Star Trek Online: Subscription Offer Upsets Existing Users

In an attempt to boost subscriber intake for Star Trek Online, on the weekend of 27th February the www.Atari.com web site ran a special promotion allowing customers who bought the digital edition of the game to benefit from 60 free days of play (over the 30 days offered to pre-order customers).

Many existing fans were incensed at the news, particularly as the offer was advertised before the end of their own inclusive play period, and there was no comparable benefit for ordering the game early. The user backlash on the Star Trek Online official forums was so severe that Cryptic Studios were forced to make a number of public statements, such as the following:

http://forums.startrekonline.com/showthread.php?t=130549

http://forums.startrekonline.com/showthread.php?t=130907

While I can appreciate that Atari and Cryptic are very keen to build up the subscriber base for the game, particularly in light of the need to improve the PVP experience for many high level players, this does rather seem like they're trying to run before they can walk.

Many players who signed on through pre-order were already dissatisfied regarding the apparently incomplete nature of the game offered on the day of Star Trek Online's official release, and for some of these players this latest move is just the final nail in the (photon torpedo-shaped) coffin. Let's hope that the offer brought in more players than Cryptic may have just lost.