It's official: Star Trek Online releases February 2nd, 2010
by Kyle Horner 
Nov 9th 2009 at 1:30PM
Filed under: Sci-fi, New titles, News items, Star Trek Online
With Trek's popularity on the rise due to the new J.J. Abrams movie -- and a second movie on the way at some point in the future -- there's no doubt that Star Trek Online represents a huge opportunity to Cryptic Studios, who've until now been known as "that superhero MMO developer" to anyone you might ask.
Since the release date is so very close at hand, there's no doubt that a flurry of new information (Klingons!) will soon become available. Be on the lookout for our weekly community Q&A sessions with the STO team, starting with this weeks' forthcoming feature focused on everything ships!
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
AF said on 1:40PM 11-09-2009
Set phasers to Fail.
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JP said on 2:12PM 11-09-2009
As someone who can't comment directly about their knowledge of the game due to legally binding restraints, I'll just say: you're not wrong AF.
Brian! said on 2:32PM 11-09-2009
Suck to hear JP.
I really think MMO developers are missing the point of MMOs. They are quickly becoming massively single player games.
What I wanted from a Trek MMO was to have a group of people pilot a star ship. Sure, someone acts as captain, but that would be like a raid leader. The engineers make sure the ship keeps running and repairs the damage. The pilot seers the ship. Science officer scanning space. Etc... It could have been very cool.
And for the more solo play, there are ships in Trek lore that can be piloted by individuals. Some are quite powerhouses too. Maybe not floating science labs or anything, but enough to explore the universe too.
Mr Angry said on 2:37PM 11-09-2009
JP, I concur, there is going to be a shitstorm around this game, Star Wars fans are bad enough, ever pissed off a Trekkie?
Ghede said on 7:28PM 11-09-2009
Brian!, what you describe sounds basically like Puzzle Pirates in space.
ethereal.wolf said on 9:25PM 11-09-2009
@brian: that sounds like it would be fun if they had designed it that way. unfortunately it sounds like its going to be watered down. sad.
Aaron said on 1:46PM 11-09-2009
That's very soon. I hope that they are able to put in enough content to make it a successful and interesting launch as I know that much of the complaints about Champions Online was that there wasn't that much content (I never played it, so please correct me if I am wrong).
Regardless I will almost certainly pick this up and give it a whirl. I mean how can you say no to the opportunity of piloting a star ship in the Star Trek universe?!?
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Russell Clarke said on 2:05PM 11-09-2009
I bet 100 bucks it'll be pushed out to mid-March. Seems to be 4-6 weeks after the marketing date that the games actually see the light of day.
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Bryan said on 2:21PM 11-09-2009
Yay! Now to see when the official release dates for Cata, STOR, and FFXIV are and I can plan my next gaming year almost too a tee.
Personally I hope each mmo/expansion comes out like 2 months apart, so I can really enjoy them and just play the MMORPG dance.
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Keen said on 2:37PM 11-09-2009
I simply wish someone other than Cryptic had been behind this one. I'm not a fan of their work at all and I can't help but feel like STO's fate will be that of CO.
Here's hoping they don't stick with their modus operandi.
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Jason said on 3:23PM 11-09-2009
I agree completely but it's too late. I just hope Cryptic can handle the license and produce a quality game.
Greeen said on 2:52PM 11-09-2009
And another MMO with a way too short beta phase. Will they (the investors) never learn?
Sure, I imagine with SW and others coming, there is sort of panic, but if you do a bad product, people will leave anyway, even this lesson should be learned by now, even from Cryptic.
Sigh.
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mpdivo said on 3:25PM 11-09-2009
Like everyone else - I have a bad feeling about this game.
Star Trek simply can't be made into the WoW model and not loose what makes Star Trek, Star Trek. Too much of what we have seen is a variation on WoW with space combat, focused on the single player vice the crew.
They need more of a sandbox element with some RP elements as well. Giving the tools for RP would of sucked in a large core of Trekkies who crave living in the Star Trek world.
If they were going to model it after a game, they might of been better off modeling it after EVE.
