Cryptic confirms Star Trek Online first quarter 2010 release
by Rubi Bayer 
Oct 19th 2009 at 3:30PM
Filed under: Sci-fi, Launches, New titles, News items, Star Trek Online
Possibly risking that smack on the back of the head anyway, Zinkievich went on to give a little more information, mentioning the closed beta. "The closed beta is really just right around the corner. I think that there's a press release that's going to go out in just a couple of days."
We're just as excited as you are, so we'll be keeping a very close eye out for that announcement.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Tyranor said on 3:39PM 10-19-2009
I'm really hoping they've made some huge changes to ground combat...From what I've read in previews, the ground combat is neither original, nor star-trek like, nor, more importantly, very fun.
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pogger said on 4:45PM 10-19-2009
Should it be like this?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z1eFdUSnaQM
I also hope the ground combat and away missions are as robust as the space stuff... it'll be tough to bring character distinction to a shirt and phaser.
Tyranor said on 5:10PM 10-19-2009
Sadly, so far it looks quite a bit worse than that...From what I've seen, they've just dumped in a bunch of generic weapons (gattling phaser shotgun, machine phaser, yeah, that first one is a direct quote, not made up at all) and just have you standing and shooting each other.
LaughingTarget said on 8:04PM 10-19-2009
Why didn't he use the can of silly string he had on his belt?
CCon99 said on 3:46PM 10-19-2009
Ouch, that can't be good news. CO was under development longer and went into beta November 09, then released in September. That's over 10 months of beta and that game didn't release in the best of conditions or having enough content.
STO just went into beta within the last 2 weeks and now is releasing in the next 3-5 months? That doesn't bode well at all, especially if they plan on doing the typical Cryptic beta testing of only having 4-8 hours of testing time per week.
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maika said on 3:58PM 10-19-2009
"The U.S. government's fiscal year begins on October 1 of the previous calendar year and ends on September 30 of the year with which it is numbered. Prior to 1976, the fiscal year began on July 1 and ended on June 30. The Congressional Budget and Impoundment Control Act of 1974 stipulated the change to allow Congress more time to arrive at a budget each year, and provided for what is known as the "transitional quarter" from July 1, 1976 to September 30, 1976. As stated above, the tax year for a business is governed by the fiscal year it chooses.
For example, the United States government fiscal year for 2010 ("FY10", sometimes written "FY09–10") is as follows:
1st Quarter: October 1, 2009 – December 31, 2009
2nd Quarter: January 1, 2010 – March 31, 2010
3rd Quarter: April 1, 2010 – June 30, 2010
4th Quarter: July 1, 2010 – September 30, 2010"
*cough* that's 10 months of beta at least. Unless I'm crazy.
Gidaeon said on 4:07PM 10-19-2009
Highly unlikely they are talking about fiscal year here. 99/100 when someone says 1QXX they mean Jan-Feb unless they are talking specifically about financial issues such as SEC fillings, etc.
Dave said on 4:09PM 10-19-2009
Why should it be that surprising? STO uses the same engine as Champions Online. A LOT of the technical and infrastructure kinks have already been rolled out.
The beta for STO should be a far faster endeavor than Champions Online. The fundamental technology is proven and has already been tested by CO's 10-month beta test and launch.
Angel said on 4:35PM 10-19-2009
For the record, STO has not been deployed to beta yet. it is still in F&F. Your doing a little gun jumping there.
CCon99 said on 4:53PM 10-19-2009
I was under the impression that beta started already since Awen has been handing out beta keys already and they've had contests already to give out beta keys. If it hasn't started yet, that doesn't make things any better.
And as for their engine already being "proven", tell that to the CO players that have to put up with more bugs everytime a patch is released. STO is going to be doing things with the engine that CO hasn't tried yet.
Angel said on 7:37PM 10-19-2009
CCon99,
The CO engine is stable, sorry to tell you. The vocal minority believes otherwise, though. other than the sound issues with XP Pro-64/Realtek I largely have to chalk up even the vocal minority to user error, being the tyrant I am.
kololo said on 3:51PM 10-19-2009
I'm not that fussed on content, because I'm extremely casual these days, 2-3 hours a week. I just want something thats fun, in a Universe I might enjoy, so this could be good filler between Cataclysm or KOTOR
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pogger said on 4:53PM 10-19-2009
Cataclysm? Really?
Proly just me but I see way to much on the horizon between STO, SWTOR, GW2, Secret World, and who knows what else to keep me from World of Re-craft.
Oh I'm sure there are a lot of people who will be returning. A friend of mine who quit around the same time I did is talking about going back. I've just been way more distracted by all the new stuff.
Tom said on 4:38PM 10-19-2009
I see the Chicken Littles are out in force today...
It all sounds pretty good to me. As for the ground combat, Tyranor, it sounds fine, Star Trek-like, and fun to me. I am encouraged by everything I've read thus far.
I am really counting on STO to fill the gap until GW2 and/or SWTOR go live.
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Zen said on 5:02PM 10-19-2009
This is rather unexpected and concerning news. I'm normally all about the good news that something's going to be released relatively soon, but not in this case.
I was really looking forward to this game, and after playing and chatting with the devs at PAX just 6-7 weeks ago, the game showed some promise. The space combat is fun and Treky. The ground combat, not so much. If you've played Champions Online, you've pretty much played a much more interesting version of the ground combat, which consists of shooting/limited martial arts/rifle-butting, and without the fun/physics/effects of an FPS.
In addition, they said it'd be out next year as a 'hard date,' but I thought it'd be more like Thanksgiving 2010, not 1st Quarter. There's a LOT of things they haven't gotten into or talked about or shown us, including what makes Trek, Trek: out-of-combat activities. Right now, it's great that they have a Star Trek skin on their Cryptic Engine, but it's pretty obvious that is exactly what it is, including even picking up the loot ('Take/Take All/Cancel') in space or on the ground.
My main concern is that by having an earlier release date, they won't have time to put in the C word: (no, not Cryptic-Store) CONTENT. With their current track record in CO, you can extrapolate. The procedural star system generator 'Genesis' can only do so much before you don't care what system you're checking out.
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Vitamin Dei said on 5:41PM 10-19-2009
Given the content-light state of CO even now two months after launch, I'm a little concerned over seeing such an early release date. We haven't even seen the closed beta yet. My concern may be over nothing, but I'd rather see a fully-baked product launch than have the game earlier.
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kololo said on 5:43PM 10-19-2009
Just because you're sick of WoW, doesnt mean the other 12 million people are. Open minded much?
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kololo said on 5:46PM 10-19-2009
Sorry this was a reply to pogger above.
pogger said on 7:38PM 10-19-2009
Um... I said "Proly just me" and gave an example of a friend of mine who's also looking into Cataclysm. My mind is open brotha!
JP said on 5:52PM 10-19-2009
Wasn't CO boasted as being released April 09, then pushed to July, then pushed again to Sept?
I gotta agree about my doubts of creating and releasing a fully fleshed out and rich experience in a little over a year. Ala showing their hand w/ CO.
Only time will tell though. The game sounds really interesting. But, so did CO, and that game is hardly flourishing.
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