Ostensibly to celebrate the launch of Champions Online's free-to-play option next week, developer Cryptic Studios has announced it will be offering a 20% discount on lifetime subscriptions for the superhero MMO as well as for Star Trek Online.

Discounted, the lifetime subscriptions will each cost $239.99. The sale will start on January 25 at 6am Pacific then run until 10am on February 4. Read more »

Cryptic's head honcho, Jack Emmert, revealed today in an interview with Eurogamer that Star Trek Online could become free-to-play in the future, provided certain stars align.

Emmert is apparently looking to Champions Online, another MMO that just shifted from subscription-based to free-to-play, as a guinea-pig of sorts. "We're not sold one way or the other with Star Trek yet," he said. "If people want Star Trek to go free-to-play then get in and play Champions and help make it a great success, because that would send a strong message." Read more »

[Update 9/7/11] The contest is now closed. The winners are Knuxsonic, Conrnchak, and *ahem* Whore. Congratulations to the winners.

[Original Story] Read more »

To celebrate the launch of its latest additions to Star Trek Online, developer Cryptic Studios is offering a free, limited time "weekend" of game time for former voyagers.

The "welcome back, weekend" is aimed at former Star Trek Online players who "got busy" following the MMO's release and no longer subscribe to the game's monthly fee. If a user has a retail product key registered on their account, they will be able to play Star Trek Online for free from August 4 until August 9. Read more »

Shacknews receives a slew of new screenshots and trailers for upcoming games everyday. The most anticipated titles receive their own post, because we know you're eager to see that content. For the rest, we have the Daily Filter, a place to feature all of the media we add to our enormous database on a daily basis.

Today's Filter is video heavy with a "What is StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty?" video kicking it all off. We've also added a pair of videos for the upcoming shooter Kane & Lynch 2: Dog Days and a video announcing DJ Tiesto as a featured artist in DJ Hero 2. Read more »

The price of Cryptic's star-trekkin' MMORPG Star Trek Online has been permanently cut to $19.99 to celebrate the launch of its 'Season Two' update yesterday.

Subtitled 'Ancient Enemies,' the update brings eight new Klingon Episodes starring "the Fek'ihri, the fabled enemy of Kahless, founder of the Klingon Empire" as well as a little peace and love on the Federation side with 'Federation Diplomatic Corps' missions. Read more »

Stardate 64023.9:

A horde of new enemies are headed into the skies of Star Trek Online. The debut trailer for the MMO's "Season 2" update showcases a gathering of menacing creatures, referred to as "Ancient Enemies," giving the game a much needed boost in additional content and adversaries.

The commander that helped steer Star Trek Online into existence has announced today that he will step down from his post. Executive producer Craig Zinkievich revealed he would walk away from Cryptic Studios after seven years of employment in an open-letter on the Star Trek Online official site.

Zinkievich wrote his intention for leaving stems from a desire to spend more time with his kids over the summer as well as "walking [his] goat" and "taking care of [his] bees." Read more »

As previously reported, the Star Trek Online demo has been released offering unlimited playtime for a limited amount of content with Cryptic's MMORPG set in the Star Trek universe.

Star Trek Online

Atari and Cryptic are rolling out a Star Trek Online demo, which will allow players to sample a limited set of content from the PC MMO for as long as they like. The demo will begin pre-loading on May 3 and go live on May 7.

In addition to the demo, various rewards and referrals programs will go live for subscribing players on May 7. They are: Read more »

The planned console edition of Cryptic's boldly-going MMORPG Star Trek Online has followed in the footsteps of Champions Online and is no longer actively in development, executive producer Craig Zinkievich has told VideoGamer.

"It's something we can readily do in terms of technology. We've had it up and running on certain consoles, and had plans and designs in order to take advantage of those platforms," Zinkievich explained. "But as it stands right now it's a little difficult to make that final leap on the business side of things. So, currently, just like Champions, the console version of Star Trek Online is on the back burner." Read more »

It seems that Star Trek Online is to continue going where no man has gone before, as developer Cryptic and publisher Atari have begun to outline the various "Special Task Force Missions" coming to the PC MMO.

Described by executive producer Craig Zinkievich as "five-man raids," the new episodes will be available to both Federation and Klingon players, beginning with "Infected." Read more »

Star Trek Online developer Cryptic Store has launched its boldy-going PC MMORPG's paid extras store with $3 playable Federation-faction Ferengi and Klingon races.

Costing 80 and 240 Cryptic Points respectively ($1 and $3), the races unlock for all account slots offering prosthetic-tastic appearances with appropriate character traits.

Read more »

For me two questions accompany the official launch of Star Trek Online today, neither of which the beta answered completely. First I want to know how well the planetary missions can stay the hell out of the way of my enjoyment of flying starships around. As I've noted before, I'm a casual Trek fan at best but I'm a complete pushover for the grand naval battle vibe evoked by its ship-to-ship combat. Star Trek Online delivers a solid video game version of that.

In the series, though, characters take center stage, not the ships, and most episodes dealt with their adventures on away missions. I get that this made them hard to leave out of a Star Trek MMO. It's also easy to translate those adventures into the standard MMO formula. But other than my laser gun being called a phaser and my scanner a tricorder this part of Star Trek Online teeters dangerously close to generic. Every quest I've seen before in another MMO that keeps me away from the next space engagement just annoys me. I'll either have to get interested enough in the world events to care about the away missions or see them develop some unique qualities or they need to be something I can decide to leave to others. Read more »

Cryptic Studios has fired another round of Star Trek Online screenshots and continues its relentless assault of montage trailers for the PC Star Trek MMORPG with a further three videos.

Due to be released on February 2, Star Trek Online is currently in closed beta. Several pre-order subscription deals are now on offer, including a $240 lifetime sub which packs an exclusive Liberated Borg playable race. Read more »