Cryptic Studios’ long-running massively multiplayer online game, Star Trek Online, is launching its Corruption seasonal update today.
The Corrpution launch on the PC today coincides with the MMO’s 16th anniversary and the 60th anniversary of Star Trek. The console launch will happen on March 10.
The PC game is boldly expanding the Star Trek universe for players around the world,
underscoring the enduring legacy and continued evolution of one of science fiction’s most iconic worlds. To date, more than 7.7 million people have played the game. There are tens of thousands of people logging in every day.
Originally released in February 2010, Star Trek Online is officially one of the longest running Star Trek series in the history of the franchise and offers over 200 episodes, over 70 queues (now known as Task Force Operations), four major expansions, and 35 full seasons of playable content. I spoke with Thomas Marrone, executive producer of Star Trek Online, in an interview. (See the YouTube trailer here).
Marrone has dedicated his career to the game. Thanks to his fan art, Marrone got his foot in the door 15 years ago. He got a job at Cryptic Studios and started out as a user interface artist. He worked on the Star Trek game first as a user interface artist and on publishing. Then he started doing 3D models of starships.
Over the last 16 years, the game has explored some of Star Trek’s most beloved series,
including classics like The Original Series, Voyager, Enterprise, Deep Space Nine, and The
Next Generation. Star Trek Online has also continued to boldly go into the modern era of the franchise with content from the Kelvin-Timeline Star Trek films and the contemporary Star Trek shows on Paramount+, including Discovery, Picard, Prodigy, Lower Decks, and Strange New Worlds.
Continuing Star Trek Online’s impact across the wider franchise, three original starships from the MMORPG appeared in Star Trek: Starfleet Academy’s episode “Vox in Excelso”: the Ketha Recon Raptor, M’Chla Bird of Prey Refit, and QeHpu’ Advanced Light Battlecruiser.
Star Trek Online has also welcomed dozens of original cast members to the game, including Leonard Nimoy (Spock), LeVar Burton (Geordi LaForge), Michael Dorn (Worf), Gates McFadden (Beverly Crusher), Wil Wheaton (Wesley Crusher), Denise Crosby (Tasha Yar), Armin Shimerman (Quark), René Auberjonois (Odo), Nana Visitor (Kira Nerys), Kate Mulgrew (Kathryn Janeway), Jeri Ryan (Seven of Nine), Robert Picardo (The Doctor), Garett Wang (Harry Kim), Soniqua Martin-Green (Michael Burnham), Jason Isaacs (Gabriel Lorca), Mary Wiseman (Silvia Tilly), Anthony Rapp (Paul Stamets), and many more.
The new season
The team does three big updates a year and those include episodes where the cast from the shows reprise their roles in the game. The last big update was in September and Jeri Ryan, Seven of Nine from Star Trek Voyager and Star Trek: Picard, participated. For this season, Nicole de Boer will play Esri Dax from Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. The game will also have some raid content, dubbed a Task Force Operation.
“There’s some great content coming,” Marrone said. “We also have a couple of new ships and a new lockbox.”
In Star Trek Online: Corruption, the Chimerans threaten to invade the galaxy, with their goals and desires, so far, unknown. As the Chimerans’ influence spreads, Starfleet Captain Ezri Dax, voiced by Star Trek alum and fan-favorite Nicole de Boer, joins players in confronting the escalating crisis. Combat the Chimerans in new upcoming features, including the “Curse of Phrygia” Episode, the “Belly of the Beast” Task Force Operation, and the Corruption event.
Star Trek Online: Corruption introduces the following features:
● New Episode – Curse of Phrygia
○ Old allies reunite, as Captain Ezri Dax urgently summons you to the MIDAS
Array. Join her in quelling a Chimeran incursion that threatens both the integrity
of the corrupted comms array, and the stability of the galaxy. Battle through
waves of psionic beacons that call on enemy reinforcements in space, and push
through a dangerously infested environment. Peril lurks in every dimly lit corner
of the array — so watch your step, and don’t look back. The fate of the Multiversal
War depends on your courage.
