Free-to-Play Star Trek Online launching January 17

By Jeff Hughes November 11, 2011

Mark your calendars Trekkies, Star Trek Online has gotten an official date for its free-to-play conversion. Cryptic Studios announced the F2P model will be launching on January 17, 2012. Become a captain and travel to all the iconic locations you love from the Star Trek franchise like the Academy or the First City of Qo’noS; all without spending a dime.

Players will be split into Silver and Gold members; Silver being those who opt for the free experience, and Gold being those who subscribe or continue a subscription. Silver players will be able to experience the majority of the STO universe for free: All sectors and missions, PVP access, weekly episodes, classes, joining guilds, playable species and Klingon play.

Of course, free will have its limitations. Silver players will have to put up with advertisements in their in-game Vivox voice chat. Also, perks such as extra character slots, inventory and Captain Retrain Tokens will need to be purchased.

Gold players will be given these perks with their subscription, and will automatically start with certain features which Silver will need to unlock such as standard ships. Gold will have unlimited access to forums and in-game chat, along with no advertisements.

Certain features will only be available in Gold such as priority login, as well as a stipend that bestows 400 free Cryptic Points to subscribers each month as a thank you for their loyalty (a $5 value). The Gold member stipend benefit will begin December 1.

Star Trek Online is the latest in the trend of MMOs going free-to-play, following DC Universe and Cryptic’s other game Champions Online. Perfect World, a Chinese firm that recently purchased Cryptic Studies, believes that the new model will have bigger potential in both the U.S. and China markets.

Editors' Recommendations

Topics

Former Digital Trends Contributor

I'm a SF Bay Area-based writer/ninja that loves anything geek, tech, comic, social media or gaming-related.

Gaming

Best Spider-Man games of all time, ranked

A screenshot from The Story So Far in Marvel's Spider-Man 2.

As one of, if not the, most popular superheroes ever created, Spider-Man has swung across just about every entertainment medium there is since his humble beginnings in comic books. In addition to cartoons, TV shows, and many blockbuster films, he's also starred in tons of video games. With a history in the genre dating back to the old Atari days, the wisecracking webhead has had plenty of ups and downs in his video game representation over the decades. He's been portrayed in multiple art styles and genres, and passed between many developers, but some stand out as being more spectacular than others. We can't list every game Spider-Man has appeared in without taking up your entire day covering it all, so here are just the best of the best Spider-Man games of all time, ranked from best to worst.

Marvel's Spider-Man 2

Gaming

Fortnite Festival will leave you wishing for a real Rock Band revival

A character plays guitar in Fortnite Festival.

It’s been a wild three days for Fortnite. First, the battle royale game expanded with Lego Fortnite, a full survival crafting game with extensive brick-building. Just one day later, Psyonix dropped its latest game, the excellent Rocket Racing, in the app. Epic Games is completing its hat trick today with Fortnite Festival, a music experience crafted by Guitar Hero-maker Harmonix. It’s a fitting way to cap off a festive few days for the most popular game around -- or, at least, it sounds like one on paper.

In reality, Fortnite Festival is the oddest addition to the live service game's new offerings. It essentially adds both Rock Band and Fuser into Fortnite, though each is implemented in a way that doesn’t quite live up to their full counterparts. Whereas Rocket Racing feels like a fully original game that could have stood on its own, Fortnite Festival plays more like the bonus mode you’d probably expect from this endeavor.

Gaming

Ark 2: release date speculation, platforms, trailers, gameplay, and more

People riding a T-Rex in Ark 2.

In the surge of survival games that flooded the market around the time of Minecraft's release, only a few were able to carve out an audience and, well, survive. Those that did were the ones that had strong mechanics, lots of content, and a unique spin on the world. Ark: Survival Evolved was a little late to the party in some ways, hitting early access in 2015 and fully launching in 2017, but it was a hit right from the start. That was, of course, thanks to the key feature of the game: dinosaurs.

Ark 2 is a rare sequel to a game that typically tries to simply build on and expand a base game with constant updates. However, a sequel was not only announced, but also has the involvement of none other than Vin Diesel himself. Seeing Diesel riding on the back of a T-Rex might be enough on its own to sell most people on this ambitious survival game, but for everyone else who needs a bit more information before investing in this prehistoric adventure, here's everything we know about Ark 2.
Release date