New to Console: Star Trek Online Hits Xbox One and PS4 on Sept. 6

New to Console: Star Trek Online Hits Xbox One and PS4 on Sept. 6

September 5, 2016 0 By EVA

Star Trek Online is one of the most expansive MMORPG’s to date, bursting onto the scene in early 2010. In operation for more than six years, the game and its developers have unleashed 11 seasons and more than 130 episodes. Starting on September 6, 2016, the game is launching for the first time on console. Players will able to download the game for free on the Xbox One and Playstation 4. Not only that, but they will have access to all of the content that has been added to the game for no extra cost. It’s a feat worthy of much celebration for Star Trek Online and their developer Cryptic Studios.

The Star Trek Online team announced and confirmed the release date for consoles at the 50th Anniversary. They were on hand at the expo to show off the new controls, talk about 3D printing ships and what 50 years of Star Trek means to them.

Still interested in the PC version? You can check out their Steam page for more.

Photo courtesy of Star Trek Online and Cryptic Studios.

Photo courtesy of Star Trek Online and Cryptic Studios.

What are the pros and cons of Star Trek Online coming to consoles? 

Steve: It’s all pros! It’s very exciting. We spent a lot of time coming up with a brand new control system, and we our core technology team spent a lot of time giving us new lighting graphics, which we went through an applied throughout the game to bring it up to current generation standards that we didn’t have six and a half years ago. We took the user interface (UI) from the PC and scrapped it for a brand new console-only UI, purposely built for the controller.

 

Star Trek Online for Xbox One and PS4 comes out September 6; will fans who download it be able to play their PC account on a console? 

Steve: PC, Xbox and PS4 are all separate and the game is downloadable for free. You don’t have a subscription, we don’t charge for updates, it is all free.

 

How was the decision made to branch out to consoles?

Steve: Our company, Cryptic Studios, shipped another product, Neverwhere, onto consoles, and it did really well. So we saw there are people on the console space who are interested in playing those. We thought we would try and bring Star Trek to do the same thing.

 

Photo courtesy of Star Trek Online and Cryptic Studios.

Photo courtesy of Star Trek Online and Cryptic Studios.

You’re also allowing players to purchase 3D-printed ships of their customized ships, how did that come about and how does it work?

 Steve: That’s something we wanted to do when we launched nearly seven years ago. We always thought it would be so cool and the technology has gotten to the point where it is simpler to do, and we found our partner Eucl3D and they had a system come give us an API that we can put into the game and print out ships. It’s not just the base ships, it’s your customizations for your ships, every little part you change or materials you put on there and texture changes.

 

How long does it take to create the 3D ship?

Steve: The turnaround is a month. You push the ‘make-it’ button and in a month it will be at your house.

 

How do you bring together the history of Star Trek into the game? 

Steve: The game takes places 30 years past Nemesis, so we draw from all different series of TV shows and movies to bring kind of a nostalgic refresh Trek experience. We bring out old bad guys and new villains, but there are people that if you watch the show a lot you probably would have heard of. Then there is also continuing the serialized story that takes players on an amazing journey.

 

Photo courtesy of Star Trek Online and Cryptic Studios.

Photo courtesy of Star Trek Online and Cryptic Studios.

How does the community drive the game?

Steve: We interact with the community quite a bit on different forums like Reddit, Twitter, and we hear their feedback. So when we sit down and plan out a release, we call them seasons, we look at their feedback and say this is kind of what they are hungry for and this is what the game needs on our side, and this kind of what they want. We try and merge that altogether and take their feedback.

 

Are there any underutilized or overlooked features to the game? 

Steve: No, they dive in there and play quite a bit. They kind of explore everything about our game and a variety of systems, episodes, in-game and fleets.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O_Ft7luIDn8