Star Trek Online Announces F2P Launch Date

The official launch date for Star Trek Online’s planned migration to free to play (F2P) has been announced.  Perfect World Entertainment and Cryptic Studios, makers of the game, have announced the F2P launch date to be January 17, 2012.

Celebrating the announcement, the developers released a newly-reworked cinematic opening sequence for the game.

Those in the beta test for the game on its Tribble test server will begin seeing the changes implemented starting December 1.  Cryptic plans to use the six week test to ensure stability and scalability for the large-scale release in January.

Since the takeover of the semi-popular MMO by Perfect World, many players have questioned the paid aspects of the game beyond its current subscription rate.  They speculate that the new F2P model will become a bigger “nickel and dime” job.

Perfect World and Cryptic say that the transition will boost game popularity and will bring in more revenue via microtransactions through the game’s store.