Cryptic Studios, which has been no stranger to controversy lately, is on the receiving end of community backlash once again, this time for their recently released MMORPG, Star Trek Online. What's stirring the pot over at Star Trek Online? A limited time offer of a $10 price cut and an additional 60 days (for a total of 90) free game time for customers who purchase the standard edition of  the game or just the extra 60 days for those who purchase the Collector's Edition before 9PM PST on Wednesday, March 3rd, 2010.

As a new customer, this sounds like an absolutely excellent offer. Who wouldn't want an extra 60 days? That more than covers that premium one would pay for the Collector's Edition, and makes the standard edition an absolutel steal. I'll give you a hint -- it's not the new customers that are in a tizzy.

The early adopters of Star Trek Online are the one's feeling the rage at the moment, and boy are they angry.

Cryptic Studios has released a statement regarding the matter, but it hasn't really done much to placate the community. Read below for Cryptic's statement:

Hi everyone,

We understand that some of you are upset about the current sale on Atari.com. There are a number of threads on the forums about this, which is making it very difficult to find information about anything else on these forums. Due to this, we are closing all other threads regarding this matter. We do value your feedback on this, matter however, and would appreciate it if you would post your feedback regarding this matter here, in this thread. All other threads regarding this will be closed.

Thanks,
Phoxe

Addendum:
I've heard many voicing concerns that we will not be honoring this sale for anyone who took advantage of it this weekend. This is not the case at all, and anyone who decided to take advantage of the offer will receive what they purchased, as advertised.

It now appears that the 60 day bonus has now been removed.

What are your thoughts on the issue? Let us know in the comments below.

[Thanks Xondar123 for the tip!]

 Look at the bright side for being known as a shady amoral company... they're always under the spotlights ;)

About time you posted it ;)

You forgot to add that ATARI not only suddenly retracted the whole offer yesterday morning.

They also suddenly took in a stance of flat out saying the offer NEVER existed!

All the people that took on the offer. They were charged shipping fee. And the 60 extra days they also didn't get! As the 60 day codes were suddenly removed from their account page as well.

People that tried to call ATARI were hung up on the phone. And people that posted about this on the ATARI forums were instantly banned!

Cryptic however, is doing nothing more then damage control on their part. Wich I cannot blame them for. As their forums were a complete warzone over the weekend and a real mess. So they had to do something.

Not to mention that people now also getting banned on the Cryptic forums as well.

That statement on the Cryptic forums however, has now been altered three times (in the first version they were also saying the +60 days offer never existed)! And is in sheer contrast and conflict with the stance ATARI is taking and still taking at the moment. Meaning, that as of today, ATARI still claims the offer NEVER existed. And customers contacting them are getting ZERO on request!

I'm wondering about the 1 million accounts STO claims to have. As I said then - and will say again - 1 million accounts is not actual sales. From this stunt I can only conclude that Cryptic/Atari is stunting to get more players into STO to prevent the game to go from fail to epic fail.

Can't think of any other reason to make an offer like this if the game is only 1 month old...

Since before Champions Online launched Cryptic has been hell bent on lurching from one self inflicted PR mess to another and there seems no end insight.

Champions Online and Star Trek Online both  suffer from the same recurring failure, Cryptic.

 F2P pending. Given time.

I knew this game was going to flop hard, but this is just horrid CS and sales scamming.

Cryptic and atari are now in true league with SWG fail.

Reasons are not just this, but the never ending bait and promise to get the current player base they just f'ed over to renew.

Respec was suppose to be in last patch, which was late too btw. Anyways people say on this oh you should have decided a path better......well sadly the skill tree didn't give much info was a hit or miss. Not to thrash even more but how many of you have reached admiral, most of them have quit by that time or soon after due to repetitive content and lack of anything to do at the admiral lvl besides wait in a que for 15 minutes to several hours to get any pvp.

Klingons have jack chit for content, but lucky they can inter-fight to get points unline feds who need to wait for some klingons to que up for a fight.

TBH I don't know why I even bother to bitch on pvp as it's SOOOOOO  crappy in the game it's unreal. You have it on both sides not just one. Ground pvp is stun, exploit, die over and over. Space pvp is I WIN if you have a carrier (klings ) who currently can sit and swap out hangers to mass spawn fleets of npcs to help in pvp. Now not to nag either side but both have CC abilities that make the pvp boring and annoying. No real control immunity.

Bottom line unless cryptic has HUGE HUGE content and balances the CC to a more playable lvl this game will fail quicker than aion/warhammer. ( atleast warhammer is trying to fix it still )

I am glad I played my buddies account first before wasting money on the game.

