SFF Chronicles News
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7th September 2011 11:16 AM
Darren Allan
Good news for Star Trek gaming fans who didn’t fancy forking out a monthly subscription to partake of Cryptic’s MMORPG.
Star Trek Online is set to change over to a free-to-play model later this year, meaning you’ll be able to download and access almost all the game content for free.
However, there will be some features which will only be available to “gold members”, those who continue to subscribe and pay $15 per month (which will presumably translate to £10 over here).
Gold members will get an extra character slot, additional bridge officer slots and a more expansive inventory, plus foundry creator access, veteran rewards and other goodies.
However, all the core content in terms of events, missions, PvP, feature episodes, access to the Klingons and so forth will be available to free (silver) players.
And a virtual goods store will be on hand to ensure income from microtransactions. Freebie players will be able to purchase some of the perks gold members get here, for example extra bridge officer slots.
Jack Emmert, CEO, Cryptic Studios, commented: “In addition to seeking out new life and exploring strange new civilizations, part of our continuing mission for Star Trek Online is to expand and improve.”
“Transitioning to a free-to-play model is a natural way to share all we’ve built with a broader community of players and we couldn’t be more excited.”
Star Trek Online lets players captain their own ship, tootling around the galaxy, partaking of massive space battles and beaming down to planets to engage in shooter style missions.
A number of iconic locations are included such as Starfleet Academy and Deep Space Nine, with weekly episodes featuring story-based tasks introducing extra variety above and beyond the standard missions.
While the shooter sections aren’t great, Star Trek Online is definitely worth trying if you’re a fan of the famous show, particularly seeing as you can’t go wrong with it being free.
More massively multiplayer games are making the shift to free-to-play models, with Funcom’s Age of Conan going the free route in July, and apparently picking up 300,000 new players in its first month.
Cryptic will be hoping for a similar success, and an army of new players picking up small purchases in the virtual store to boost its coffers.
Darren Allan
Good news for Star Trek gaming fans who didn’t fancy forking out a monthly subscription to partake of Cryptic’s MMORPG.
Star Trek Online is set to change over to a free-to-play model later this year, meaning you’ll be able to download and access almost all the game content for free.
However, there will be some features which will only be available to “gold members”, those who continue to subscribe and pay $15 per month (which will presumably translate to £10 over here).
Gold members will get an extra character slot, additional bridge officer slots and a more expansive inventory, plus foundry creator access, veteran rewards and other goodies.
However, all the core content in terms of events, missions, PvP, feature episodes, access to the Klingons and so forth will be available to free (silver) players.
And a virtual goods store will be on hand to ensure income from microtransactions. Freebie players will be able to purchase some of the perks gold members get here, for example extra bridge officer slots.
Jack Emmert, CEO, Cryptic Studios, commented: “In addition to seeking out new life and exploring strange new civilizations, part of our continuing mission for Star Trek Online is to expand and improve.”
“Transitioning to a free-to-play model is a natural way to share all we’ve built with a broader community of players and we couldn’t be more excited.”
Star Trek Online lets players captain their own ship, tootling around the galaxy, partaking of massive space battles and beaming down to planets to engage in shooter style missions.
A number of iconic locations are included such as Starfleet Academy and Deep Space Nine, with weekly episodes featuring story-based tasks introducing extra variety above and beyond the standard missions.
While the shooter sections aren’t great, Star Trek Online is definitely worth trying if you’re a fan of the famous show, particularly seeing as you can’t go wrong with it being free.
More massively multiplayer games are making the shift to free-to-play models, with Funcom’s Age of Conan going the free route in July, and apparently picking up 300,000 new players in its first month.
Cryptic will be hoping for a similar success, and an army of new players picking up small purchases in the virtual store to boost its coffers.