they are showing individual components, plus a ‘killer’ surprise (below)
Daron Stinnett, Executive Producer for the MMORPG Star Trek Online, has revealed a few more details for the exciting project in a new interview with WarCry Network. Although the game is not slated for release until early 2009, Stinnet said that they have completed work making ‘prototype regions’ for both the space and the ground components of the game and they are now focusing on getting the two to work together ‘as a single game.’ [good to see it have both: Star Wars Galaxies was released with only ground gameplay and charged extra for a space expansion kit a year later]. Perpetual seem to be taking the right approach to the space component, recognizing that Star Trek handles space in a unique way…
The massive multiplayer Star Trek game ‘Star Trek Online’ is still a year and a half away, but Perpetual Entertainment is already building buzz about the project. Last week they showed off some of their work at the Game Developers Conference and today they put some of that artwork (below) on the official site. Now that things are starting to happen TrekMovie.com decided it was time to make first contact with Perpetual. Executive Producer Daron Stinnett made it clear that the game (like Star Trek XI) is just in pre production, but there are already 35 people working on it full time. Stinnett is a long-time fan of the franchise and apparently when the word went out that Perpetual were giving Trek the MMORPG treatment, the Trekkie game designers came calling. "A lot of great talent was attracted by it…people really excited to be part of a new vision of Star Trek," says Stinnett.