Ever since Embracer announced that it was moving Cryptic’s MMORPG operations from Cryptic to smol bean European studio DECA, the playerbases of Star Trek Online, Neverwinter, and Champions Online have been anxiously awaiting clarity on just how the transition is faring. Most of what we know came from employees who long exited Cryptic, and indeed, Cryptic all but shuttered last fall, booting out most of the remaining workers.
Well, we’re now getting what I think might be the first clear communication from DECA specifically rather than an intermediary or a backchannel. Both the Star Trek Online team and the DECA CM have posted a letter to the STO community, reiterating what Cryptic had previously said: that it’s a studio focused on maintaining older games, that Cryptic spent a year working with it to transition cleanly, and that it “rapidly expanded” to crew up for STO specifically.
“Since DECA became a primary partner in the development of Star Trek Online, we have been working very closely with Cryptic’s outstanding team to help oversee a smooth transition, a process we are in the midst of finalizing,” the new team writes. “We are grateful for the knowledge and support Cryptic have given us, and more importantly, the weight of responsibility passed over to ensure we are delivering updates at the standard players expect and deserve.” Then the team directly addresses the future of the game and its cadence.
“We are aware that over the last few months, there have been a lot of questions about the future of Star Trek Online and our plans. We are planning an Introduction Stream as well as a Q&A session in the near future. Additionally, you’ll see us pop-up once in a while on social media and forums to answer more questions in the coming months! We’ve also seen much discussion around what changes players might expect for STO under new development. We respect and will always consider the plans and update cadences already developed by Cryptic when planning for the future. Our team remains committed to delivering new Episodes, TFOs, Patrols, Ships, Rewards, and much more. It’s also important to us that we do not compromise the quality of our releases. We’re very excited for you to play through our first Episode on the 11th of February, and have already begun preparations for the next Episode in this Story Arc. Meanwhile, we have more Lore Blogs waiting for you to give you deeper insights into our story content.”
We’re also being introduced to our new community manager, Counselor Sunna, who’s apparently been lurking for the last few months to get up to speed on the state of the community (and therefore should have a pretty good grasp on how glum and upset everyone is). Sunna confirms that an intro stream is en route:
“We will be announcing the date here and on all our social media very soon,” Sunna says. “Going forward, my focus will be on making sure that all of you feel heard, and ensuring bug reports and similar complaints reach the developers at warp speed! There is, of course, also more coming your way – from social media events to streams, to lore blogs, and other content!”
The Neverwinter and Champions Online teams have not addressed their communities that we can find as we type this, but presumably, memos are coming for them at some point too. It’s cute how we assume Champs is getting a team, isn’t it?
