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NoobFeed.com gets word from Cryptic Studios that they'll be bringing StarTrek Online to the ever more popular free-to-play world, after already doing so with Champions Online. A release date has just been given and it's soon!
Perfect World, a leading online game developer and operator based in China, and Atari announced today that they have entered into an agreement where Perfect World would acquire 100% equity interest in Cryptic Studios, the California-based MMO game developer who started the development of City of Heroes & City of Villains, and have also put out the (recently) free-to-play Champions Online, and Star Trek Online.
Daav Valentaten and Noobfeed caught up with Chief of Operations Jack Emmert from Cryptic Studios to ask them about their success story and plans for the future: Cryptic Studios is a developer that brings us many successful MMORPGs, straight from Silicon Valley, for about ten years now. They’ve gotten critical acclaim from just about all their ventures, such as City Of Heroes and Star Trek Online.
You like Star Trek? We sit down and chat with Cryptic Studios about Star Trek Online. Read more as we discuss new races, updates, and the future of this PC MMO.
"Monday, May 31st is Memorial Day in the United States. The holiday is in observance of those lost in war but it has grown into much more. On the lighter side, the holiday offers a three-day weekend which means more time to play your favorite MMO."
"When Cryptic Studios originally announced Star Trek Online back in 2008 they said that the MMORPG would come to consoles as well. Cryptic never announced what console the game would arrive on but that may be a moot point now as they have scrapped the console plans altogether."
"Atari and Cryptic Studios have today revealed new details about the forthcoming expansion for the hugely popular Star Trek Online Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game (MMORPG), Star Trek Online: Special Task Force Missions - Raid Episodes. Following those already having been made available throughout March, the latest Special Task Force Missions will be releasing shortly."
"I’m a lifelong Trekkie and anyone who doesn’t believe me is invited to watch The Wrath of Khan with me while I recite every line by memory. I’ve gone to the cons. I’ve adorned a Starfleet Uniform. I can even recite Hamlet in Klingonese. So you can imagine my excitement when Star Trek Online was first announced and my utter disappointment after spending a month with the game."
"Scores of Star Trek fans turned out on London's Millenium Bridge on Valentine's Day as a new world record was set for the 'largest gathering of Star Trek fans dressed in character' with 99 fans attending in their fantastic Star Trek costumes. The world record was conducted to celebrate the launch of hit Massively Multiplayer Online (MMO) game, Star Trek Online, which launched in the UK on February 5th, 2010."
GameDaily gives its own take at which RPG style is superior in the categories of the classic RPG, the MMORPG, the tactical RPG, the action RPG, most emotionally engaging (contains FFVII and Mass Effect spoilers), and the overall winner.
Though you might not agree with everything stated, it is an interesting read on a topic that continues to spur the interest of RPG fans.
"Namco Bandai Partners, the distributor of Star Trek Online, in association with Atari, will attempt to set a world record for the 'largest gathering of people dressed as Star Trek characters' on February 14th at 1.00pm on London's Millennium Bridge to help celebrate the arrival of brand new Massively Multiplayer Online (MMO) game, Star Trek Online."
Icrontic's swarthy CB Droege brings us this week's interesting new video game releases. Featured this week are Star Trek Online, Global Agenda, and the Icrontic spotlight release White Knight Chronicles
Until February 2nd, Amazon is offering Amazon is offering $10 future game credit with pre-order of Star Trek Online. With free shipping and the and already discounted price, this is the cheapest way to order Star Trek Online video game.
"After being available in Japan for a little over a year, Level-5's gorgeous RPG White Knight Chronicles will be released on the PlayStation 3 this week. It will be joined by two big PC releases, S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Call of Pripyat and Star Trek Online."
"GameZone.com's Matt Eberle writes: "Star Trek Online’s spaceship combat is an odd mix of standard tactics and flexible thought. Many gamers make jokes about 'button mashing' – repeatedly hitting the same buttons to win. In Star Trek you will be mashing the same buttons because starships only have a few weapons. You will, however, be thoroughly engaged. Shield power needs to be re-routed, enemies need to be kept in your weapons’ firing arcs, and some weapons need to be activated at just the ri..."
"GameZone.com's Michael Lafferty writes: "That the Borg was on the move was known. That the Borg would invade Sector Space was probably not anticipated by many … well, with the possible exception of the Cryptic development team for Star Trek Online, the massively multiplayer online title being released by Cryptic and Atari on February 2.
"The Open Beta phase came to a conclusion last night, and those thinking to avoid conflict on a massive scale had to work to do that. The Borg were everywh..."
"What’s looking the best so far is space combat. You’re given the command of your own ship in what some might describe as a laughably short time, but once you’re sitting in the big chair it’s up to you to take command of each situation you encounter. Ship-to-ship combat works fairly closely with the Star Trek canon. Players will have to maneuver their ship to allow for the optimal firing arc (wide for phasers, narrow for photon tordepos), while directing power to the shields in the areas th..."
Steam has recently released their top 10 sellers for the week of January 17-23rd, and surprisingly the top sellers are actually Pre-Orders. With Mass Effect 2 being released on the 26th of January and being called by Time.com as "the Avatar of video games — except it's better written", it could hardly be surprising.
However Battlefield Bad Company 2 takes the second spot and has only been available for 2 days out of the 7 possible selling days. Although Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2 stil...
