Author Topic: Expanding Star Trek Gaming - Van Citters, VP of CBS Consumer Products Talks!  (Read 1604 times)

Offline Zach

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2009 was a huge year for CBS Consumer products.  With the next movie, 2009 was the biggest year for Star Trek related products in a very long time, with dozens of new product launches across the board.

Van Citters, vice president of CBS Consumer products recently spoke with TrekMovie.com about 2009 in review, what can be expected for 2010, across a variety of Trek Product Franchises including Books, Board Games, the new Star Trek Experience, and most importantly to us, Star Trek Gaming!

Here is what he had to say on Star Trek Online:

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The game launch has been a phenomenal success. Everything from the open beta, to the launch, to the first weeks, has far succeeded our projections for it. Atari and Cryptic have already more than doubled the server capacity and adding more all the time. It is the number one PC game launch in 2010. Player response has been great, and everyone is learning about what a great experience they have made for Star Trek fans. What I am most excited about with regards to the game, as vast as it is now, is that players have not seen anything yet. This is just the tip of the iceberg. They already have the first big expansion to the game, which brings the Borg to the forefront. There is an entire galaxy to explore, and a ton of stories to tell. You will see things like Rura Penthe, and Q and a ton of new things to explore. They way it is set up for Star Trek fans is like mini-seasons of a show of Star Trek, with missions playing like episodes.

He also went on to talk about the upcoming Star Trek Online tie-in novel:

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It is not your average Star Trek novel, in that it is told in the fashion of a Studs Turkel book or similar to Max Brooks "World War Z." It is written by Michael Martin and it plays out like a series of interviews with key figures from the Star Trek universe. It is a really new and interesting way of Star Trek storytelling and really helps take you into the world of Star Trek Online in an experiential way. It really helps explain the two political events that are going on within the game. It is really a great companion to the game.

....and finally - he spoke about the awareness at CBS Consumer Products, for new, more traditional Star Trek Games:

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Right now we are absolutely most heavily focused on Star Trek Online and it deserves a clear playing field right now. That said, we are aware of the demand for more traditional games with Star Trek and we are working towards that end and expanding the entire world of Star Trek gaming in the long-term. There are definitely things in the works. There is a great deal of interest in developing new games for Star Trek and we will definitely have more to say about it in the future. I am very excited about what the future is going to hold for Star Trek gaming as a whole.

With the huge success of Star Trek in 2009, it makes sense that there would be a huge interest from many game development companies, in making new Star Trek Games, however, with the somewhat tarnished reputation that Star Trek Gaming has built up over the years, with many lackluster games, it also stands to reason that CBS would want to take their sweet time to, first, make sure that Star Trek Online gets off to a good start, and then secondly, make sure that any other Star Trek Games are up to the quality that we all would like.

But what exactly can we expect?  At this stage, it is anybodys guess, but, rest assured that Hailing Frequency will be pulling out all of the stops to contact the right people at CBS and find out just what is going on!

Exciting times for all, so stay tuned folks!