According to multiple sources, P2 Entertainment (formally Perpetual Entertainment) has officially closed their doors. This means an end to all projects, including their planned focus on casual games. There is no indication at this time what it means for the Perpetual Platform, which had been licsened to studios like Bioware Austin.
We will have more on this story as it develops.
In their complaint against Perpetual Entertainment, Kohnke Communications wrote that they had success "in convincing reviewers to write positive reviews about the game". It is a sensitive time, especially considering the recent controversies that surround x-Gamespot Editor Jeff Gerstmann and a pair of stories on GamePro and 1Up raised the issue.
WarCry contacted Kohnke Communications and P2 Entertainment for their responses to those two stories.
Click below to find out what they said.
In this exclusive interview, WarCry chats with Daron Stinnett, the Executive Producer of Star Trek Online. What's more, we also debut the first ever in-game avatar screenshot since the company rethought its art direction. The image shows a human character in battle with a Gorn Soldier.
It's been a turbulent couple months for the folks at P2 Entertainment (formerly Perpetual Entertainment). They cancelled their anticipated debut MMORPG Gods and Heroes amid layoffs and concerns for the company's long term health. Now as the dust begins to settle, we find out about Star Trek Online the game, it's long term health and where it's headed.
Yesterday, their former public relations firm Kohnke Communications launched a lawsuit against them, which included allegations of fraud against Perpetual, P2 and the company's leadership. The following interview was conducted last week, but WarCry did seek comment on the lawsuit from Perpetual and Kohnke prior to publish. As is customary with pending lawsuits, neither company had any comment.
WarCry: Recently, rumors suggested that STO would become a more casual game, while others said it would simply adopt a more casual business model. At its core, do you believe that the Star Trek universe is suited a casual experience?
Daron Stinnett: We've always believed that Star Trek is an inviting world for more than just the enthusiasts so we've stayed focused on making a game that everyone can enjoy. We know that difficult to learn gameplay can be a barrier for some as is the $15/month subscription fee. It is true that we have been discussing different payment models internally to see if there is a way to enable more people to experience Star Trek Online while ensuring that we are able to pay for the ongoing operating costs of a triple-A MMO. We haven't yet come to any conclusions though.
Click on "Read More" to do so.
Despite all the raging rumors and debates, Perpetual Entertainment kept moving ahead with their DevLog feature and released the very first Star Trek Online in-game screenshot, depicting a ComLink window above a cruising startship. The DevLog also included an overview of the Interaction System and more:
Over the past few DevLogs we've primarily focused on a sampling of the low-level processes of STO development, taking a peek at terrain generation, object design, and version testing, among other things.
Today we'd like to seriously shift gears, and start revealing a little bit about the actual game systems themselves. We'll start with a deceptively simple game mechanic that's deucedly difficult to nail down: the Interaction System.
What's the Interaction System you ask? In a nutshell, the Interaction System controls every non-combat, player-to-NPC interaction in the game. If you want to talk to a Ferengi shopkeeper, it goes through the Interaction System. Need to get some additional phaser training at the local Starfleet Academy? That's the Interaction System. Want to beam down to a planet? Interaction System. Responding to a distress call from a crippled starship? That's the Interaction System, too. In fact, when one is done tallying up the mission givers, trainers, vendors, Transwarp Terminal operators, Dahar Masters, helpful cadets and informative colonists, you'll find that there are just about as many peaceful interactions in Star Trek Online as the phasers-and-bat'leths variety. Put plainly, the Interaction System is the glue that holds all the other systems of STO together, transforming a bunch of disconnected (though spectacularly well designed and balanced) phaser fights into an actual game, so it's vitally important that we get it "just right."
Read More for the complete DevLog!
Perpetual Entertainment released its latest DevLog entry this month, polling the STO team about their Trekkie favorite characters and memories, and even squeezing in a preview of a Devidian by concept artist Ocala Bellows:
Entry 4.0 - "Polling the Crew"
Stardate 61330.6 (November 12th, 2007)
Welcome back to the STO DevLog, our regular look into the development of Star Trek Online, the only game that dares to reveal what happens when good tribbles go bad!
This month we thought it would be fun to peer into the minds of the STO team, to find out what they think about Star Trek. Surveys were sent out, and answers were sent in... by the crate load. Here's just a small sampling of we like to call:
Polling the Crew: Selected Reponses from the STO Team Survey
Which of Star Trek's alien races do you most identify with?
We got a wide variety of responses to this question:
"Those creatures in TNG that only speak in binary."
"Antedeans. Fish-like, that's me."
Can't We All Relate to these Guys?"Cardassians. I totally dig potentially redeemable villains."
Read the full DevLog #4 after the jump!
Over at the official Gods and Heroes site, they have posted instructions on how to get a refund if you had preordered the now canceled MMO:
Pre-Order Return Information
If you Pre-Ordered Gods & Heroes: Rome Rising, please contact the retailer where you purchased the pre-order. They should give you a full refund.
If only everything where that simple and to the point when dealing with game developers.
In this week's exclusive screenshot, we get a peek at a "water battle" in Rome. Players and monsters alike slog it out somewhere in Italy in this nice action shot.
Perpetual Entertainment, the developers of Gods & Heroes Rome Rising are making a few more beta codes available. As the beta program moves forward they require some fresh slaves, err, testers to bang on their game.
Rush on over here to sign up for your beta key.
It's been a little while since the last DevLog, but entry #3 is circulating over at StarTrek-Online.net and StoWanderers.com. It has not been posted to the official site's DevLog section yet. The latest entry discusses concept artwork.
Welcome back to the STO DevLog, a recurring glimpse into the planning, plotting and production of Star Trek Online, the game so big it takes half the galaxy to tell it.
For this installment we'd like to mix things up a bit. For the past couple of months we've closed out the DevLog with stunning pieces of concept art, showing off the elite skills of our concept team.
This time around, we'd like to start with one of these boffo images, and take everyone on a whirlwind tour of how they're broken into increasingly tiny pieces.
The full story can be found here.
This is the latest from Perpetual Entertainment's Gods and Heroes. This action shot reminds me of an old master's mythological battle scene. It's a great sequence and shot of it.
