Subscription costs announced

[RichardWhitely]

They have announced the subscription costs for STO - standard prices of £8.99 a month and upwards. They also offer 1 year subs for um, I forget how much it is - but I do know the lifetime sub is £150 ish. Although the 1 year sub and lifetime subs are a limited time offer until 1st Feb only. Plus with the lifetime sub you get a playable borg character and 2 extra character slots!!! WOW!!

[Undergrid]

Can someone copy & paste the details here please? I can't see the STO website from work.   

[Col]

Lifetime sub £153.99, 12 month £73.70.
There's also 2 extra character slots with the 12 month sub, but no Borg  

Note: A retail box or digital download purchase is required to play Star Trek Online and future expansion packs. Lifetime subscription covers your subscription fee for as long as the game is in service. 12-month discounted subscription covers your subscription fee for 12 months and will recur at the same price at the end of the 12-month period. Subscription fees are non-refundable. We make no explicit or implicit warranties on the service period of the game. This offer ends February 1st, 2010 11:59PM PST. While supplies last. Prices displayed are not inclusive of VAT for purchases from the European Union (EU). VAT is charged in accordance with the local legislation in each member state and varies from 15% to 25%.

Q: What is a lifetime subscription?
A: A lifetime subscription is a one-time subscription fee, which allows you full access to the game until you decide to cancel your subscription.

Q: What are the playable Borg's in-game traits?
A: The Liberated Borg begins with the following two traits. You can select another two traits from a general list.

Borg Nanites: +10% Health Regeneration
Description: Ground Trait. Constantly regenerates shields and health.

Efficient: +5 Starship Shield Efficiency, +5 Starship Engine Efficiency, +5 Starship Energy Weapon Efficiency, +5 Starship Auxiliary Systems Efficiency
Description: Space Trait. Provides a bonus to efficiency stats, improving the effectiveness of many of your power management abilities.

The Liberated Borg also has a unique optional trait.

Neural Blast: 30 second debuff. Drastically reduces run speed. Every 4 seconds, Neural Blast has a 40% chance to hold the target for 3 seconds.
Description: Activatable Ground Trait. Inject the target with neural toxins, which continually attempt to hold the target for the duration. Also reduces the target's movement speed.

Q: Do I have to pre-order to subscribe?
A: Only the special Lifetime and 12-month subscriptions require pre-orders. Our regular recurring subscriptions do not require you to pre-order a copy of Star Trek Online. However, those interested in purchasing the 12-month or Lifetime promotional subscription plans must have first redeemed a valid pre-order key here at the official website. Pre-order keys are supplied by the retailers themselves.

[Arathrael]

Lifetime sub £153.99, 12 month £73.70.

It says VAT is not included.

Lifetime sub = $239.99. Plus 17.5% VAT, $281.99. In GBP, with exchange rate of $1 = £0.6136, £173.03.

Annual sub = $119.99, plus VAT in GBP, £86.51.

For comparison, six month sub = £46.14.

[Undergrid]

That makes a lifetime subscription about the cost of 16 months, I wonder if they think the game has less than a 2 year lifespan..

[RichardWhitely]

They had the same offer for Champions Online and I think Hellgate London had a similar offer. The thing is Star Trek is such a huge franchise it will probably last for 2 years or more, hell look at the long SWG has been going, but then SOE do like to keep their games running as long as possible.

Who published hellgate london anyway?

[Undergrid]

EA in europe I think.

Who's going lifetime then?

[RichardWhitely]

Dunno - it would be nice if they would extend the offer for at least a few weeks after the game goes live so people can make a decision if its good enough, plus it would be nice to dip in and out when i liked. Dunno really

[rover]

am going monthly

[Undergrid]

I'm going to guess you'll be able to buy extra char slots anyway, so its just the borg..  I doubt its worth it up-front for just that.

[JohnnyFind]

I do like the idea of being able to dip in and out and play at my own pace, so I'm considering getting a life time subscrition 

....I've had dreams of being a liberated Borg for some time now, maybe cryptic are trying to send me a message ?

I do have a question though, how do they plan to release future updates? Via free patches or expansion disks?

[|fury|]

game updates to CoH/CoV were released via the patcher, i'm assuming that will be the plan here.. there's always the possiblity that major expansions will be sold as retail products but that never happened with CoH/CoV (well, sort of)

I'm also toying with the idea of a lifetime sub for the ease of use thang edit have paid for a lifetime sub. will confirm what my cc has been charged when it goes through, although the only figure i saw during 'checkout' was the £153.99