Cryptic Studios sent over an email this morning announcing that the upcoming Star Trek-based MMORPG is finally getting a launch date. According to the developer, Star Trek Online will hit the Internet on February 2, 2010 in North America, followed by a European release date of February 5, 2010. The game will be shipped by Atari.
The news comes as a big sigh of relief for Star Trek fans who have watched the MMORG come and go over the last five years. Perpetual Entertainment originally started development back in 2004, and worked on the game until January 2008 when it filed for bankruptcy. Unfortunately, only the license and art assets were transferred over to current developer Cryptic Studios; Perpetual kept its proprietary game engine.
Star Trek Online takes place thirty years after the last New Generation movie, Star Trek Nemesis--it also takes place after the five next-generation comic books that lead into the recent Star Trek (2009) movie using an alternate timeline. Based on the graphical timeline proposed on the website, Romulus is destroyed, and life went on without Nero and Spock in 2409 (and Data is back as a Starfleet captain).
Cryptic claims that the MMORPG is largely based on its original design, technology, and assets. The company said that Perpetual created a "huge amount of concept art," much of which was applicable in the development process. As for specs, the MMORPG's minimum system requirements are as follows:
• OS: Windows XP SP2 / Windows Vista / Windows 7 (32 or 64-bit)
• CPU: Intel Core 2 Duo 1.8 GHz or AMD Athlon X2 3800+
• Memory: 1 GB RAM
• Video: Nvidia GeForce 7950 / ATI Radeon X1800 / Intel HD Graphics
• Sound: DirectX 9.0c Compatible Soundcard
• DirectX: Version 9.0c or Higher
• HDD: 8 GB Free Disk Space
• Network: Internet Broadband Connection Required
• Disc: 6X DVD-ROM
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