Star Trek Online On Consoles?

[Greg Tito]

Star Trek Online On Consoles?

An executive at Cryptic Studios has stated that the company would love for Star Trek Online to be multi-platform, but the team will not rush it.

Craig Zinkievich, the executive producer of Star Trek Online [http://www.amazon.com/Star-Trek-Online-Pc/dp/B002673XJA/ref=sr_1_1?s=videogames&ie=UTF8&qid=1280174389&sr=1-1] at Cryptic, said that he will not sacrifice quality to rush the title to consoles, although he is interested in the prospect. Star Trek Online officially opens servers tomorrow, February 2nd, in North America and on the 5th in the E.U, but, if you had preordered the space MMOG, you were able to get a early start this past weekend. A lifetime subscription to STO will set you back $239.99 but it is unclear if this will cover any future console versions of the game.

"Definitely," Zinkievich said when asked about a console STO. "We would love to get STO to the console. At launch, it will just be available for the PC, but, here at Cryptic, we want our games across multiple platforms. But we'll have to see how Star Trek does and then, secondly, we [would] want to do it justice and not hurry something along just to get it on the console."

Creating an MMOG which bridges the gap between PC and consoles has been a sort of holy grail for designers wanting to cash in on both audiences. But with Phantasy Star Universe shutting down [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/97775-Sega-Shutting-Down-Phantasy-Star-Universe-on-PC-PS2] its servers in March, it seems that STO might be posed to take up the mantle as the only game out there to even attempt to straddle both markets.

Or not. You know, it could go either way.

Source: CVG [http://www.computerandvideogames.com/article.php?id=233275]



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[Jman1236]

:Cough:FFXIVONLINE:Cough:

 

[Jared]

Well, I suppose they are keeping options open, cant blame them for that.

Just gotta be careful, limiting factos on consoles could be a crutch in the future...

 

[Katherine Kerensky]

heh. I managed to get my mechadendrites on one of the Beta keys... and I must say, if it did come out on the 360, I would probably buy it.
I could remake the Combat Wombat[footnote]My beautiful ship on STO.

Spoiler

[/footnote].
It would be brilliant to be able to play it on the console... but if it did go onto the 360...
I have a feeling the denizens of XBL would make it hellish.
and kinda like Phantasy Star... as in people advertising porn and such...
On second thought, it may be better to keep on the PC. Away from the idiot crowds that inhabit XBL.

 

[Disaster Button]

Doesn't Champions Online cover the Xbox and the PC? Also made by Cryptic.

 

[wooty]

I'm seriously considering getting this, but even on the STO forums, its gotten mixed reviews, I know it was only a beta at the time, but people seemed unimpressed. Anyone know if theres ever going to be a "free trial" period, like WoW has, or is it a little too early?

 

[Greg Tito]

Doesn't Champions Online cover the Xbox and the PC? Also made by Cryptic.

Cryptic has said that they have a 360 version of Champions ready to go but Microsoft is dragging its feet.

 

[Jman1236]

It would be brilliant to be able to play it on the console... but if it did go onto the 360...
I have a feeling the denizens of XBL would make it hellish.
and kinda like Phantasy Star... as in people advertising porn and such...
On second thought, it may be better to keep on the PC. Away from the idiot crowds that inhabit XBL.

You haven't played as the horde on World of warcraft then, Barrens chat = XBL voice chat.

Doesn't Champions Online cover the Xbox and the PC? Also made by Cryptic.

Basically this was the same issue with Age of Conan, they were planning a 360 release but microsoft has some BS rules that would make MMOs hard to work over live. Microsoft is forcing third-partys to ether play by their rules or not at all. This is why there are serveral MMOs in development for the PS3 because Sony doesn't pull this crap.

 

[Disaster Button]

Doesn't Champions Online cover the Xbox and the PC? Also made by Cryptic.

Cryptic has said that they have a 360 version of Champions ready to go but Microsoft is dragging its feet.

Figures, that is so like them. Oh well.

 

[Alone Disciple]

I've been one of the early players in Beta and headstart, and for all intents and purposes with a few creative caveats, so far STO is just a re-skinned version of CoH/CoV. One can argue that that there is a few more strategic components such as watching 4 shield zones and being very aware of your location in 3D space, but everything else is VERY similar in structure to CoH.

That being said, I am having fun in the game, probably moreso since I put down CoH down about a year ago, but it will be interesting to see how it develops in the future.

But to a console? Granted, I never did play Halo Wars or C&C for my Xbox, but I just don't see how they can re-map the keys in both space and ground combat. In intense space battles, there tends to be a alot of shield, speed, weapon, buff adjustments that just make much more sense on a keyboard. I can't imaging opening up various windows to get to a command unless they overhauled the combat mechanics greatly.

The only thing I can think of is that they need to look at the Tom Clancy's End War 'voice command' element to aid in situations intead of being limited to A,B,X,Y and a few triggers/bumbers.

 

[Raithnor]

I'd wish they'd stop saying this. Unless you're going to make a keyboard and mouse controller for the console the idea of putting an MMO on a console is just stupid. They also said the same thing about Champions Online.

Just take out the concept of the notion of chatting with other users for a minute.

You have to still be able to map the following to a game pad:

Movement Control
Camera Control
Targeting
Power Management (starship only)
Away team management (ground only)

Each ability: At higher levels you're going to have at least 10 or more. Counting your own abilites your BOffs. You're also going to have 3 different weapons when you start and up to 8 or more different weapons at the level cap.

I don't see how it would be remotely playable with just a console gamepad even if you gave one of the analog sticks the option to fucntion as a mouse cursor toggle.

 

[Katherine Kerensky]

You haven't played as the horde on World of warcraft then, Barrens chat = XBL voice chat.

I've never played WoW. I pour my time into other things.
Recently, the Escapist.
But... surely it cannot be as bad as the bigots and idiots of XBL?
It doesn't seem possible D:

 

[ma55ter_fett]

I would buy it for the 360, I would rent it first though to be sure it was worth it.

 

[BrotherRool]

The Agent, DC Online, FFXIV. We're going to have a big crunch in console MMOs first.