Star Trek Online Reaches One Million Accounts

[Logan Westbrook]

Star Trek Online Reaches One Million Accounts

Cryptic Studios, creator of Star Trek Online has announced that the game has one million active accounts.

Star Trek Online generated a lot of buzz before its release, and when our own Greg Tito gave the beta a go [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/articles/view/editorials/reviews/7055-Preview-Star-Trek-Online], he came away with a pretty positive impression. Now, only a few days after its release, Cryptic Studios has announced that STO has already reached a million active accounts.

"After much anticipation, we are pleased to present Star Trek Online to fans and gamers nationwide," said Atari CEO Jeff Lapin. "We expect Star Trek Online to give fans and gamers an unprecedented Star Trek experience."

A million accounts sounds impressive, but it opens the announcement up to all kinds of speculation. Does that include accounts for the beta and the forums? What exactly does active mean? Why announce the number of accounts at all, when players is what really matter? The most likely situation, at least to me, is that a million accounts is a big, impressive sounding milestone that Cryptic felt would make for some good PR, rather than a deliberate subterfuge to make the game sound busier than it is.

Besides, a million accounts is still an impressive amount, and even though first month success is no indicator of longevity - just ask Age of Conan - the Star Trek IP might be enough to keep the game going strong.

Source: Massively [http://www.massively.com/2010/02/07/star-trek-online-reaches-one-million-accounts/]




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[Simalacrum]

Good news, despite speculation... at least there is hope that the game will do well.

Also, bit of curiosity... is it available on Mac?

 

[Onyx Oblivion]

Can't wait to see next month's numbers. That'll tell us everything we need to know...

 

[Bretty]

My girlfriend and I are having a lot of fun in this game.

Without talking to any of my previous online gaming friends most seem to be playing this now.

I look forward to seeing which direction STO goes.

 

[ChocoFace]

i would have thought it had gotten more accounts by now, seeing as it's Star Trek.
Oh well

 

[Poomanchu745]

This is probably the dumbest thing to brag about. Age of Conan bragged about it incessantly and then after a month into the game wouldn't give out any subscription numbers because so many people had quit. If they have 1 million subs 6 months from now ill be impressed.

 

[Insanum]

Ive got it, I like it, Im looking forward to spending my days off playing it.

 

[Amnestic]

Can't wait to see next month's numbers. That'll tell us everything we need to know...

This bears repeating. Hitting 1 million is nice for a new game, maintaining a subscriber base is another matter. As I recall, WAR had a similar "Yay 1 million accounts!" announcement a while back, and they're not doing quite so good now.

 

[Indecizion]

Nice i might actualy give this one a try a little later on.

 

[fredxquimby]

Cryptic's AFK customer support, retrograde development team, and love of microtransactions will, in fact, make it another Conan. It's a shame, really, they seem to start off with good intentions and a decent vision but then fail to deliver in the long run.

 

[fenrizz]

I hope it does well enough to stay alive at least.
I'll be giving it a go next week, but have watched a friend play and it looks promising.

Cryptic's AFK customer support, retrograde development team, and love of microtransactions will, in fact, make it another Conan. It's a shame, really, they seem to start off with good intentions and a decent vision but then fail to deliver in the long run.

What is this about micro transactions?
Is it for vanity items, or stat upgrades (or similar)?

 

[wooty]

I hope it does well enough to stay alive at least.
I'll be giving it a go next week, but have watched a friend play and it looks promising.

Cryptic's AFK customer support, retrograde development team, and love of microtransactions will, in fact, make it another Conan. It's a shame, really, they seem to start off with good intentions and a decent vision but then fail to deliver in the long run.

What is this about micro transactions?
Is it for vanity items, or stat upgrades (or similar)?

I've not got the game, but the forums are ranting at things like paying to play as ferengi and cardassians. All other niggling things you'd think would be included in the game

 

[fredxquimby]

Mostly vanity and definitely nothing game imbalancing. But on the other hand, one man's vanity toy is another's character-defining gadget.

 

[fenrizz]

Mostly vanity and definitely nothing game imbalancing. But on the other hand, one man's vanity toy is another's character-defining gadget.

Oh I just remembered...
You only get 2 character slots, but you can buy more for cryptic points.
I can only assume Cryptic Points cost RL money?

 

[Deofuta]

So far its great.

Only two transactions at the moment in CStore, You can purchase the ability to make a Klingon or Ferengi character for the fed.HOWEVER I think it is possible to simply create a very similiar custom character.

 

[Nincompoop]

Props.

The power of the Trekkies has surely played a role.

 

[Fearzone]

They reported that on release day and, in my book "open account" does not equal "subscription" or "sales."

The most likely situation, at least to me, is that a million accounts is a big, impressive sounding milestone that Cryptic felt would make for some good PR, rather than a deliberate subterfuge to make the game sound busier than it is.

What's the difference?

 

[Ligisttomten]

So apart from buying the game, paying subscription, you have to *also* pay to use content that should be "free" and available no discussion? Allow me to "lol".

 

[Jared]

Well, its getting off to a good start at least. Looking forward to seeing it will actually keep going. I really would like to see it do so

 

[Abedeus]

So apart from buying the game, paying subscription, you have to *also* pay to use content that should be "free" and available no discussion? Allow me to "lol".

Guess why Champions Online, same developer, is slowly moving towards self-destruction.

I mean, they promised some of the content that is on the Amazon's store page, it's not there after few months, and the first actual content will be levels 37-40 (3 levels...) and PAID. Yeah, games like Lineage 2 get "chapters" every now and then, never had to pay. Also, CO is a great example of why P2P and stores don't match.