14 DAY TRIAL // Cryptic Studios, as the developer, and Atari, as the publisher, have announced that Star Trek Online, their MMO that will allow players to live the life of a starship captain, is set to go live on February 2 in North America and on February 5 in Europe.
The news is not yet offered on the official page of the project, where players can still sign up for the beta stage of the MMO, which began in late October and will probably be running until the official release date of Star Trek Online.
Star Trek Online is not, like the previous games set in the universe, tied to a certain series or motion picture. The idea is that all the players entering the MMO will be a starship captain who is either a part of The Federation or of the Klingon Empire. They will be able to cross the galaxy and engage other players but there will also be options to beam down to the surface of some planets and do some classic away mission adventuring.
The main focus will, of course, be on the space battles that will be like a sort of ballet crossed with shooting phasers and photon torpedoes hitting hulls. The various crews on the ship will be recruited and developed by the player in order to configure their experience and strategies to better suit his flying and fighting style.
Cryptic Studios has released Champions Online, another MMO, in September and the February date for Star Trek Online seems a bit close, especially when considering that the superhero MMO is getting an Xbox 360 version soon. Cryptic is also rumored to be working on a Neverwinter Nights MMO but Atari has not confirmed that the project is real, even though it owns the rights to the setting and has no other development team using it.