● New Task Force Operation – Belly of the Beast (Ground TFO)
○ The Midas Array is under siege! Chimerans have compromised several decks of
the communications array, threatening to overtake the entire structure. Starfleet
Captain Ezri Dax is calling on a task force capable of tackling this relentless
onslaught, and surviving until further back-up can arrive. Do you have what it
takes to secure the decks, hold the line, and prevent the MIDAS Array from
falling to the Chimerans?
● New Event – Corruption
○ Chimerans are spreading across the galaxy, corrupting all that stands in their
way. As major fleets fall to ongoing sabotage and key Alliance structures are
infested beyond repair, every victory now feels infinitesimal in the face of total
annihilation. Confronting the Chimerans is no longer a choice, but the only viable
path forward. Summon every ounce of your strength and join the fight, before it’s
too late.
An evergreen franchise
Regarding the popularity of Star Trek, Marrone said there is a core group of dedicated people who always love anything Star Trek. That group grows over time, and then there are moments in the history of the franchise that draw in new people, like the Kelvin alternate history timeline. Star Trek Academy is a new show on Paramount+ that could also draw in a new fan base. All of the shows help the fan base stay evergreen.
“Fans continue to they want to see what the next thing is. They want to keep talking about it. They want to keep playing games too,” he said.
At the same time, the franchise owners are careful about oversaturating the market.
“Star Trek is eternal. It will have its up and downs. But the things that people love about it are evergreen, and they’ll always connect to that,” Marrone said. “I think it will always stay relevant.”
People love the exploration of new places in the galaxy and the discovery of new aliens, as well as the interdimensional sci-fi concepts and the plot about characters that fans love, Marrone said.
“People like to follow those threads,” he said. “Star Trek Online is doing its part to keep the franchise alive by driving those story beats forward.”
A long history
Cryptic Studios was founded in 2000 by Michael Lewis, Rick Dakan, Bruce Rogers, Matt Harvey and Cameron Petty. They built a superhero MMO, City of Heroes, based on brand new characters.
The studio started building the Cryptic Engine, a proprietary MMO engine that would power every major Cryptic game for the next two decades.
The company partnered with NCSoft from 2001 to 2003. Jack Emmert joined as a designer and became the creative face of Cryptic’s City of Heroes, which launched as a surprise breakout success in 2004. It was a rare Western studio success in the sci-fi market, even though MMOs were dominated by fantasy games at the time.
In 2005, the company launched City of Villains as a standalone expansion. Cryptic and NCSoft worked together on new concepts but then parted ways by 2007. Cryptic started work on Marvel Universe Online with Microsoft, but then that game was canceled by 2008. Cryptic then pivoted into Champions Online.
In December 2008, Atari acquired Cryptic Studios and it launched the comic-style MMO Champions Online in 2009. Star Trek Online launched in 2010 amid leadership changes. Bill Roper became chief creative officer but departed later that year. Emmert became CEO of Cryptic in March 2011, but Atari sold Cryptic to Perfect World in May 2011, and with that Cryptic shifted to free-to-play monetization and faster content cycles.
Star Trek Online shifted to free-to-play and Neverwinter launched as a free-to-play D&D MMO in 2013. Cryptic became a stable live-service MMO studio and branched into console online MMOs in the subsequent years.
By 2018, Star Trek Online launched its fourth expansion and worked with a dozen Star Trek actors reprising their roles in the game. In 2021, Cryptic launched an open beta Magic: Lends, a Magic: The Gathering-inspired RPG, but it missed its mark and was shut down before full release.
In 2022, Embracer Group acquired Perfect World Entertainment and Cryptic and Pefect World Entertainment became part of Gearbox Entertainment. That same year, Star Trek Online content became canon for the first time ever, as the in-game starship, U.S.S. Enterprise-F (Odyssey-class), appears in Star Trek: Picard Season 3.
