Star Trek Online offers advanced retail programs

If you're still thinking of preordering Star Trek Online, waiting a bit to consider may turn out to be a very good decision. Cryptic is offering some nice bonuses for pre-ordering, but you'll find different items depending on where you place your pre-order. Everyone who pre-orders will receive guaranteed open beta access, and access to the Early Start program, which allows you to begin playing on January 29th, 2010 -- several days before the February 2nd launch.

The other pre-order items will change depending on where you place your preorder:

GameStop customers receive the ability to command the USS Enterprise.
Best Buy is offering their customers a fun in-game pet: Federation Captains will receive a Tribble, and Klingon Commanders will receive a Targ.
Amazon is offering an exclusive "Liberated Borg" Bridge Officer.
Wal-Mart offers a Bonus Skill Points package.
Target customers will receive a unique ground weapon – a TR-116.
Direct2Drive customers receive an exclusive Multi-Spatial Personal Shield, which constantly regenerates itself and the health of its wearer.
STEAM is offering customers Chromodynamic Armor, which improves the damage and critical hits of energy weapons.

The choices are all tempting, but it all looks great, so good luck trying to narrow it down to just one!

Reader Comments (73)

I cringed, hard.

This is exactly Cryptic did with Champions Online, it backfired for them with me. I tried the open beta and was throughly disappointed so I cancelled my preorder.

Also, heres a hint Cryptic, a beta is supposed to be a TESTING tool, not a marketing ploy.

By all means offer a head-start for pre-orders but don't do it under the guise of an open beta, which is far from being open. Also don't do it through file-planet like you did for CO, they suck. Hard.

Nope not anymore, open betas are for marketing mostly and stress testing a bit. That's about it. Money and making back what they put into these games is their top priority and with good reason. **Points at the recent releases of MMOs in the last 2 years**

Gone are the good old days I'm afraid, open betas aren't betas at all they are trials and bonuses, rewards for pre ordering and supporting the game ahead of time. If you think about it as a business it makes sense and it's hard to fault them for it.

You forgot to add IMHO to "Also don't do it through file-planet like you did for CO, they suck. Hard."

Agreed. I went through that beta hell with Champions Online. I had it preordered and everything. After the FilePlanet crap and the dismal "beta" experience I canceled the preorder. Betas are not marketing ploys, they are betas. Cryptic tried to have their cake and eat it too.

I absolutely cringe every time I see companies offering "bonus" items that affect gameplay.

You are basically at a disadvantage from day one unless you pre-order. And not just early access- stat and game-affecting gear. It's basically like opening up a hidden cash-shop. Can someone with $350 to blow get all the rewards attached to their account? Bad call, imo. Bonus items for MMOs should always be aesthetics only.

No. They can't.

In CO you could get all the pre-order items. For every pre-order made, you get a code that can be applied to your existing account. Things could have changed since their last botched launch where they might not allow it, but you could add multiple items in CO.

No you can't. You could apply all the pre-order codes but the retail key unlocks only 1 pre-order code.
For example you got all the pre-orders but bought the game at EBGames, you only get the EBGames pre-order unlocked.

Then my account must be bugged because I have the Anti Gravity Boots and the Harlequin hat/Grenade Belt on my account.

My account might be flagged for both the EB and Amazon items because I didn't add the codes to my account till after I added my retail key. I was a closed beta tester so I didn't need to use the pre-order code for the head start.

It shows up in the account but not ingame. I know this because I had to call to know why the rest of my pre-ordered items weren't showing up in game.

I got Amazon, EBGames and GoGamer.com pre-orders on my account but not ingame since according to a Cryptic Rep that I talked on the phone, Pre-Orders are tied to your retail key.

no no no... I will never preorder whatever the game gonna be.

Fool me once .. shame on you.. fool me 10 times.. yeah... I am a moron

You'll probably be able to purchase all this bonus content in 6 months for $5 a pop.

^^^ Sounds about right.

No kidding, definitely not worth preordering.

Seems not even Cryptic expects too many customers subscribing after their first month.

I'm sticking with EVE...

Money first, then open beta access?

It's like they expect their game to be horrible.

I've been a fan of Star Trek for 41 years now. It was nice to hear that they added bridges to the ships. But, how much can actually be done from that bridge? If they had sent me an invitation to open beta without attaching strings. I might have tried it. Now, Cryptic would have to pay me to play their game.

Shut up. So because they wouldn't let you play early (beta sucks) you're just not going to play their game? You show them, not trying something you've been a fan of for 41 years.

Why should they shell out $50 to blindly try a game from a company widely known for using smoke and mirrors? The fact that a fan of 41 years has doubts on a game they were really looking forward to, should tell you everything about the impressions on Cryptic's next rushed to launch game.

Take your own rude advice.

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Star Trek Online offers advanced retail programs

Reader Comments (73)

Posted: Dec 7th 2009 5:15PM Akhen said

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