Perpetual Announces Addition of Star Trek® Legend Michael Okuda
Longtime series staff member joins Star Trek Online game team as design consultant
For Immediate Release
SAN FRANCISCO, CA -August 19, 2005 - Perpetual Entertainment, developer of the upcoming massively multi-player online game Star Trek Online under license from Nickelodeon & Viacom Consumer Products, announced that Michael Okuda has joined the Star Trek Online development team as design consultant, at this past weekend's Star Trek Convention in Las Vegas.
Well known as the creator of the unique graphic user interface for the Star Trek computer system LCARS (Library Computer Access and Retrieval System), Okuda will be working with Perpetual to integrate the same look-and-feel into the game's own interface, as well as to help visualize the future of the Star Trek universe. Taking place twenty years after the latest movie Star Trek: Nemesis, Star Trek Online will feature updated versions of the LCARS and new Starfleet uniforms. The first concept art, including an interface concept by Okuda, was unveiled at the Las Vegas show and is now available at the game's development site.
"It seems the natural progression to be working with Perpetual as a design consultant for Star Trek Online," said Okuda. "They are evolving the look of Star Trek into the future, and I am excited to be a part of it. I am confident Star Trek fans will be pleased with where Perpetual is going with the franchise."
Okuda served as a technical consultant to the writing staff of Star Trek: The Next Generation, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, Star Trek: Voyager, as well as Star Trek: Enterprise and is coauthor of the Star Trek: The Next Generation Technical Manual. His other credits include seven Star Trek feature films, The Flash, The Flight of the Intruder, The West Wing, and the pilot episode of Threshold. His contributions to Star Trek: TNG were recognized with three Emmy nominations for Best Visual Effects. With his wife, Denise, he co-wrote The Star Trek Chronology and The Star Trek Encyclopedia. Okuda also designed a commemorative emblem for NASA, honoring the lost astronauts of Apollo 1, Challenger, and Columbia, which hangs on the wall in Mission Control, in Houston.
About Star Trek Online
Star Trek Online is a massively multiplayer online game where you will join Starfleet and explore the greatest wonders and discoveries from our galaxy and beyond. You will team up with thousands of other players as you advance from Starfleet Academy and master your skills aboard a starship. Your journey will take you to far-away posts at the fringes of known space where you will carry out missions to establish contact with new civilizations while protecting the values of the Federation during a time of rising tensions. Rising through the ranks will test your abilities as a warrior, diplomat, explorer, and most importantly: a leader. Play your cards right and you will one day become Captain of your own starship and chart your own course to the final frontier.
For more information on Star Trek, visit the official website at http://www.startrek.com
About Perpetual Entertainment, Inc.
Perpetual Entertainment is a San Francisco based producer, publisher, and operator of networked multi-player and massively multi-player games for the PC and next-generation videogame consoles. Perpetual Entertainment was founded and is staffed by industry veterans dedicated to the vision that playing games together is simply more fun, more challenging, and more rewarding than playing alone.
For more information on Perpetual Entertainment visit http://www.perpetual.com
About Nickelodeon & Viacom Consumer Products
Nickelodeon & Viacom Consumer Products (NVCP) manages the merchandise licensing, home video, music, book and interactive software businesses for Nickelodeon brands and characters as well as the properties of Comedy Central, Spike TV and MTV Networks International, as well as some non-Viacom properties. In addition, NVCP manages the merchandise, interactive, book, and wireless licensing for Paramount Pictures properties. The NVCP business represents over $4 billion in retail sales. Nickelodeon, MTV Networks, Comedy Central and Spike TV are trademarks of Viacom International Inc.
TM, ® & ® 2005 Paramount Pictures. Star Trek and related marks are trademarks of Paramount Pictures. All Rights Reserved.
Contact
Kara Japhet
Media Relations Manager,
TAP Interactive
www.tapin.net
919.806.4477