Star Trek Online outlining the road to free-to-play
The conversion to free-to-play isn't here yet for Star Trek Online, but it's on its way. And like so many things in the franchise, it's starting off with a sacrificial redshirt. Specifically, it's kicking off with the advent of the RedShirt test server for the game, as explained in the first "Path to F2P" blog entry on the official site. It's not that Tribble, the longtime test server, is being removed altogether -- instead, it's being repurposed to allow current subscribers a preview of the game's upcoming conversion.
According to executive producer Stephen D'Angelo, Tribble will reopen for players on the 29th, although it will not be accepting character transfers upon opening. This is intentional, as the development team wants players to test out the new early portions of the game and enjoy the revised experience. It's the start of what promises to be a long path, but current subscribers and the team behind the game get to walk it one step at a time.
