[aceman67]

Read the blog post here: https://www.arcgames.com/en/games/st...etail/10883424

TL;DR

No more monthly subs, if you're subscribed now, you'll continue being charged as normal unless you cancel, then you can't sub on a monthly basis anymore, All rewards from subs stay in place, life time subs unaffected.

Lifetime Subs is now the only source from where you can get Subscriber Bonuses.

[Tain]

Very interesting, I am curious about the rationale behind it.

[Mack]

Definitely interesting. It definitely is better than monthly subscription where only the character being levelled at that moment benefitted from the retrain token on promotion (the main thing), everything else would be reflected account wide, including bank space etc.

In a way I suppose it makes sense. I just feel bad for those who can't afford the heavy LTS fee all at once and had planned to reach the LTS status via monthly subscription.

[Bar'ol]

LOL what?! Strange move indeed.

[Silynn]

Interesting indeed. That LTS I got back in winter of 2010 has paid for itself nearly 6-times over.

[Dark]

The subscription has always been a bad deal for players, with the recommendation always being "sub one month, use stipend to raise EC cap".

So I'm surprised they're no longer ripping off the unaware.

[Sul-Matuul]

It looks good on paper i think, for those not able to afford a lifetime sub. At least it retains the same "drop in and out" style of the monthly sub but now appears more account wide which is always good. Plus, the big bonus i see is it's in the C-store which is pretty cool.

It all seems to hint that monthly subs were not bringing in much revenue if you can still get the same benefits but for free potentially. I know what i'll save dil>zen conversion for, the account banks slots and all the other per toon services will be pretty useful.

[Tavs]

Glad I made the LTS investment nearly 9 years ago! I want to see how this unfolds, I think that they will make additional changes to the store content and/or prices.

[Three of Seven]

It is a strange move, because people will often subscribe, then forget it's there, so I would have thought they would have kept it and made more money. I don't think more people would take up LTS over monthly subscription.

[Vox]

If you're a dedicated player who plays it often enough I'm not sure, the lifetime is a pretty good thing to have in that case, although maybe wait until they have it on sale again. It does seem like a bit of an odd move though.

Although I should thank them for this, as a lifetimer I don't have to worry about my STO sub but it did remind me that my PSN subscription is up next month

[Silynn]

The value of the $299 LTS today is not the same value of an LTS 5, 7, or 9 years ago. The longer you have an LTS, the more value you have gotten from it.

Buying one today... how much longer can PWE/Cryptic keep STO going? My google-fu is failing me at work, but I couldn't find the "Terms of Service" for the LTS. Meaning, what is PWE's guarantee for gameplay time once you buy it? It better be more than 25 months (roughly $12/month).

As much as I love Star Trek and STO... the game is getting long in the tooth. It came out in early 2010, right? So over 8 years old. Blizzard's WoW did a major overhaul with the Warlords expansion. They had smaller ones (lightning, poly-count, etc) in some of the previous ones. Basically, as GPU and CPU power has increased, the ability for more refinement in graphics are possible.

Now, when I'm in an older game with older graphics, the lower textures and polys of things are just more "in my face".

So... off the soapbox, is there any chance that PWE are or will put in some major work on graphics? That would certainly extend the life of the game and make the LTS method of subscription more worthwhile.

[Vox]

That's a good point Silynn. Well they did overhaul the lighting, granted that came with the console release as well but it was a start and while it's true that as GPU and CPU power increases STO doesn't look that bad and I also think people are more accepting of it when it comes to MMO's over AAA games, so that's a personal thing really.

I think it STO's case it's more a combination of like you said, how long PWE can/will keep STO going as well as how good the content they release is in terms of size and quality. I remember back in the 2nd-3rd year of STO they were still playing catch up from the way too early release and we had pretty much zero new content for that entire year just patches.

Finally it's one of those things where it's really up to each individual to decide the value they get from a game be it from taking a chance on how long the game may continue going for, those who look on it from the pure mathematical dollar for dollar value whereas for others more of a I'm paying this for these benefits without having to worry about when the subscription is due for example so that's a hard one to judge.

[Sul-Matuul]

The value of the $299 LTS today is not the same value of an LTS 5, 7, or 9 years ago. The longer you have an LTS, the more value you have gotten from it.

Buying one today... how much longer can PWE/Cryptic keep STO going? My google-fu is failing me at work, but I couldn't find the "Terms of Service" for the LTS. Meaning, what is PWE's guarantee for gameplay time once you buy it? It better be more than 25 months (roughly $12/month).

As much as I love Star Trek and STO... the game is getting long in the tooth. It came out in early 2010, right? So over 8 years old. Blizzard's WoW did a major overhaul with the Warlords expansion. They had smaller ones (lightning, poly-count, etc) in some of the previous ones. Basically, as GPU and CPU power has increased, the ability for more refinement in graphics are possible.

Now, when I'm in an older game with older graphics, the lower textures and polys of things are just more "in my face".

So... off the soapbox, is there any chance that PWE are or will put in some major work on graphics? That would certainly extend the life of the game and make the LTS method of subscription more worthwhile.

Really good points, and to be honest this is the major reason that always stopped me getting a lifetime sub.
Mainly because £200-odd is a lot of cash for a game, but mostly i suspect because deep down i just don't have faith in a game to last long enough to be value for money.
STO has lasted nearly 9 years, it may reach 10. So had i known this when i started it would have been a bargain. All the C-store things I've bought are probably well over the LTS cost would have been. But i'd need a time machine to have known that back it 2012!

These days i'd never recommend a LTS account, i honestly would feel guilty telling anyone to get it as i honestly don't think you could get that value out of the game in the time it has left. STO is going through some bumpy times recently, long term players are dropping, lockboxes are in the crosshairs, Trek is being renewed for the masses but the old fans feel left out. It's too volatile to recommend investing hundred in a LTS in my view.
I just don't see Cryptic/PWE putting much effort to really revitalize the game, they are just happy to milk the players with the same old tricks each season.

[Bar'ol]

I really dont see anything happening to sto right now. If Champions Online is still running sto will definitely still be around.

[Petrarch]

Champions Online is still around basically because one of the developers admitted that it doesn't take much to keep it running - it's otherwise essentially on life support.

STO on the other hand, is a major source of revenue for them and the official forums for it are by far the most frequented compared to the other PWE titles. So long as the money is there and they don't annoy CBS to a point where they revoke the licence, STO won't be going anywhere.