Regarding the ship’s place in canon, Marrone said, “It’s a very unique situation to have taken something that we made for the game and have that show up in a TV show. It’s incredibly rare in Star Trek.”
More ships from the game have shown up in the Picard show.
“We took that responsibility very seriously. A lot of people worked on Star Trek Online back then and now are huge Star Trek fans who care a lot about the canon. We care about a lot about the stories that we’re telling and the characters that we’re working with,” Marrone said.
But in 2023, Embracer Group divested Gearbox Entertainment to Take-Two for $460 million. Then Gearbox Publishing rebranded as Arc Games, still under Embracer Group. The live services team DECA Games serves as co-developer on Star Trek Online, Neverwinter and Champions Online.
In 2025, Arc Games and Cryptic Studios spun out of Embracer Group as independent companies, both owned by holding company Project Golden Arc. The DECA Games team members who worked on Cryptic’s titles became a part of the new Cryptic.
Marrone, who worked his way up over a long time, became executive producer of Star Trek Online. Marrone, an artist who was a 15-year veteran at Cryptic, was best known for his iconic starship designs within Star Trek Online and also in the Star Trek franchise, as he’s most notable for making the in-game starship, U.S.S. Enterprise-F (Odyssey-class), canon in Star Trek: Picard Season 3.
Meanwhile, Emmert had started his own game studio with funding from NetEase. But after NetEase pulled back on its North American efforts, it shut Jackalyptic Studios. And after a long absence, Emmert came back on January 27 as CEO of Cryptic Studios.
“He’s been around the block and seen a lot of things,” Marrone said. “He has great experience in the industry in keeping MMOs alive and also working with new games and new IPs.”
The lessons of MMOs
Regarding the popularity of MMOs, Marrone said there are lessons to learn from some of the MMOs that have been shut down recently.
“This is a lesson that I think triple-A is also learning. You can’t invest hundreds of millions of dollars in these things, and expect a home run every time,” Marrone said.
He noted the graphics in MMOs won’t keep up with the best brand new games, but the mission is to create games where fans can lose themselves in it, he said. The mission is to support a great product with the budget you have and the content the audience wants.
“We try to make it as immersive as we can,” he said.
Others may forget that throwing $100 million at a project is not necessarily going to generate demand for an MMO. Not everyone has the same talent as the great MMO companies like Blizzard Entertainment. Cryptic Studios has the experience to know what can be accomplished with the combination of known audience size and budget.
“That’s why I’m excited about Jack coming back,” Marrone said. “He has all that knowledge and experience. He loves MMOs and he plays our games.”
The road ahead
Cryptic Studios will continue to perate Star Trek Online, Neverwinter and Champions Online. Star Trek Online’s 35th season (major update), “Corruption”, is set to launch on February 17 on PC, and March 10 on consoles. Neverwinter is celebrating its 13th anniversary and Champions Online is celebrating its 17th anniversary.
During his time at Cryptic Studio, Marrone said he has tried to stand out like a blade of grass, rather than an oak tree.
“I’m just trying to make a cool Star Trek game. I love Star Trek. I love Star Trek Online. And I’ve been with the game basically since the beginning. There have been a lot of changes, a lot of difficult situations that we’ve had to navigate. I’ve just done my best to focus on the work and be proud of the work, and to enable other people to do good work,” Marrone said.
Over time, the game has had memorable moments, like the addition of the Romulans in its first major update, and the lessons of Delta Rising, which wasn’t received as well as it was hoped. The game leaned into the popularity of Star Trek: Discovery, and more.
“We still want to keep the episodes going. We still want to tell really cool Star Trek stories. This year, the focus is going to be on, you know, celebrating the history of Star Trek and and we’re going to do that in the game in a couple different ways that I think people will really enjoy, in terms of the ships we release, in terms of the missions we make,” Marrone said. “We’re going to try to really bring that home and really celebrate that. So I think that’s what people can look forward to this year.”
And he would love to do a new expansion someday.