Originally posted by Guillermo197

About time you posted it ;)

You forgot to add that ATARI not only suddenly retracted the whole offer yesterday morning.

They also suddenly took in a stance of flat out saying the offer NEVER existed!

All the people that took on the offer. They were charged shipping fee. And the 60 extra days they also didn't get! As the 60 day codes were suddenly removed from their account page as well.

People that tried to call ATARI were hung up on the phone. And people that posted about this on the ATARI forums were instantly banned!

Cryptic however, is doing nothing more then damage control on their part. Wich I cannot blame them for. As their forums were a complete warzone over the weekend and a real mess. So they had to do something.

Not to mention that people now also getting banned on the Cryptic forums as well.

That statement on the Cryptic forums however, has now been altered three times (in the first version they were also saying the +60 days offer never existed)! And is in sheer contrast and conflict with the stance ATARI is taking and still taking at the moment. Meaning, that as of today, ATARI still claims the offer NEVER existed. And customers contacting them are getting ZERO on request!

This should be added, i've been following this since it first started and it's almost comical at this point.

Originally posted by jadedlevir

Originally posted by Guillermo197

About time you posted it ;)

You forgot to add that ATARI not only suddenly retracted the whole offer yesterday morning.

They also suddenly took in a stance of flat out saying the offer NEVER existed!

All the people that took on the offer. They were charged shipping fee. And the 60 extra days they also didn't get! As the 60 day codes were suddenly removed from their account page as well.

People that tried to call ATARI were hung up on the phone. And people that posted about this on the ATARI forums were instantly banned!

Cryptic however, is doing nothing more then damage control on their part. Wich I cannot blame them for. As their forums were a complete warzone over the weekend and a real mess. So they had to do something.

Not to mention that people now also getting banned on the Cryptic forums as well.

That statement on the Cryptic forums however, has now been altered three times (in the first version they were also saying the +60 days offer never existed)! And is in sheer contrast and conflict with the stance ATARI is taking and still taking at the moment. Meaning, that as of today, ATARI still claims the offer NEVER existed. And customers contacting them are getting ZERO on request!

 

This should be added, i've been following this since it first started and it's almost comical at this point.

Wow, so they actually managed to turn an issue like this in a total screw up, not only screwing up current loyal customers but also new customers. Amazing work there, not every company can fail THAT hard, especially when trying to say a special offer like this never happened, getting banned for talking about it or actually getting scammed - no extra 60 days and free shipping.

Like I said in the last 3 threads that brought this up; "Cryptic Studios" name fits them perfect, because everything they do is cryptic and shady. It's terrible how they've treated their customers. I haven't seen such a display like this in any MMORPG I have ever played. This honestly makes the Allods $7000 Cash shop items blunder look good.

~Miles "Tails" Prower out! Catch me if you can!

It amazes me the level of unawareness that some individuals display when it comes to PR for a product/company. The outside world's (specifically, the gamers') perspective of a company/game ties in strongly with initial and ongoing perceptions.

Look at WAR - the game did well initially due to the fanbase Mythic and DAOC had built over the years. While I don't think it delivered up to its potential, even many "haters" out there grudgingly note that there has been a re-investment into the quality and content of the game. Whether or not that will be "too little, too late" remains to be seen.

Cryptic made a solid name for themselves with the CoX games, and it payed off well in generating interest for their other games.

Champions Online made a serious PR SNAFU by introducing a game-changing patch at the end of their headstart program. It begs the question, what do the development managers and business leads think about in these scenarios?

Now, take a game that has been introduced to mediocre reviews and (was) relying almost completely on its IP laurels, and introduce a disasterous series of events that alienates both existing and prospective subscribers to the game. That isn't a balance issue, it is a direct hit to one's wallet. I can only hope those responsible have been sacked.

Originally posted by Talin

It amazes me the level of unawareness that some individuals display when it comes to PR for a product/company. The outside world's (specifically, the gamers') perspective of a company/game ties in strongly with initial and ongoing perceptions.

Look at WAR - the game did well initially due to the fanbase Mythic and DAOC had built over the years. While I don't think it delivered up to its potential, even many "haters" out there grudgingly note that there has been a re-investment into the quality and content of the game. Whether or not that will be "too little, too late" remains to be seen.

Cryptic made a solid name for themselves with the CoX games, and it payed off well in generating interest for their other games.

Champions Online made a serious PR SNAFU by introducing a game-changing patch at the end of their headstart program. It begs the question, what do the development managers and business leads think about in these scenarios?

