CEO On the Future of Star Trek Online - Reaction

In this video I reacted to what the CEO, Phil Frazier, of Star Trek Online/Cryptic Studios has to say on the future of Star Trek Online.
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[@Dracounguis]

The future is the same as the past... Log in. Do the event. Log out.

[@mebenn15]

I truly lmfao as I read this, bc I am about to do this exact thing after this video.

[@hawkeye5955]

Pretty much how I play STO these days. Most of the time I'm playing single player games.

[@axelhopfinger533]

There's simply not enough content to justify any other playstyle really.

[@suburbantimewaster9620]

Yep, standard procedure for every mission.

[@BorgOvermind]

+ Doffing for dill support.

[@ohaya1]

The comment about not experiencing lag when opening lockboxes was really funny!

[@patbenjamin503]

Glad to know they're not killing the game... I have way too much money invested in this game😂😂

[@suburbantimewaster9620]

And I just started getting back into it.

[@eSKAone-]

How could this fly under my radar? I love DS9, TNG, Voyager and The Orville 💟🌌☮️

[@Vapor413]

Glad to see a new CM coming soon. Cautiously optimistic about Deca coming in.

[@penguinmaster7]

the current CM pretty much hates the fanbase from what i've seen

[@TheSamsamdd34]

star trek is ok but there needs to be a real game use all those millions and make star trek ip on a new 2024 game Engine.

[@balung]

STO mark 2?

[@TheSamsamdd34]

@@balung sto is far to old and it needs to change to a new game engine , its way to old and weak for a massive IP

[@TheSamsamdd34]

I am sad that paramount is not smart about there own IPs

[@alexmarinescu2873]

Sto with a new engine will be super

[@ayato1036]

Please not another wanna be MMO, make a rpg or sandbox but stay the fuck away from MMO trash

[@MrGilfred]

I believe that by the way things are going with Deca and Cryptic Studios is similar to what went down with Blizzard Entertainment and Vicarious Visions (VV) at first VV started out working on remasters of Blizzard games such as Diablo 2 Resurrected. Then later on they were bought by Activision/ Blizzard. In time all Vicarious Vision employees were made Blizzard employees. I believe that is what is the most likely to happen with Cryptic Studios unless Deca has some other plans in mind. Meaning that they won't be losing their jobs. If they want to stay on as Deca employees they will be allowed to stay. Those that don't want to be seen as Deca employees will leaven and be replaced.

[@tetuone11]

It's possible they were asked to stay on but, were asked to take a pay cut which is why the high profile employees are looking for work elsewhere. Take care everyone.

[@andrewtaylor940]

Does Deca have North American studios? I thought they were in Germany?

[@MrGilfred]

@@andrewtaylor940Yes I know that they are in Germany. But still they could make Cryptic Studios an American branch of Deca. Also I did say simlar not identical.

[@Kinvarus1]

So it sounds like the plan is that Deca will eventually take over the main development of STO with Cryptic helping in the background after they take over

[@erikhawkke4861]

In Star Trek related businesses, with Embracer and Eaglemoss those are two of the most embarrassing business decisions/performances I've seen.

[@brandondrew6399]

STO is a great game,if they would step back and rebuild it from ground up with new technology they could make so much money,

[@Ethan-fz6tp]

yeah if it was the exact same premise and similar gameplay but NEW it would blow up in the best way.

[@zeke3672]

I said it in my last comment on this subject, but this will be the deciding action in STOs fate. It will either kill it or save it. As much as i dont like the idea of it sunsetting(which i HIGHLY doubt will happen anyways at this point) ive been ready for it since the reception of delta rising. When LoR dropped and stayed for years with no updates i fully expected the game to die. When DR dropped and was received very poorly i thought it was the nail in the coffin for sure. But the game has continued on despite my misgivings. At this point any change is welcome in my book, if its positive changes then great, i love it. If its negative the game dies and we dont have to worry about it any longer. All that said, i know we're supposed to be respectful adults, but i really hope Kael doesnt stay as CM. He's done literally the worst job possible and been abrasive as fuck on top of it. Get him out of here.

