Cryptic Studios has temporarily slashed almost $60 on the Lifetime subscription prices for Star Trek Online and Champions Online, as both MMOs prepare for pretty important milestones.
Star Trek Online turns a year old on February 2, and the discount should nudge devoted fans to plunk down $240 for Lifetime access to the space MMO. It helps Star Trek Online’s cause that its recent content additions like the Weekly Episodes have been a hit with current players, as our own Tim Williams attests. But newer recruits who may be biding their time until Star Wars: The Old Republic arrives may let the discount pass.
Meanwhile, Champions Online is ready to go free-to-play on January 25 with its Free for All update. While we’re upbeat that some Trekkers will bite the Lifetime discount promo, we’re less upbeat with Champions Online. It’s hard to convince a gamer to shell out the same $240 when he can just as easily be satisfied with paying $0 and still get to play the game, even though it’s only up to level 40 and with limited gameplay options. Couple that with the strong buzz around DC Universe Online these days, and it’s clear Cryptic will lower their Lifetime sub prices a lot more if they want to tie down players to their superhero MMO.
Just a few more days until the re-launch of Champions Online as a Free-To-Play game. Now, I’ll be able to take my demo version character, Ultimate Champion, out of Millenium City. Woohoo!
Cryptic should be taking drastic steps to save these mmos, not gently poking the discount machine and hoping for the best. They need to take a long, hard look at the faults these games have, redo them pretty much from scratch and re-release them. If not this, then only something akin will save this company from itself and the loss of millions of dollars due to apathy and ineptitude.