Star Trek Online release date set
by Adam Holisky 
Nov 5th 2009 at 9:04PM
Filed under: News items, Star Trek Online
STO is currently in closed beta, allowing those lucky select fans a chance to the game out. If you previously had purchased the Champions Online lifetime or six month subscription package, you will also be getting a chance to try the game out during the closed beta stage.
We'll be sitting down with the STO development team soon, and are looking to take all the questions you have about the ships of STO; so hurry up and get them in before 12 p.m. PST tomorrow!
[Edit: We contacted Cryptic to confirm Eurogamer's story, and they say that this is not the official release date, but they will be announcing it very soon.]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
y2fatboy said on 9:33PM 11-05-2009
February 2010? Wow, that is some quick development there (at least in terms of MMO development)... Of course with delays I'd expect this to be out summer 2010 realistically, but I won't begrudge an earlier release date! :-)
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John said on 9:43PM 11-05-2009
too soon
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Bryan said on 10:04PM 11-05-2009
Is it ever too late or right on time in the MMO world? Everyone says too soon, and yet MMORPGs change over time especially once the public gets let in. IMO, no MMO is ready until it has been live for about 3 to 6 months, when the public opinion changes the game.
I say good, February sounds good, will give me a game to play in that horrid cold month.
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starmonkey said on 10:26PM 11-05-2009
Not if you live in Australia - sunny days and warm ocean water :)
Oh, and +1 to your comment about an MMO needing to be live for a while before it's "ready".
Super Healer said on 5:34AM 11-06-2009
It is a shame that MMOs have this reputation that they are rarely ready on release. There is no reason for this as that is what Beta testing is for. Regrettably most people chosen for beta testing only use it as a chance to play the game before anyone else, and not for what it is intended for.
To all STO beta testers out there: if you are chosen as a beta tester, GIVE FEEDBACK TO THE DEVELOPERS. Dont just sit there playing the game, moan about how unfinished it is then never play it again. Lets try and buck the trend and make this game actually viable on release by letting the devs know what is wrong BEFORE release.
CCon99 said on 10:16PM 11-05-2009
I don't think they have a choice on the release date anymore, it's a shame because this IP has so much potential to be an incredible MMORPG setting. Like Champions Online, we'll probably get an unfinished, super rushed, buggy, and unstable flash in a pan game that has people talking about how much potential it COULD have had if it were properly developed with more time.
An MMO with just over a year in development will be exactly as it sounds like, then again we shouldn't be surprised since Atari was also the same company that had a game mass produced based off the film E.T., that was rush developed.
Sadly this game won't and hasn't been about creating the best possible Star Trek experience available, it's been about showing the cold feet MMO wannabe companies that they can license the Cryptic Engine and create a quick and cheap MMO too.
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Ingrod said on 2:00AM 11-06-2009
You talk how if the game dont go to receive updates or changue after launch.
MMO are long tern games, and their best shape begin moths after launch. Not are singleplayer games that live or die in their firsts weeks.
A MMO can be awful for everyone in his launch (EVE) but gain momentun and receive succes many moths or years inclusive after launch.
Perhaps in people perception games can be considered succes or fail in their first moth, but the MMO reality is different. The SWG-NGE disaster was years after the SWG launch.
Also the STO engine is the same that the CO engine, CO has been how a "beta" for STO, for that many bugs and crashes experimented in CO will not appear in STO.
UltimateQ said on 11:16AM 11-07-2009
I disagree. While I to have been victimized of rushed release dates and buggy launches; something in my gut says these guys have their stuff together. I expect a pretty decent release.
You have to keep in mind that Cryptic bought the game, content, and rights from Perpetual. A lot of the leg work was already done, they just redesigned a few areas and built content.
In reality the game has been in development for a pretty long time, I think this seems just about right.
Lateris said on 11:14PM 11-05-2009
I have to agree. I don't want to peg a lot of excitement in this release. I think they need money. I think Cryptic is a great studio but I am starting to think that STO will mimic CO as far as regions are set up. I hope I am wrong. I seriously hope I am wrong. I would love to see this do very well.
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dudemanjac said on 11:55PM 11-05-2009
Any of you ppl saying Feb is too soon actually play the beta?
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Xugu Madison said on 11:52AM 11-06-2009
No, and that's half the point; they are clearly not yet comfortable enough with the platform's stability to let people who paid significant amounts of money ($200 if you're a lifetime CO member like myself) in. Well, not all of us, anyway.
Which is fine, but to see an MMO go from very limited beta test through to release in 3 months seems unlikely.
