‘Star Trek Online’ publisher promises future free-to-play on consoles

By Ryan Fleming December 30, 2013

star trek online publisher promises future free play consoles — Image used with permission by copyright holder

Perfect World Entertainment, the publisher behind the MMORPGs Star Trek Online and Dungeons & Dragons Neverwinter, confirmed that it is planning to bring both its current and future titles to next-gen consoles, according to a press release sent to Joystiq. It’s not clear yet how the games will be translated from keyboard and mouse to controller, but they will retain their free-to-play income model.

“Perfect World Entertainment has long been the leader in free-to-play PC titles,” CEO Alan Chen said in the press release. “Bringing our titles to consoles is a natural progression for us, and we can’t wait to set a new standard for console MMORPGs and other genres.”

The publisher promised more information in 2014, but for now it has yet to announce exactly what titles it is planning on bringing to the next-gen systems.

Perfect World recently released the MMORPGs Dungeons & Dragons Neverwinter and RaiderZ. Before that was the FPS Blacklight: Retribution, for PC, in April 2012, later released as a PlayStation 4 as a launch title. In February 2010, it also introduced Star Trek Online, which was later re-launched as a free-to-play game in January 2012. November 2013 saw the eighth update released for that game.

The publisher is currently working on a MMORPG titled Swordsman Online, although no release date has been announced yet.

“We are looking at this medium to better connect with gamers,” General Manager of Publishing Andrew Brown wrote. “The opportunity to work on new types of projects with developers from all over the world is really exciting for us as a company. We are confident in our outlook entering into this new business, and you can expect Perfect World to be a major player in the console marketplace.”

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Former Digital Trends Contributor

Ryan Fleming is the Gaming and Cinema Editor for Digital Trends. He joined the DT staff in 2009 after spending time covering…

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