"The plus side is that PWE and Cryptic have been handling the Champions Online version quite well so far by most accounts and there’s no reason to believe the same won’t be the case for STO."
CO went F2P in January. PWE closed the deal with Atari a few weeks ago. PWE had nothing to do with handling CO before that, beside as someone already noted, PWE has 0 experience dealing with Freemium models.
They are already utilizing many of the UI features from CO like "gold membership required". Given that CO has changed nothing about their freemium model since the PW purchase, and that the CO freemium model has been widely received as a good change, I don't see STO transitioning to something other than the CO model.
Also the PW purchase happened in May, it has just been a slow transition for announcments about the changes. That's roughly 3 months where the only thing that CO has done is release more content (both cosmetic and playable), so it doesn't look like PW wants to come in and suddenly shift focus or payment models.
Trust me, it did NOT happen in May. It's been announced in May, but until the deal close what happens is both party are (intensely) discussing what it will include (propretary technologies, IPs, etc). That's exactly what happened this time. There have been contacts between Cryptic and PWE during those 3 month, but it's certainly not like PWE could have done anything about Cryptic ecomomic model beside providing advice if Crypic needed any.
Well let me clue you in, since it is PW get your wallet out, expect to have to pay for almost everything. So much for a f2p environment.
I take it you hadn't seen the C store when Atari still owned them I think PW can probably out price their existing customer base but I don't know if they could do any worse than Craptic was doing on their own.
Looking forward to checking it out. With as little time as I have to play, give me a few years. I might make it out of the starting zone.
Ken Fisher - Semi retired old fart Network Administrator, now working in Network Security. I don't Forum PVP. If you feel I've attacked you, it was probably by accident. When I don't understand, I ask. Such is not intended as criticism.
Well let me clue you in, since it is PW get your wallet out, expect to have to pay for almost everything. So much for a f2p environment.
It should be noted that none of PW's games use the hybrid model that Champs and STO will have, so Champs/STO do not conform to the same model as PW's other games.
Are you really that naive? In all PW games the good stuff costs a lot! Sure you can play their games without it, but it really cuts down on the fun factor if you desire to play for free because they make it very difficult to get things that make the game easier to play. They don't deviate from this design either. I expect ST will be more of the same.
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I'll go back if they pay me 15$ a month.
Spot on there my friend, Cryptic are FAIL, Big time.
Shame really, because I can see an epic sand box Startrek game, Epic.
Trust me, it did NOT happen in May. It's been announced in May, but until the deal close what happens is both party are (intensely) discussing what it will include (propretary technologies, IPs, etc). That's exactly what happened this time. There have been contacts between Cryptic and PWE during those 3 month, but it's certainly not like PWE could have done anything about Cryptic ecomomic model beside providing advice if Crypic needed any.
I take it you hadn't seen the C store when Atari still owned them I think PW can probably out price their existing customer base but I don't know if they could do any worse than Craptic was doing on their own.
3 words, Saw It Coming
Looking forward to checking it out. With as little time as I have to play, give me a few years. I might make it out of the starting zone.
Are you really that naive? In all PW games the good stuff costs a lot! Sure you can play their games without it, but it really cuts down on the fun factor if you desire to play for free because they make it very difficult to get things that make the game easier to play. They don't deviate from this design either. I expect ST will be more of the same.