[@zeke3672]

Another point I forgot to touch on regarding gross revenue. Embracer's site places STO at 240+MILLION dollars. It has like 30-40% of the players Neverwinter has and makes around 60-70% of Neverwinters gross income. Now I don't know if this is yearly or total since acquisition. But even if it's total let's crunch some numbers(as most of us in STO do.) If we give the team the generous team member number of 240 that it had 2 years ago when embracer picked it up, and they gross from $50k-$100k(based on what Kael makes, he said around 97k/y for doing absolutely nothing) that's 12 million on the low side and 24 million on the high side. Now let's say CBS takes 50%(I have no idea what this number actually is, just arbitrary speculation) that still leaves a gross profit of anywhere from 110-130 million. The cost of a transfer to a new engine and even a remaster of old assets is pennies in the bucket in comparison. Unreal is a significantly more intuitive tool than whatever duct tape dream STO is currently built on. Will they do it? Eh, you're correct that if it's "not broke" they won't fix it. But I can't help but feel like they would save more money and headaches in the future with a port to unreal, even if the cosmetics stay the same. If your point was purely cost from a business standpoint, I can agree. But there's a myriad of other issues that will cost significant amounts to fix if STO remains on its current engine, and those costs will only increase as the game ages.

[@elGringo69]

I cant believe i live in a timeline where i actually kinda miss PW

[@radeadcool]

20:00 Wizards of the coast

[@AKASTEEL]

Thanks for the Informative Take.

[@tyneskipper]

new community manager means hopefully someone new who actually does the job of a community manager instead of refusing to engage with the customers. overdue. sorry he's losing his job but so overdue.

[@timhughes6674]

Fully agree. The Current CM never sat well by me and comes off poorly on stream. Between all the hate he gets for the CM and the writing, I really don't see how we didn't have a new one sooner.

[@Scrapheap979]

Wonder if Cryptic will remain as a shell since the IP licenses lay with them and DECA will keep the husk so they don't have to renegotiate. I'm not doubtful that DECA wants to keep the game going. They seem eager to get more recognizable titles in their library. Big question will be how they proceed with it. Will it follow similar paths of the current game or will it be changed to run like a mobile game? New blood in the game can be good or it can lead to a dip in quality

[@robsolf]

Crazy that Champions is still going.

[@BeyondDaX]

The costs of champions is pretty small compared to the other games

[@solasslym3]

@@BeyondDaXAnd the players spend high amounts of Zen chasing costumes and apparently R9 mods. I don't know why anyone spends anything on R9 mods, but they do.

[@BeyondDaX]

@@solasslym3 That's because its all to make sure their mains and their alts keep up with everyone on the DPS charts. Everyone's trying to crawl up to the leader boards even though I am sure the meta hasn't changed in years

[@solasslym3]

@@BeyondDaXThe difference between an R9 and an R8 mod is literally 2 pts. For a standard build, that's .4% difference per mod, with a total potential difference of 2.4%. As to the meta, it seems to be shaking up here and there. Some of the new Power Replace Devices have made some things way stronger, although I think the top is still power armor laser vomit and Massacre for melee.

[@terranadmiral6758]

I honestly think the game only has 4 more years at max

[@balung]

4 years before they are forced to use a new Game Engine for STO.

[@matth6014]

Im hoping the game doesnt last 4 days

[@jeffspicoli5399]

People in chat being douchebags... Lmao 🤣 you don't say.

[@PaDDy7389]

What I would introduce would be ship skins, because right now you have to buy a whole ship even if you just like its look. Another idea would be to be able to customize the colors of weapons or torpedoes so that a uniform appearance can be achieved without having to forego buffs from weapons and sets.

