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'Star Trek Online' launches for free on consoles
Star Trek Online arrived on PC in the busy MMORPG scene in February 2010, just as the sun started to set on the genre. But the game followed industry trends to keep its playerbase, relaunching in January 2012 with a free-to-play tier and releasing semi-annual "season" expansions of new content at no cost. Today, it's landing on PS4 and Xbox One, following other FTP titles in the move to consoles.
'Star Trek Online' honors Leonard Nimoy with in-game Spock statues
With the recent passing of Leonard Nimoy, multiple generations of geeks found themselves at a deep loss. It makes sense then that the folks behind Star Trek Online would erect effigies to immortalize the man perhaps best known for his role as Mr. Spock in the Star Trek universe. Should you travel to the planet Vulcan (Spock's home world), New Romulus, or even Earth in the game, you'll see memorials for him. The former two have statues with different quotes ("Live long and prosper" on Vulcan, "The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few" on New Romulus), while our home planet is hanging black flags of mourning at its spaceport for the next week.
Captain's Log: Operation Gamma
Like previous columns about The 2800, this is an overview and will contain spoilers. If you have not yet played this mission or do not want to know about what happens, stop right here! Episode three of Star Trek Online's featured episode series, The 2800, was released over the weekend, and developers at Cryptic Studios were able to give the players who enjoy flying small vessels their first new mission since The Vault in the Cloaked Intentions series. So jump into your shuttle (or fighter or captain's yacht) and join me as we head toward the Gamma Quadrant.
Captain's Log: A new era begins
As you probably know by now, Star Trek Online is converting to the free-to-play format this coming Tuesday, January 17th. If you've held off subscribing to STO for the past two years, you might be wondering what you can expect should you decide to give STO a try. If you've never played an MMORPG and are thinking that this might be a perfect time to try one, I think you might be right. STO is not like most other MMOs. That can be a good thing but also a detriment. This column is here to help you, Trekkie or not, gamer or not. And I'm going to try to help you decide whether STO is the F2P game for you.
EVE Evolved: Competition for EVE Online
Although the most popular MMOs of today are in the fantasy genre, a niche within the MMO market has always existed for sci-fi games. For quite some time, EVE Online has dominated this niche with a steadily growing playerbase that has now exceeded 300,000 paying subscribers. It's been noted that releases in the fantasy market tend not to affect EVE Online, showing that it's not directly competing with games in the fantasy market. Perhaps the target markets of sci-fi and fantasy MMOs have very little overlap or perhaps the gameplay in EVE is unique enough that no real alternatives exist. Whatever the reason, EVE has been blessed with a relative lack of competition since its release in 2003. But with four major sci-fi MMOs on the horizon, could the game's creators CCP be in for a rough ride?In this speculative opinion piece, I examine how EVE reacted to competition in the past and suggest how it may react to the next wave of sci-fi MMOs to hit the market.
Rumor: Perpetual Entertainment closing down
MMO news network Warcry has confirmed via unnamed "multiple sources" that Perpetual Entertainment has closed its doors. The posting corroborates similar information provided to Joystiq from a few secondary tipsters, and the company's web site has recently been replaced with a static contact page, but we're still labeling this one as a rumor until we hear official word from the company.Perpetual has has its share of troubles recently, facing its second round of layoffs in as many years last September, putting fantasy MMO project Gods and Heroes on hold, facing a lawsuit from its PR firm and, last month, giving up the rights to the highly anticipated Star Trek Online.
Star Trek Online MMO switches to new developer
P2 Entertainment -- formerly known as Perpetual Entertainment -- will no longer be developing the Star Trek Online MMO. Instead, the IP has been passed on to an as-yet-unnamed California-based studio, who will be continuing development while P2 refocuses on the casual games market.WarCry reports that the unnamed studio will be receiving rights for the Star Trek IP, and the game's content, but will not have access to the code previously developed at P2. This will inevitably slow development of the MMO even further, as the new studio must start from scratch with the title's back-end.Star Trek Online was the only title currently in development at P2, following news of Gods & Heroes: Rome Rising being placed on "indefinite hold." P2 is also embroiled in a legal battle with former PR firm Kohnke Communications, who are suing for finances owed them after the effective cancellation of Gods & Heroes. Coupled with news of Spacetime's MMO cancellation, we're beginning to think that it's not a good time to be a MMO developer (unless, of course, you're Blizzard).[Via Massively]
Star Trek Online dev sued by PR firm
Dark days are ahead for Perpetual Entertainment. After placing their mythology-based MMO Gods & Heroes: Rome Rising on indefinite hold, the Star Trek Online developer is being sued by their former PR company, claiming thousands of dollars worth of unpaid invoices, breach of contract, as well as several charges of fraud against the developer and its employees.The public relations firm Kohnke Communications had been in charge of marketing for Gods & Heroes, and is now claiming over $10,000 worth of unpaid invoices for their work, in addition to bonuses that would have been due to Kohnke upon the release of the MMO. In total, Kohnke seeks to claim between $70,000 and $280,000, which, according to the law document, are reflective of what Kohnke would have earned after Gods & Heroes' launch, depending on sales numbers and other factors.Kohnke alleges that Perpetual Entertainment took steps to directly avoid paying the PR firm for services rendered on the canceled title. Perpetual placed Gods & Heroes on indefinite hold following numerous delays and layoffs. After acquiring new investors, the company shifted focus to Star Trek Online, taking the sci-fi MMO in a more casual direction.
Star Trek MMO going 'more casual'
There was some crazy financial news recently for Perpetual, the publisher of long-in-development Star Trek Onine. The practical upshot is that the company is in new hands, and, according to Shacknews' source, they're taking the game in a new, more casual direction.That doesn't necessarily mean you'll have to match three dilithium crystals to engage your warp drive, but there is a possibility the game may shed subscription fees in favor of asking players to pay real-world cash for in-game items.Perhaps this move is for the best though. With a new Trek film still a ways off and no versions of the series getting new TV episodes, we'd imagine that the place on the Venn diagram where hardcore gamers and Trek fans intersect is getting smaller every day.
Gods and Heroes MMO on 'indefinite hold' as developer restructures
Following last month's news of delays and downsizing at Perpetual Entertainment, Warcry Network reports that the company has put development of their mythologically-themed MMO Gods and Heroes: Rome Rising on "indefinite hold," as the team reorganizes and seeks out new investors.Perpetual co-founder Chris McKibbin has posted an open letter on the Gods and Heroes community page, stating that the team was overly ambitious in terms of the game's development, and that shelving the title gives the team opportunity to focus attention elsewhere. Despite the significant amount of time invested in Rome Rising, placing the game on "indefinite hold" means it will likely never see the light of day in any finished form.McKibbin states in his letter that the team has shifted all of their focus to their IP-driven MMO Star Trek Online, and their Perpetual Platform Services division, which develops middleware for MMO development.
Star Trek Online tidbits
Star Trek Online has over a year to go until beta, but if you can't wait that long to get some idea of what it'll be like, this article at MMORPG.com should help. Complete with some early screenshots, the Q&A with producer Daron Stinnett focuses on some of the design decisions involved in the game.As some of the game's developers are actively monitoring fan forums for feedback (Perpetual have yet to create official forums), it looks as if you can get your opinions heard by hanging out in the right places. If you spot a Star Trek Online dev frequenting your favourite boards, let us know.[Fixed typo, thanks Andy Pan]
