A couple of weeks back Cryptic Studios announced that it had bought the rights to develop and publish PC and Console versions of the Star Trek MMO from CBS. The announcement was something fans had been waiting on for a very long time and Cryptic promised more details at the annual Trekkie convention in Las Vegas.

Well, the Star Trek Convention kicked off yesterday and Cryptic stayed true to its word, sort of. The studio’s presentation was given by Chief Creative Officer, Jack Emmert and Leonard Nimoy, better known by fans as Spock, the Vulcan officer from the Star Trek TV series. However, the Associated Press published details about the game as well as comments from Emmert on Friday afternoon so the cat was out of the bag before Spock and Cryptic hit center stage in Vegas.

Fans already knew from the initial announcement that they would have the option of being either Federation Captain or a Klingon Warrior, however, Emmert elaborated that users would be able to customize their characters from pre-existing Star Trek species or can create entirely new alien races.

Yesterday also saw Emmert and Nimoy promise users a galactic-wide game with plenty of space to investigate and a great system for exploration allowing for infinite possibilities.

Cryptic divulged that the game would be set a few generations ahead of the Star Trek Nemesis in 2409, and so, your chances of running into Captains Picard or Kirk are slim to none. However, Emmert assured fans they’d be able to go to “all the places you know and love from Star Trek,” such as Vulcan Bajor, Andoria and Qo’noS. Because Cryptic is skipping ahead 30 years, users will see some changes in the game. Old friends and old races will be there for sure but there’s also going to be new friends, new enemies and old friends who might not be so friendly anymore. To give users a chance to get their bearings and not just throw them in at the deep end, Cryptic will be updating the Star Trek Online website with yearly entries of what happened when starting with the year 2380.

The Star Trek MMO was originally supposed to be developed by Perpetual Entertainment and while Emmert told the Associated Press that Cryptic was on “friendly” terms with Perpetual, he did say that for the four years studio had to develop the game, Cryptic essentially built the game from the ground up.

"As it became apparent they weren’t going to continue to function, they decided to sell off the license. We swooped in and grabbed it. We took no assets. There was nothing to be had, to be honest. We’re building everything from the ground up."

Fans have been realistic about the possibility of a Star Trek MMO. Following the Cryptic announcement, there was an air of, “expect the worst, hope for the best,” although judging from Emmert’s comments about the game trailer, it could be time to get your hopes up.

"You’re going to see the actual game working and functioning. This isn’t renders. This isn’t concept art. Everything that people will see on Sunday is going to be taken right from ’Star Trek Online’ as it stands today, so hardened people should know that a release date might be closer than they think."

Still no word on how the whole “Captaincy for everyone” idea is supposed to work, however the presentation did say the game will see players progress gradually, rising through the ranks, gaining larger vessels and collecting crew members along the way. Perhaps every player will start off in a larval stage with only the most dedicated (read, addicted) users achieving Captain Status and the rest toiling away in the more mundane positions on board the Enterprise. Time will tell.

Watch the trailer on Tom’s Games.