This was a great year for Star Trek stories. We came into the year hot on the heels of “Sphere of Influence” with Worf, revealing the Iconian gateway and the Solanae Dyson Sphere. The story continued with “A Step Between the Stars” and “Surface Tension” with Tuvok, revealing the Undine efforts to destabilize the Alpha Quadrant and to open a bridge to the Alpha quadrant using the spheres. Defeating the Undine in “Mindscape” opens up the Delta Quadrant to exploration, and that exploration reveals a new threat in the Vaadwaur and new allies as well. Seven of Nine, the Doctor, Harry Kim, and Neelix played major parts in the story. This year saw the formation of a grand alliance to deal with these threats.

As we go into 2015, the story arc continues. The next piece of the story is releasing with the anniversary, and in the following months there will be some challenges that even the grand alliance may not be able to handle. We spent this past year building up the background that we needed for the coming story, and we can’t wait to reveal it… one piece at a time of course.

This was also a great year for the game as a whole. It was our first year with four updates instead of the usual three, and we used these updates to both extend and improve the game. This year saw the remastering of an old story arc, improvements to the reputation system and to the management of traits, a new crafting system, and of course, the release of Delta Rising, our second expansion and our first level cap increase in four years. The introduction of Tier 6 ships and the Intelligence specialization for both captains and bridge officers rounded out the year.

Our goal in 2014 was to aggressively push the game forward, and you can expect us to build on this in 2015. We have more captain and bridge officer specializations coming, as well as further improvements throughout the game. The first of the new specializations is coming with the anniversary update.

What makes us the most excited about 2014, however, is how STO is not only healthy but is growing. Not many MMOs can set new highs repeatedly during their fifth year, and we’re very thankful for all the loyal fans who play and support the game. We look forward to another great year in 2015!

The anniversary update is just over three weeks away, and the dev blogs describing the new content and features for the release will be starting in just a few days.

Ahead warp factor 9!

Stephen D’Angelo
Executive Producer
Star Trek Online