Bethesda Officially Acquires Star Trek License

Officials from The Elder Scrolls developer Bethesda Softworks have announced that the company has acquired the exclusive license to make Star Trek video games across all formats, following unofficial reports to that effect over the past few days. The move follows the high profile legal confrontation between previous license holder Activision and Viacom, in which Activision accused Viacom of letting “the once proud 'Star Trek' franchise stagnate and decay.” The disagreement was apparently brought to an amicable conclusion in March of last year, at which time it was implied that Activision would retain the license until 2009. However, following Bethesda's unveiling of new game Star Trek: Legacy, from Empire Earth II and Star Trek: Armada II developer Mad Doc Software, Bethesda has now confirmed it owns the game license for all television and movie incarnations of the science fiction series. “Being able to work with the entire universe of this beloved series is an incredibly exciting opportunity for us,” said Todd Vaughn, vice president of development for Bethesda Softworks. “We have some great ideas about where we want to go with this license and having the exclusive right to develop and publish Star Trek games across all platforms ensures that every Star Trek game will be a quality game worthy of its name.” Star Trek: Legacy, based on all five TV series, will be released on PC and Xbox 360 formats in September. The company also announced a previously unknown title named Star Trek: Tactical Command for the PSP and Nintendo DS portables – developed by Star Trek: Starfleet Command developer Quicksilver Software. Though not specifically mentioned, it appears that Bethesda’s acquisition of the license will have no effect on Perpetual Entertainment’s currently in development Star Trek Online massively multiplayer role-playing game. Many multiformat media licensors, such as Marvel, have treated massively multiplayer online games as a separate issue in the past.