"There has been a method to all the madness, but first and foremost on my mind has been ensuring that Star Trek Online has a big future ahead of it," Stahl writes. "That has led to some tough decisions and deep analysis of what was critically wrong in STO. The next several months are going to be exciting for STO as you begin to see everything that we've been working on (finally)."
The good news is that the F2P switch will not impact current subscribers (if anything, Stahl says they'll see more benefits), nor will it restrict content access. Cryptic may be lowering prices on some items in the C-Store, and Star Trek Online will be playable to the level cap without requiring money spent on it. Stahl also confirmed that more hardware is on the way for the game's foundation.
At least from his perspective, Stahl sees STO's new owners as a boon to the game's future: "Perfect World has made it very clear that they want to invest in STO because they believe it has great POTENTIAL and they see an investment that can yield an even better game. That to me, is the golden path that this game deserves. It is Star Trek we are talking about!"
