Star Trek Online launched for Windows PC in North America on 2nd February 2010. Europe followed on 5th February 2010.
The first commercial release was the North American Windows PC launch. Europe followed three days later.
Cryptic Studios developed the released game and Atari published it. The European PC release followed on 5th February 2010.
How old is Star Trek Online? calculated automatically from 2nd February 2010.
The dates most readers are looking for, including the Steam pre-purchase/release distinction.
| Milestone | Date | What it means |
|---|---|---|
| Steam pre-purchase | 4th January 2010 | Pre-purchase opened on Steam. This was not the game's release date. |
| Head Start | 29th January 2010 | Eligible pre-order customers entered before commercial launch. |
| PC — North America | 2nd February 2010 | Original commercial release. Steam also lists this as its release date. |
| PC — Europe | 5th February 2010 | European commercial release. |
| Free-to-play | 17th January 2012 | The purchase/subscription barrier was removed for basic play. |
| PlayStation 4 / Xbox One | 6th September 2016 | Initial console rollout began in multiple North American regions. |
| Epic Games Store | 6th October 2020 | Additional Windows PC storefront, not a separate hardware-platform release. |
A compact chronology of the development, Atari era, testing, launch, ownership changes and major platform milestones.
Perpetual Entertainment announced that it had secured the exclusive worldwide rights to develop and publish a massively multiplayer online game based on Star Trek.
P2, formerly Perpetual Entertainment, ceased work on Star Trek Online. WIRED reported that the Star Trek Online IP and game content were transferred to another developer.
Cryptic Studios announced that it had secured global rights from CBS Consumer Products to develop and publish Star Trek Online. Cryptic later confirmed that its game design, assets and engine were its own, with only some earlier concept art retained.
Cryptic publicly showed the first gameplay footage and detailed its rebuilt Star Trek Online project at the Star Trek Convention in Las Vegas.
Infogrames, Atari's parent company, entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Cryptic Studios while STO was still in development.
Star Trek Online officially entered closed beta testing.
The public open beta began on 12th January and ran through 26th January 2010.
Players with eligible pre-orders gained access to the live game before the commercial release on 2nd February.
Star Trek Online officially launched for Windows PC in North America, developed by Cryptic Studios and published by Atari. Steam's release date is also 2nd February 2010; its pre-purchase had opened on 4th January. At launch, a separate game purchase and subscription were required.
The European Windows PC release followed three days after the North American launch.
Perfect World completed its acquisition of Cryptic Studios from Atari, ending the Atari ownership era. The acquisition agreement had been announced on 31st May 2011.
Star Trek Online became free-to-play, removing the requirement to buy a retail copy or maintain a subscription for basic play.
Star Trek Online began its PlayStation 4 and Xbox One rollout in multiple North American regions, with additional regions in the Americas and Europe following over the next few days.
Star Trek Online became available through the Epic Games Store as an additional Windows PC storefront, not as a new hardware-platform version.
Embracer Group's acquisition records list Perfect World Entertainment and Cryptic Studios as acquired on 1st February 2022.
The publisher became Arc Games on 8th April 2024. In February 2025, DECA's team said it had been working with Cryptic to transition development. Arc became independent through a management buyout on 1st December 2025. On 27th January 2026, Arc announced Jack Emmert would lead development of Cryptic's MMO portfolio; PC Gamer also reported that Cryptic had reassumed responsibility for STO and former DECA team members were part of Cryptic.
Current developer, publisher and platform status, separated from the historical release dates above.
Arc became independent in December 2025. By January 2026, Cryptic had reassumed responsibility for Star Trek Online, and current Steam and Epic listings identify Cryptic Studios as developer and Arc Games as publisher. The game remains free-to-play.
Source standard: primary or contemporary sources are linked directly under each timeline entry. Where an exact day cannot be established defensibly, the page uses month- or range-level precision rather than inventing a date.