[@daniellevy4104]

Star Trek online is a shit show … super greedy boxes that never drop 150$ ships … so much disgusting greed

[@PhillipLemmon]

I do the event. And I try to play the other events as well (recruit, other specials etc) I love this game and I'm glad they're not killing it (sunset) Wish they would fix the ship drop rates in lockboxes... But I get it.... MONEY. I'm playing it on a crappy lappy but soon hopefully I'll get either a better one or build my first desktop pc. #LLAP 🖖

[@BlackRinninja]

Sto will run for the next decade and a little more, I've seen the future literally, but I do not remember everything. More Reputation tiers, more slots for items (that's issue even now)... more episodes... I don't buy stuff from the game, this games require millions of real money. Augie knows.

[@StarshipCaptainNemo]

They should really invest more into the gameplay experience and not so much into the store. I still play with the Risian Corvette T5U now maxxed out, because I don't want to buy a new ship or retrain crew on new stations. What I want is to experience new episodes and I want functional ship interiors and the clothing system backend needs a complete rework. I play a Federation affiliated Klingon character, which was available as a premium character unlock back then, but is now completely ignored in costume availability or bug fixing. Keeping the game alive just for the sake of getting the most out of the monetization is betrayal at us lifetimers and premium customers. If they just keep the things as they currently are, and not agressively ramp up the content they churn out, I will play Star Citizen instead which is currently in a very active open development.

[@mattdavies4372]

Smart people. Figure it out.

[@beaugrieve1913]

I'm a past STO player more than 7 years old when I finished. From playing for five years. I'm very sorry to say that the forums are criptic very sorry for the pun. Also, it is a bit close-minded about "we'll decide what we think the player base wants to do." Furthermore, he seems to say the same thing twice about sunset ingredients the game. Because it's sounds like the game has continued bugs in it still. My thoughts are that it's a takeover, not a continuation at the company level.

[@Jayhawk226]

D&D, doe those that dont know, is owned by Wizards of the Coast WotC wotcy

[@JCinLapel]

Just trying to warn people. I used Epic to get Zen put on my acount it linked me to a new account not my acount and put all the Zen on it. Epic Coustomer Service will do nothing about this and tells me that it is on an acccount their loader so they completed the service and will refund nothing and have no control to transfer it to the right account. Honestly after this I dont think I want anything to do with Epic or Cryptic, I sent in a ticket from both account but that is being sent to Ark not cryptic

[@suburbantimewaster9620]

Honestly, I’m surprised the game’s still around but in a good way.

[@hohum_3001]

DECA/Cryptic, I'm on a buying go-slow while the stuff I bought is performing like shi(t), not in a good way, in random elite when it used to. I'm not spending hundreds of Australian dollars on stuff just to have the value of it stolen from me.

[@wolfstriker3992]

This remote bullshit is going to backfire since many of the remote people are going to be in different time zones...eventually deca is going to have to decide at least for sto is concerned is to basically fully house employees at cryptic HQ in Los Gatos CA which is where they are located so that the majority of the team would be there. And then you can have support staff who are remotely working...

[@sora6748]

A lot of this is business talk he trying to make it easy to understand to people watching without using big words likely a lot of this is going over viewers head however embracer says STO is very profitable top revenue in business talk means its profitable so makes no sense to sunset it and end something thats making money thats good to hear that STO is doing so well. As for ftp thats a good thing to start and staying total ftp yea thats good a lot of games online ones going NFT or behind paywalls as of late lets hop STO doesnt go that route that will defently turn people off quickly. Right now the model at least from a business perspective is working good dont fix what isnt broken.

[@timhughes6674]

Champions has always been the unloved child for Cryptic and I'm legitimately surprized that is is still running. More so, that the zen store is still charging full price for a lot of items that weren't worth that kind of money when the game was doing well. Unfortunately, I only hear bad things about Neverwinter, and each major update just seems to make it worse. It even popped up on a list of the most paytowin games, recently, which is funny/kind of sad since that's the most press I've seen for it in years that didn't get blocked by my spam filters. I really hate that The Embracer Group dropped the ball so hard and yet people like the Dev teams are being hit the hardest. I'm not a fan of what Cryptic games have become, lotto boxes, shady comments, overpriced everything, and one story mission a year, but they didn't deserve this as an outcome. Not with the money Star Trek and D&D are currently making them. Great coverage of the live stream. I would like to see if they run more of the "All Hands" chats. I asked on CasualSAB, but do we know if they're closing Cryptic or not? The talk seemed very vague in that livestream.