Now, take a game that has been introduced to mediocre reviews and (was) relying almost completely on its IP laurels, and introduce a disasterous series of events that alienates both existing and prospective subscribers to the game. That isn't a balance issue, it is a direct hit to one's wallet. I can only hope those responsible have been sacked.

I never expected much out of Atari. Everything they release is a disappointment. They even managed to destroy the beloved Neverwinter Nights series.

Atari has done nothing but emit failure since it entered the console business, and does nothing but exude failure in the software business. Atari should have just gave up long ago. Maybe they could take that money they steal from people and clean up their mess of ET Games in New Mexico.

But I guess their current owner is too busy playing make believe "Swordquest" with his 18k gold jewel-encrusted, pure-silver bladed sword to care anymore.

~Miles "Tails" Prower out! Catch me if you can!

Originally posted by jadedlevir

Originally posted by Guillermo197

About time you posted it ;)

You forgot to add that ATARI not only suddenly retracted the whole offer yesterday morning.

They also suddenly took in a stance of flat out saying the offer NEVER existed!

All the people that took on the offer. They were charged shipping fee. And the 60 extra days they also didn't get! As the 60 day codes were suddenly removed from their account page as well.

People that tried to call ATARI were hung up on the phone. And people that posted about this on the ATARI forums were instantly banned!

Cryptic however, is doing nothing more then damage control on their part. Wich I cannot blame them for. As their forums were a complete warzone over the weekend and a real mess. So they had to do something.

Not to mention that people now also getting banned on the Cryptic forums as well.

That statement on the Cryptic forums however, has now been altered three times (in the first version they were also saying the +60 days offer never existed)! And is in sheer contrast and conflict with the stance ATARI is taking and still taking at the moment. Meaning, that as of today, ATARI still claims the offer NEVER existed. And customers contacting them are getting ZERO on request!

 

This should be added, i've been following this since it first started and it's almost comical at this point.

I'd be glad to if any of you can provide me citations (links) that I can investigate. Feel free to email me at mikeb@mmorpg.com with any additional details.

They say bad publicity is still publicity. But I think this case is different. This might run Atari/Cryptic into the ground. The marketing genius who crapped out the brilliant idea to rip off the long-time loyal fans and reward the new fans has probably already been fired. Now they're on life support trying to find a way out of this mess.

On their one month release anniversary of STO, they are probably receiving more flack than any other studio ever has within such a short time frame. I hope they learn their lesson: don't rip off your fans.

Wow...I'm really glad I found out that STO isn't for me before I bought it. This sounds really shady and there is something I want to ask: Although I didn't recommend it, a friend of mine (he lives in the USA, so we are more gaming friends) bought that game when he saw that limited offer. Today, he told me per email that he was charged for shipping and didn't get his 60 days of free time. I think he is trying to contact them now, but haven't heard more of that. I thought they were going to honor that agreement? Is my friend the only one who hasn't received what was promised yet? Cause I know he was pretty pissed when he wrote me and I can really understand him...

What goes around, comes around.....nothing short of what Cryptic and Atari deserve.  They have wholeheartedly earned this train wreck and I hope they die a horrible, painful economic death.

OMG Cryptic ahahaha

I remember like it was yesterday that people were singing the praises of Champions Online because Cryptic knew how to make a superhero mmo with deep customization

Now just half a year later, their name has become synonymous with slimy immoral business practices and horrible game design/customer service

Aaaaand meanwhile Funcom, most hated MMO developer of all time thanks to AO's launch and AoC as a whole, has come out of nowhere to be a ****ing awesome company and completely turned AoC around for the better

I love this industry

bah /ignore

I am an STO lifetime sub, I could care less.  They want to offer 60 days free, that is fine.  They can do that when and where they want to.  It doesn't effect my position.  As long as the game lasts at least 2 years my lifetime sub has paid for itself and I am happy with that.  And IMO having more players is a great way to keep the game going, and offering 60 days free is a great way to attract new players.  I understand why others are upset, but I really couldn't care less. *apathy FTW*

Say what you will about Cryptic, but I don't feel that any of the early adopters have anything more than their own lack of patience to be upset about.

Take any game, MMO or otherwise, that's just been released and some outlet somewhere will offer a sale on it within the first month.  If you want to spend the extra $$$ to get the game right at release that's your business, but there's no use in complaining when a sale pops up the next week that slashes $10-15 and offers an extra or two.  Until a game (or any product really) hits bargain basement prices there will always be someone who bought it two days before the sale and they'll feel cheated.  C'est la vie.

I'm not defending Cryptic or saying they're in the right here, I'm simply saying that it pays to be patient.