Also, it's too bad that game development is so complex and time consuming. I much rather of seen the Star Trek MMO based in the time of Kirk and Spock and not in this brutal future that will make Gene Rodenberry flip over in his grave. It would of matched the movies and been able to feed off each other.
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Brian! said on 4:29PM 11-09-2009
Amen on developing RP tools. Modern MMO designers seem to be braindead when it comes to the idea that implementing actual game mechanics for RP can be hugely beneficial to MMOs. Just look at the SIMS. 90% of that game is RP and it sells more than WoW does.
CCon99 said on 5:30PM 11-09-2009
They also need TIME! Everyone wants to copy features from WoW except the one thing they should be copying, taking years to develop and properly test your game and not releasing it till it's done. WoW took over 5 years to develop, all the other Devs want to look over that point because they just KNOW they can do it in under 1.5-2 years with a team that's 5 times smaller.
There's some WoW props from someone who really didn't care for the game. But I'm not blind to what they did right.
dudemanjac said on 3:52PM 11-09-2009
I have a question. I hear a lot of ppl saying that this is too short of a beta phase. How long should a beta phase be? Or rather how long was beta for WoW and Eve? How about Final Fantasy or City of Heroes? How long did has Jumpgate been in beta?
I would think that the length of the beta is not as important as the results of the beta or how much time is actually dedicated to the beta. Is the beta server open 24/7 for hardcore testing? Is it it targetted testing of a few hours a week? I heard the Champions online was being tested twice a weekfor a few hours at a time. That can't tell you too much. Then You have to depend on open beta to give you any answers.
I think it can be done in a couple of months. It all depends on what they have done already. No one here can say, so let's not pretend any of us have insight into the inner workings of Cryptic. I'm looking forward to space fights. I like how they say it will work, never really cared about land stuff, even when I watched the show.
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Halldorr said on 4:11PM 11-09-2009
Can't say much due to NDA for STO but can confirm that the beta test periods for CO (also developed by Cryptic) were limited to a couple times per week for a couple of hours only.
Brian! said on 4:34PM 11-09-2009
Cryptic has some pretty bad Beta ideals. Champions was only 2 days a week for a few hours until a few weeks before release. I don't know an MMO that has such a limited testing phase.
Of course, it resulted in a complete retooling of almost all the powers in the game the week after launch. Something that could have easily been avoided during the actual beta of the game. The problem is, if I have 3-4 hours to test a game in a week, then I am going to power through my session. If I know the servers are up 24/7, then I might take some extra time to explore the virtual corners and find more bugs.
Of course, Champions is part of a new breed of MMO-on-rails. You don't have much of a choice than to go to point A, B, C, D in that order. A far cry from earlier MMOs where you, at least, had various starting areas branching to many other areas. Or a super far cry from UO and earlier days where the world was yours to explore. Any direction was as good as any other to get kill or be killed in the wilds.
LaughingTarget said on 7:28PM 11-09-2009
Another problem with the CO model was not only just the strange 2 times a week thing, but WHEN it was going on. I'm sorry, but I have a real job and I'm not getting paid to test MMOs, so testing a game that runs from 2100 through midnight on a Tuesday isn't something a lot of people are going to handle. The day before (or in some cases, a few hours before) e-mails informing us of when CO was going live wasn't much help, either. The entire testing system was flawed right off the bat.
Testing is supposed to find problems in the game, not just mechanically but content wise. Running testing sessions where few individuals can contribute leads to improperly functioning servers and imbalanced games. Pretty much how CO launched. Even if the resources aren't available for 24/7 testing, limited testing periods should be left to weekends, starting Friday evening and leaving it running through early Monday, using the typical workweek to iron out problems and letting it loose again the following weekend to see how it works. Otherwise, the testing period is just a horrible marketing campaign and a big waste of money.
Neurotic said on 4:10PM 11-09-2009
Not sure why the Cryptic-bashing; CoX is an incredible game, even to this day. If their Trek is even half as good as that, I'll be a happy bunny.
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