[@remyrollo190]

WIZARDS OF THE COAST

[@xaionik]

Embracer is making them train their replacements. I don't see an upside for Cryptic. Either their next game is make or break or they divest the company.

[@marsmotion]

so whos going to own startrek in the future, sky dance? if so what will they want to do with it like they did with avatar, make a big ubisoft game? idk can deka hold onto the license? i think it actually would be a great property to really give a push into ue5 and a new full dev cycle of 3-5 years. make it a real robust aaa game with hopefully monetization done properly. you can release content that if its valuable enough can be paid for episodically, you can have loot boxes that yeah the drop rates should be pub opensource as well, and have a store where whales can help the game be profitable but also support making it affordable for the masses of players at a more reasonable cost. milking it is the last thing smart people should do with a property like this. do a starcitizen like game that is not as crazy as sa....deliver a cool game and have a rich ecosystem of ways to support it.

[@BorgOvermind]

Just don't ruin the free 2 play. STO is the only true free 2 play of any big titles. You can do anything and you can buy what you need when you needed it. Making SWTOR-like will instantly drop the player base to around 15%. Other than that: make shields viable/useful.

[@NotoriousNickNorris]

WOTC - Wizards of the Coast

[@jimelfman1369]

WotC is Wizards of the Coast...Neverwinter.

[@schoemannh]

Was literally anyone confused with the gender of these four men?

[@UkrainianPaulie]

Go woke...go broke.

[@axelhopfinger533]

Just a little mandatory virtue signaling to the progressive zeitgeist.

[@tomasr.]

I'm not sure about Kael's.

[@DerekLippold]

You know you don’t have to play right? Like, if you’re offended by something so minor that doesn’t affect you in any way just don’t play.

[@schoemannh]

@@DerekLippold You know, you don't have to automatically support insanity, right? It's OK to call out ridiculous things for being... ridiculous.

[@remyrollo190]

space is only half of the game tho and the ground game is pretty old

[@ReneRA-cs5ic]

all mmo without new content are dead

[@user-rv6uo3hd7p]

yes more of the same, every fu$$king ship is Fed and the lag wins all... still the game isn't going anywhere for at least 2 weeks

[@hohum_3001]

to monetize STO to provide a steady income is simple as simple itself. You can hire a Data or so to do the grinding for you on a subscription basis. Honestly, take my money! The grinding is mind-bogglingly boring.

[@MrDuceOwen]

The amount of jank makes me wonder why you'd want half of the people anyways.

[@BrayzenBull]

"He/Him" cool...

[@tmcgrenere]

What treachery is this!

[@harleydominga]

Pronouns?? Really? I can't take anyone seriously if they have pronouns next to their names.

[@hawkeye5955]

I already get the sense that the game is on the decline. It's already passed its peak. The people in charge of the game is not giving me confidence in the game's future.

[@tomasr.]

Seriously Kael's invention in his (hers? lol) streams.

[@hybrid9mm]

He/him seriously 🤦‍♂️ I hope that’s a troll but considering the recent game developers conference idk.

[@matth6014]

This game is suck a fukin disgrace. Every update new problems...now on console cant get rid of boffs. So now your stuck with the shitty ones you start off with.

[@DarthVader-1701]

Pronouns should be Ligma/Baals

[@balung]

Agreed, all the STD Kurtzman Trek fans ate overjoyed with them displaying their pronouns.

[@sr3473]

At this point just let it sunset. STOs time is over.

[@kipkipper-lg9vl]

it's kinda sad that, but games are just for profit products at the end of the day, has to happen at some point

[@play030]

No.