"Atari, Inc. and acclaimed Massively Multiplayer Online (MMO) game developer Cryptic Studios have announced today that the highly anticipated Star Trek Online for PC has entered open beta, bringing fans one step closer to playing in the final frontier. The open beta runs through January 26th, 2010."
Walmart.com significantly expanded the list of soon-to-be-released games that are eligible for the free $10 gift cards with purchase. At this moment the list of games that are available includes Star Trek Online God of War 3, Final Fantasy XIII, Battlefield: Bad Company 2, Mass Effect 2, MAG and many more. There are more than dozen games in total that are eligible.
""You start at the wide section with skills that are broader, and then get much more specific as you progress. You level up by gaining experience from completing missions and “episodes” which are awarded to you as “Skill Points”.""
""The quest structure of the tutorial is rapidly paced. The idea – at least at this stage of the game’s development – is to get players through the fundamentals as quickly as possible and into the beginning phases of the game. Quest NPCs have icons floating above their heads and are easy to spot. Mobs don’t take forever to put away, and the rewards are useful. ""
""The adventure begins with the character creation phase. Those who delighted in Cryptic’s deep super-hero options in City of Heroes and City of Villains likely know how much the bar was raised with that massively multiplayer online game. The attention that Cryptic gave to costumes has been given over to STO, but rather than focus on clothing, this is more about face and body types. ""
For those of you who are excited about this game, it's time to get more excited! Nimoy signs on to be the voice of Spock in the upcoming MMO, Star Trek Online. The source is just a small overview of his role and his long career as Spock in past projects. More info to come!
A special treat for The Bender this week. We spend time with the gamer who loves to sue (currently Microsoft, Nintendo, Sony, and Activision-Blizzard), Erik Estavillo. Special guest Raychul Moore (girl gamer, Dan Hsu's better half) joins us with this interview discussing his cases and the guy himself. Listen in at the end of the show for some random thoughts about the interview with Mike and James along with some news blips. Get us on iTunes, through Zune, or download the mp3 here
A very good decision from Cryptic Studios to include the ship bridges in their upcoming Star Trek Online MMORPG game. It was a very close decision that Cryptic would not had included the feature in. Kudos to them to actually change their mind on that.
"Taking place in the year 2409, continuing the story of the latest film installment, Star Trek Online boasts extraordinary features and lets fans both new and old experience unparalleled adventures. Players will have the opportunity to become a high ranking Starfleet officer and will participate in missions that will take them into the depths of space, across exotic planets and even inside other starships."
"Namco Bandai Games have today announced an exciting line-up of titles to be exhibited over three stands at the MCM Expo in Docklands Excel Arena over the weekend of the 24th-25th October. Amongst them will be the eagerly anticipated Massively Multi-player Online (MMO) game, Star Trek Online with Tales of Symphonia: Dawn of the New World and Ghostbusters: The Video Game along with a Guinness World Record attempt for the longest winning streak on the imminent Tekken 6, set to launch on Microsof..."
"Star Trek Online, the upcoming MMORPG based on the popular science fiction universe, will be released during the first quarter of 2010, developer Cryptic has confirmed to VideoGamer.com.
That means it'll be out sometime between January and March next year.
Cryptic also teased the launch of a closed beta, saying it's "just around the corner"."
"The lifetime subscription plan will be offered for $199.99 USD, $219.99 CAN, €147.99 EUR, and £119.99 GBP. Lifetime subscribers will additionally receive guaranteed access to the Star Trek Online closed beta test, an exclusive Star Trek Online Mirror Universe costume set, eight additional Champions Online character slots, a Foxbat vanity pet, a "Retro-Future" costume set, and an "Art Deco" costume set."
Some new images have been released for Star Trek Online. The long in-development hell MMO was finally acquired by Cryptic Studios last year and finally looks to be on the way to release sometime this year. STO will allow players to captain their own starships from several races as well as upgrade them with all manner of Trek tech.
"The transaction encompasses all of Cryptics proprietary IP, tools, technology and work-in-progress and integrates all members of the leadership team and employees into Infogrames. This acquisition is a critical step in the implementation of ATARIs strategy to become a leading online game developer and publisher..."
The official Star Trek Online website has recently posted up a official FAQ, which can be found here or by clicking the source.
The FAQ answers questions about the game ranging from PC and console players being able to use the same servers to where the game is going to take place.
"That job listing was correct. City of Heroes developer Cryptic Studios is working on a Star Trek MMO, and its got the screenshots to prove it. Dubbed Star Trek Online, the game will be based on the Star Trek franchise. Says Cryptic chief creative officer Jack Emmert:
Star Trek was never about a single character, ship or even planet; Star Trek was always about an entire universe. And MMORPGs are uniquely suited to create such a thing and allow players to explore every inch."
"Finally, this week saw reports surface on MMORPG-centric site Warcry.com that Perpetual was shutting down Star Trek Online entirely. Sadly, GameSpot has learned this report is completely true. A source with knowledge of Perpetual's inner workings confirmed that today is the last day of work for many game designers, programmers, and other developers at the company's San Francisco office."
![Box shot of Star Trek Online [North America]](http://i.neoseeker.com/boxshots/R2FtZXMvUEMvUm9sZS1QbGF5aW5nL01hc3NpdmVseV9NdWx0aXBsYXllcg==/star_trek_online_frontcover_small_n6OggfnAyefC7tE.jpg)