Fleet Report: First Post

I am going to try to start a regular set of posts regarding the future of Star Trek Online and what I personally see as going on.  I want to start off by making sure everyone who reads this knows I have no special "insider" information.  Everything I say here is speculation or gleaned from publicly available information (which I will do my best to properly document and reference).

Head on past the jump to get into the meat and potatoes...

The legendary Steve Jobs has left the auditorium

I really don't have much to say right now.  I'm rather speechless. So I'm just going to repost what Apple has right now at http://www.apple.com/stevejobs/.

Portal: No Escape (Short Film)

If there was ever a feature film based on Portal, this is what I would hope it would be like.

Red Alert! The Borg are Coming!

So, starting at the end of the week... we're getting random Borg incursions into 3 sector blocks. Around Sol, Qo'noS, and DS9...

Every hour or so, there will be a fleet wide red alert, and you will get presented the chance to PUG with 4 other players in the area (both Fed and Klink) to take out a Borg invasion fleet. You get 15 minutes to take down the first wave... and if you manage to do that, you are confronted by a Borg Diamond (rumor has it). This is a super space boss that will apparently be the "most difficult" encounter yet. Considering the Crystalline Entity, I seriously hope that's hyperbole. This encounter is supposed to give 10x the point rewards as normal (for those of us at skillcap, this is mostly useless). I just hope there are some phat loot drops.

Oh... and there are a bucket of accolades to go with these encounters. I suspect each boss ship has its own named Borg. So you get one for each and one for collecting them all.

Set a course for danger, warp 9!

Engage.

Cryptic Transition to Perfect World Continues

The transition of Cryptic from Atari to Perfect World Entertainment has taken another large step today with the posting of more details as to what to expect in the coming months.

We're happy to report that Cryptic Studios is now a wholly owned subsidiary of Perfect World Entertainment. These are exciting times for Cryptic! As we integrate more completely with Perfect World, our companies will come together to deliver quality MMO experiences.

Additionally, an FAQ has been put up to answer the top inquiries pertaining to the details surrounding this transition.

These are exciting times.  I'm really looking forward to what this means for the future of Star Trek Online.

Perfect Day: Cryptic is now Officially owned by Perfect Worlds

In a press release today (PDF), Atari announced that the sale of Cryptic Studios to Perfect World has been completed.

Atari Announces The Closing of the Divesture of Cryptic Studios

Paris, France, August 9, 2011 -- Atari, S.A. (NYSE Euronext Paris: ATA) (“Atari”), today announced the closing of the divestiture of its 100% equity interest in Cryptic Studios, Inc. (“Cryptic Studios”).

As per the stock purchase agreement announced on May 31, 2011, Atari will receive from Perfect World a gross cash amount of approximately €35.0 million.

Atari will use the proceeds of this sale to reimburse €21.6 million of the BlueBay credit facility, which will be reduced to a facility of €24.2 million, and the balance to finance its operations and continue the implementation of its strategy based on social/casual and mobile gaming and higher margin segments, including licensing.

We here at Subnova will henceforth refer to August the 9th as "Perfect Day".  We welcome Cryptic's new ownership and look forward to the upcoming hiring spree and the continued development of Star Trek Online, Champions Online, and Neverwinter.

O Brave New World