[@captainspire9094]

Thank you. Yes. Cryptic managed to make a battle with V'Ger boring as hell. Their "battle" music is akin to low-key elevator music. I've heard better voice work from Commodore 64 games, and there is nothing more that Go to system, talk, blow things up, talk, get betrayed, blow things up, fight more, get junk, end mission. I mean that's it! They could have done so many things with this game and they left it a weak battle sim. Even having your own shelf of starships is pointless as you can't use them for anything when all it comes down to it blowing things up. There is no story, no purpose other than to give accolades to the last 10 years of Star Trek. Just let it die.

[@balung]

​@@captainspire9094If anything DECA really needs to change the music, it's been the same since it's inception, I just turn the music off, and have done so for years.

[@captainspire9094]

@@balung Same here. I've just played star trek soundtracks in the background.

[@matthewmckinney5387]

The fact that they have their pronouns on screen makes me want to quit playing anything made by them.

[@gaffawebber]

Your fragility is noted.

[@play030]

I could care less I love Star Trek.

[@matthewmckinney5387]

@@play030 on console its the most toxic and mentally insane gaming community ive ever seen

[@captainspire9094]

No kidding. I'm sure their first BIG Loot box item is to allow your starship to assigned it's own pronouns.

[@danielmcelhatton1724]

The USS Snowflake has entered the chat.

[@olliek2837]

Pronouns🙈 Makes me want to find a new game. If you can’t tell these are 4 males you are truly lost. I certainly won’t be spending any more real money in game after seeing this!

[@wilddog1368]

Anymore when I see that a Company has to worry about making sure pronouns are having to be listed I go the other way.. DEI and all the other woke junk have ruined games and gaming all to fit a social agenda. Wonder if they have a company like Sweet Baby inc HELPING them make the games better.. Stop worrying about the BS and just make games for gaming and leave the politics and social engineering at the door. Fix the game .. update older storylines and the older gear so that it has some use. Stop chasing whales and make things affordable to where the common person is willing to spend money instead of pricing things through the damn roof. Star Trek has been killed over on Paramount by bad writing and no clue on what Star Trek really was about. I said my rant and do hope that you keep videos going MC Stu. Personally I would have loved to have seen the game have more stories from the Kirk era.

[@braddollahite]

I know I just noticed the pronouns and I'm like, really really. I almost said screw it and click off but I really want to see what's going on with sto

[@andrewtaylor940]

Something like Sweet Baby Inc might explain the J'ula story arc.

[@chase2806]

Oh wow, you all bitching about a company taking time to be courteous to others and inclusive. While you play a game in universe where the Federation is all about being inclusive of others differences. Pathetic.

[@wilddog1368]

@@andrewtaylor940 Would not surprise me but being that the Kurtzman Trek came up with the Klingorcs... sonar in space.. STD is just that an STD .. and that is WHY the IP of Trek is dying and about to be sold off. Writers are just writing crap anymore hoping mindless people will gobble it up. The older stuff showed writing talent.. now its all reruns.. copy-paste and pandering .. I would rather play Atari ET than some of the junk out there as games anymore.. and ET was awful..

[@wilddog1368]

@@chase2806 LOL

[@The_Zilli]

Folding, that is the future of Trek. No idea why you folks still waste your time and energy in such a sh*t game. 14 years and you all havent noticed their absurd game design of farm endless for rep badges which really aint that difficult to get and the only bottleneck to gear is refined dith. Once you get your rep set, nothing to do in the game other than do the same thing over and over and over... remind me again what was the definition of insane? Oh right, a bunch of Trek fans playing a broken game expecting it to magically improve. Nevermind the toxic Liberal Ideology that a good portion of the fanbase seems to have and they're more than fine with chasing away any Trek fan that doesnt match their ideology. So stick a fork in this game and channels that cover it.

[@starwolven]

hopefully DECA doesn't paste pronouns under their names. It's so cringe!

[@Chu6um]

Yeah, I'd tried to watch this when someone else posted, but when I see the 'pronouns' being posted, I tend to just ignore whatever else goes on. I guess I'm just too old these days.