Cryptic Studios, developers of the successful MMORPG series City of Heroes (PC), confirmed that the company has been interviewing employees of P2 Entertainment, reports TrekMovie.com.

Though the studio would not confirm if it is currently handling the development of Star Trek Online (PC), Cryptic's tapping of P2 employees seats the studio as the most likely candidate to continue the project. P2 Entertainment was revealed yesterday to have ceased development on the title, transferring the license to an unknown developer.

Rumors of Cryptic's involvement began with a story published this morning on w00tstudios. The company was previously known to be working on the superhero MMO Marvel Universe Online (PC, X360), though rumors strongly suggest the project has been scrapped, with Cryptic refusing to comment one way or another.

Both Cryptic and P2 were reached for comment, but have not responded as of this writing.

WarCry is reporting that P2 Entertainment—formerly Perpetual Entertainment—will no longer be developing Star Trek Online (PC), according to "multiple sources at the San Francisco based developer".

The game will be developed under another Bay Area studio to whom the license and content—but not the code, WarCry notes— have been transferred. P2 will continue onward with a refocusing of their business strategy on the casual games market and continue work on the Perpetual Platform.

P2's bowing out is the latest in a series of bad news that has plagued Perpetual throughout Star Trek Online's development, including a liquidation and sale of the company and a lawsuit brought on by Kohnke Communications last month.

Perpetual Entertainment has released the first in-game screenshot of its upcoming PC MMO Star Trek Online, highlighting the game's context-sensitive interaction system.

"In a nutshell, the Interaction System controls every non-combat, player-to-NPC interaction in the game," wrote Perpetual's Mike Stemmle. Formerly of LucasArts, Stemmle is credited as a co-designer on LucasArts' cult-classic PC adventure Sam & Max: Hit The Road and was the project lead on the company's heaven-hell management sim Afterlife (PC).

"If you want to talk to a Ferengi shopkeeper, it goes through the Interaction System," he elaborated. "Need to get some additional phaser training at the local Starfleet Academy? That's the Interaction System. Want to beam down to a planet? Interaction System. Responding to a distress call from a crippled starship? That's the Interaction System, too."

In the update, Stemmle did not comment on recent reports that Perpetual is pursuing a "more casual" direction with Star Trek Online due to new management, which has allegedly resulted in a few voluntary resignations within the company.

Update: Shacknews has received a considerable amount of new information regarding today's Perpetual news from a source close to the company, who requested to remain anonymous. Some information was gleaned from a letter detailing various changes to the company and Star Trek Online, which was recently distributed to all Perpetual employees.

Perpetual has been acquired by new ownership, reportedly a media company looking to use Star Trek Online to make its first major inroads into the video game market. Along with the acquisition comes a partial retargeting of Star Trek Online to what our source describes as a "more casual" experience, one which may potentially eschew subscription fees in favor of the practice of charging real money for optional in-game items, a practice popularized by various Korean MMOs.

Though there do not appear to have been any significant layoffs with the change in management, a number of Perpetual employees have allegedly left the company due to a dissatisfaction with the new direction the game is said to be taking.

Original story: An SEC filing by Ragnarok Online creator Gravity Co., Ltd. indicates that San Francisco-based Star Trek Online publisher Perpetual Entertainment liquidated its assets last month. The Korean firm is an investor in Perpetual, and claims that its $9 million investment in Perpetual is presumed lost. The filing was caught by various internet forum users earlier today and then reported by various news sites.

Perpetual Entertainment's assets have been acquired by newly-formed Perpetual, LLC. The liquidation and transfer of ownership is likely a move to "reset" Perpetual's slate of investors. The company recently announced that its in-development... Read more