Brian! said on 11:55PM 11-05-2009
Cryptic also has a funky way of beta testing. In CO they only opened their servers 2 days a week for a few hours. After testing many MMOs that run 24/7 unless patching, I think Cryptic is just loosing valuable testing time.
Which showed once they did put the servers up 24/7 and went "oh crap, people level too fast" and "Oh crap, look, our powers are not balanced" and my favorite "oh crap, we can't handle spike downloads of our patch/client!"
Come on, put up a server set and open that baby up. Set it to relaunch on crash and gather the data. After all, your coding on a development server anyway right? Besides, what better way to perfect a self-fixing server. Like WoW, they still sometimes get zone crashes, but the server rights itself without taking down the whole game or anything.
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Tom316 said on 12:19AM 11-06-2009
With the exception that Cryptic uses a server less setup. The game world will be all tied into one gaming server database. Just like CO I imagine.
The problem is that sometimes key parts of the setup can / do crash and it causes everything to hangup. If the login server goes down people can no longer log into the game. If you use multi login servers then you will need a master server to control what login server people get sent to.
What happens if the server or the network between the shards goes down that handles people moving from one zone / shard to the next? Too many ways for the system to go down / wrong if theres noone there to monitor / manage it. And during alpha/beta testing its all about getting as much work done as you can with as little overhead cost as you can. Not saying there way of doing testing is the right way.
But it does have the added bonus of not burning out your testers / players before the game releases. Alot of games today face heavy tester / release burn outs. You get testers that play through all the content durning alpha/beta and then end up not playing the game at release. And thats a huge kick to the nuts since you have effectively tuned the game to make it fun for the people currently testing it based upon there feedback. Theres just not alot worse then adjusting a game to meet the expectations of feedback from beta players and then they just turn around on you and don't play the game you tuned for them simply because they have already played through it all dozens of times.
I wouldn't doubt if you do not see more and more companys move to a limited style testing like this. Well actually I see this the wave of the future for doing beta tests. Since they have been dumbed down to the point of being nothing more then marketing blimps before release anyways. Nothing worth happening ever happens in the beta stage anymore. Everything has moved to the F&F / alpha stage of MMO development. If your game is not ready by the time it hits the beta stage, well your games in serious trouble then.
Brian! said on 1:03AM 11-06-2009
Good reply. Candor appreciated!
LaughingTarget said on 8:10AM 11-06-2009
If testers burn out after running out of content after a month of testing, it's clear the game launched with insufficient content.
maika said on 12:21AM 11-06-2009
ha. that's my birthday.
But I dunno...it might be unfinished, but I think I love Star Trek enough to actually play/pay for it for 3-6 months until they get it to where it's decent. *shrug* dunno if that's the majority opinion though.
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jamenta said on 1:17AM 11-06-2009
yah sounds to me like a quick buck on a gimmick. sad.
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Amana said on 5:25AM 11-06-2009
I've already raised my shields for the inevitable wrath of Khan that will follow my inflammatory statement, so here it goes anyhow:
Firstly, I'm likely what one would call a 'Star Trek Fan'. In that, I'm a fan of Star Trek - not a fanboi - but a huge fan nonetheless.
I like to think I know what feels right when it comes to the franchise, despite no claims to being an authority on the subject.
If I were to view footage from the game in question in isolation, and were to put aside the fact that this is an MMO (and all other preconceptions and hype), I would view the footage as discernibly sub-par.
If the latest footage were to appear on (say) IGN.com or GT billed simply as 'A New Star Trek Game!', I wouldn't bother watching after the first minute.
I would look at it and compare it to something like Star Trek Armada and think to myself "wow, this really looks crap for a game coming out in 2010.. nothing's changed on the attempts to feebly cash in on the franchise."
I've had sincerely high hopes and a reasonable amount of faith in this title from the early days, however looking at the product presented in videos, I've come to realise that my faith may have been a little misplaced.
It's so sad :S
Try it yourself - clear your mind of everything you've presumed and take stock of the footage in front of you; tell me that what you're watching is compelling, is technologically sound and pertinent, and is genuinely exciting enough to make you look forward to it's release with baited breath.
Because, I can't seem to.. =(
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OLDMIKE said on 6:05AM 11-06-2009
thing is with MMOs the key is to have as many ppl out there who can play your game
so looks cant be state of the art as most ppl have old systems
Super Healer said on 8:23AM 11-06-2009
I would agree but theres no substitute for playing. Games are not movies - video footage is not representaitve of the whole game as games are for playing, not watching.
Im reserving judgement until release. You never know, it might be good...! :)