As if the news of Cryptic’s mass layoffs and de facto demise this week wasn’t news enough, now Star Trek Online’s new caretakers appear to be tinkering with the game’s payment model – in a way that will actually feel like a gift for those affected.
Readers might recall that way back in 2018, Star Trek Online stopped vending monthly subscriptions. Lifetime subs kept on working (and are still for sale to this day), but for the most part, Cryptic was trying to change the game over to a hybrid B2P offering instead, with a one-time paid unlock on top of microtransactions. However, players who were already subbed monthly back then weren’t kicked off; they were allowed to continue subbing and accruing their sub benefits these last six-plus years.
Well, those subs are coming to a hard stop now. Players on Reddit who had kept their subs going up this whole time without going lifer report that they’ve received messages from Cryptic/Deca that cancel the subs – and swap it for lifer status, gratis.
“As of October 10th, 2024, Star Trek Online will no longer be supporting monthly subscriptions,” the email reads. “While we haven’t allowed any new subscribers in several years, many of you have faithfully continued supporting our game. We wanted to make sure we thanked you properly – therefore, anyone who had an active subscription on January 1, 2024, will see that subscription transferred to a free Lifetime Membership.”
Lifetime subs generally go for $200 (or significantly less when on promotion), so that’s a rather generous gesture – though of course, if you subbed the last six years, you put more than five times that much along the way, so really, it’s the least the studios can do in the service of cleaning up Cryptic’s books ahead of the transfer to Deca.
