Following weeks of speculation and rumor, MMOG developer Cryptic Studios has confirmed that it has licensed the rights to develop and publish Star Trek Online.
Cryptic has promised to reveal details about the game, along with gameplay video clips, at the annual Star Trek Convention in Las Vegas, taking place on August 10. The event will also be webcast live, available via the official Star Trek Online website.
“When the opportunity came for Cryptic to obtain the license for Star Trek, we were absolutely thrilled,” said Chief Creative Officer Jack Emmert in a message on the site, following the announcement. “I realized how many people at Cryptic loved the IP when the possibility of us getting the rights leaked out to the rest of the company. I had more Trekkies in my office asking to work on the project than I ever imagined.”
“There are few other fictional backgrounds that fit the MMORPG medium so well,” he continued. “After all, 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.”
Star Trek Online was originally in the hands of Perpetual Entertainment, which was also working on the Gods and Heroes: Rome Rising MMOG, but the company came to grief in late 2007, laying off 40 people in September and then announcing in November that it had suspended development on Gods and Heroes so it could focus solely on Star Trek Online. Despite its best efforts, however, Perpetual, by then renamed to P2 Entertainment, was removed as the project’s developer in January 2008.
Star Trek Online is being developed for both PC and consoles. For more information, go (boldly) to startrekonline.com.
