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Viacom, Activision Stand Down From Red Alert

Posted by Zonk on from the hailing-frequencies-open,-captain dept.

GameIndustry.biz has the word that Viacom and Activision has settled their dispute over the Star Trek license. The settlement was reached last Friday in a confidential agreement that ends a series of suits begun back in 2003. From the article: "If the two are collaborating on new Star Trek projects, however, they remain under wraps. The last Star Trek game announcement came from online game developer Perpetual Entertainment, which announced in September that it was producing a massively multiplayer game based on the sci-fi series."

22 comments

  1. MMORPG Star Trek a reality? by XenoChron · · Score: 2

    Does anyone know if the MMORPG for Star Trek is really going to ever make it? Is it still being worked on?

    1. Re:MMORPG Star Trek a reality? by blueZhift · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Hard to say. There haven't been any recent announcements about work on the MMORPG. I think the MMORPG market is currently saturated leaving little room for newcomers even if they have a big name license like Star Trek. And given that the performance of Enterprise has tarnished the brand a bit, this wouldn't be a good time. Still, there could be money to be made. If I were them, I would wait a couple of years before seriously pushing the project forward.

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    2. Re:MMORPG Star Trek a reality? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      There was an update a few days ago on StarTrek.com about the game, so I suppose it's still being worked on! Read the article here.

  2. MMORPG by yotto · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Let's hope Berman's hand isn't in the MMORPG. I don't want to be defending the Federation from Nazis.

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    1. Re:MMORPG by MagicDude · · Score: 2, Informative

      http://www.startrek.com/startrek/view/series/TOS/e pisode/68764.html

      Star Trek was dealing with Nazis well before B&B.

    2. Re:MMORPG by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      nazis are like the ultimate evil

      any good series has at least one show involving nazis

    3. Re:MMORPG by istewart · · Score: 1

      Oh come on, TOS only used the Nazi gimmick... twice.

      And they weren't even alien Nazis. Technically.

    4. Re:MMORPG by Guppy06 · · Score: 1

      " Oh come on, TOS only used the Nazi gimmick... twice."

      Alright, so what's the Nazis-per-season ratio for TOS, and how does that compare to Voyager?

      And using imperial Romans was kinda pushing it as well...

    5. Re:MMORPG by Ayaress · · Score: 1

      The original series had Nazis, Romans, mafia, wild west, and that alternate future Earth where the civil war had turned into some sort of apocalyptic event and they had people living in caves flying the American Flag. That trumps the nazis ten times over.

  3. History of trek games... by MBraynard · · Score: 1
    For those interested in seeing the list... There are some good, some bad, some awful. Personal fav was Elite Force - not much of a ST game though other than being in the ST universe. Klingon Acadamy was worth the FMV alone.

    1. Re:History of trek games... by istewart · · Score: 1

      Far too many were awful, sadly. Elite Force and Elite Force II were the only good recent releases. They were both based on the Quake 3 engine, if that tells you anything. (EF2 may have been the last commercial game based on Q3... it was one of the last anyway.)

      Before that, DS9: The Fallen (based on Unreal) and the Academy games are the only ones that stand out in my memory. My personal favorite is EGA Trek, a graphical DOS clone of the trek game that ships with all BSDs. It used Mongols and Vandals rather than Klingons and Romulans, but it's still a fun game to play.

    2. Re:History of trek games... by chris411 · · Score: 1

      I loved the 25th Anniversay adventure game produced by Interplay. And the follow-up, Judgement Rites. They often felt more like the 4th and 5th season of TOS than a game, and I mean that as a compliment. I wonder if I can track down Final Unity...

    3. Re:History of trek games... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      If you can, good for you: I've played the heck out of that game, and it's really worth it. It was both great and impressive for it's time.

    4. Re:History of trek games... by kaellinn18 · · Score: 1

      Man, you youngin's missed out on the best Trek games of them all. The best games by far were the Star Trek 25th Anniversary and Star Trek: Judgment Rites adventure games. I think they are both legal abandonware now, so you should probably have no trouble finding the games and downloading a DOS emulator. The graphics aren't much (hey, it was early 90s), but the stories were great. Also, the original cast did the voiceovers.

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  4. Hooray! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    First I read this wonderful news, then I see this gem. Peace in our time, my friends! Peace in our time!

  5. Yes... by SirBruce · · Score: 1

    Perpetual is still developing the Star Trek MMOG, but first they will be releasing Gods and Heroes. Don't expect to see Star Trek Online for another 2 years at least.

    Bruce

  6. Star Trek MMORPG... Too late.. by InsideTheAsylum · · Score: 1

    It's too late for a Star Wars MMORPG.. From my perspective as an MMO gamer, the market has already been flooded. The only crowd that a STMMO would draw would be hard core trekkies and frankly, there aren't that many of them around anymore.

    1. Re:Star Trek MMORPG... Too late.. by SirBruce · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Assuming you mean Star Trek and not Star Wars the second time...

      Actually, while the market did seem very crowded in most of 2004, World of Warcraft proved they could grow the market, and brought in literally hundreds of thousands of new MMOG players. These people are all potential customers of a Star Trek MMOG.

      Another thing is that, while the fantasy space is very crowded, the sci-fi space is not. There are only a few sci-fi based games out there, most notably Star Wars Galaxies, Eve Online, and Anarchy Online (plus City of Heroes if you count superheroes as sci-fi). And of those only SWG has really hit it big. There's plenty of room for another 200K+ subs sci-fi game, and several companies are working on exploiting that niche. Look for Imperator Online and Tabula Rasa to come out late this year/early next year as examples.

      Finally, like Star Wars Galaxies drew in a bunch of Star Wars fans, Star Trek Online will draw in a bunch of Star Trek fans, who otherwise are not playing MMOGs. So the chance for success is quite good. I'd much rather be a company putting out a Star Trek Online game than one putting out Generic_Fantasy_MMO_#27.

      Bruce

  7. In other news... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Enterprise still sucks, right up to the very end.

  8. Star Trek MMORPG? by Glytch · · Score: 3, Funny

    Oh boy! Now we can all be redshirts!

  9. Star trek armada II by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I thought star trek armada II was a fun game. i still play it, and wish that more people did. I find that its nearly as balanced as starcraft. of course the races are nearly identical, but still fun.

  10. TOS on modern tech! by Rob+T+Firefly · · Score: 0

    Several reliable sources tell me that Shatner has already sent in his toupee for raytracing.

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