After Perfect World  bought out Cryptic Studios back in May 31st, 2011 it looked like that Star Trek Online would continue as usual . But recently Perfect World announced that Star trek Online , a MMORPG ( massively multiplayer online role-playing game ) will sometime in 2011 have a Free To Play Model (a business model in which a product is offered free of charge while a fee is charged for users to access premium features). The announcement is vague on the date but when the date is set I will post it . Finally the final frontier is the way it was suppose to be  FREE.  Which is for all the rest of us on budgets ( me included ) can really enjoy.

Announcement from Star Trek Online

In a recent Perfect World earnings call, CFO Kelvin Lau stated our intention to adopt a free-to-play business model for Star Trek Online this year and we could not be happier to finally share these exciting plans with you.
Incorporating a free-to-play model into Star Trek Online enables any interested captain to explore the galaxy to his or her heart’s delight.
We do have a full announcement, more details regarding free-to-play, a breakdown of exactly what’s on offer, a FAQ, and a features matrix all queued up for publish next week. Those familiar with our superhero MMO, the free-to-play Champions Online: Free for All, will recall the solid suite of information we published when we announced that game’s free-to-play transition. We’ll have similarly robust web pages and boards setup next week for STO. (Kind of like this, for example.)
We’re committed to Star Trek Online, we’re more experienced from launching Champions Online: Free for All, we’re supported by a AAA online games publisher dedicated to putting forth quality Western-styled F2P games, and we can’t wait to show you more.
Engage!