For fans of Star Trek the release of Star Trek: Bridge Crew was a dream come true, finally giving fans the chance to step into the role of a Starfleet officer aboard one of the most famous spaceships in all science fiction. For one group of fans however, the release of Star Trek: Bridge Crew heralded the end of a passion project.
Stage-9 was a fan project which had been ongoing for two years, which aimed to recreate the Enterprise-D as depicted in Star Trek: The Next Generation TV show.
The detailed virtual reality (VR) recreation was built using Unreal Engine 4, and could be explored using HTC Vive or Oculus Rift, or fans could simply use a monitor for a 2D view of the ship. The recreation allowed users to travel in turbolifts to the various decks, enter rooms, interact with objects and even fire a phaser.
However, after receiving a cease and desist letter from CBS, the head of the project, identified online as ‘Scragnog’, was forced to pull the project after failing to reach a compromise with the CBS lawyers.
Though Star Trek in all its various forms are of course owned by CBS, Stage-9 made it clear from the outset that it was not an officially licensed project, was not affiliated in any way with CBS or Paramount and the VR creation was, in effect, simply elaborate fan art, since they creators were not making any money from the project.
Scragnog said in a statement that the team became concerned when the Star Trek: Next Generation DLC was released for Star Trek: Bridge Crew earlier this year. “Internally this was an exciting development, but at the same time it concerned us,” Scragnog said, going to to explain that the Stage-9 crew had been hoping to pitch the project to CBS. “Throughout all of this we knew it could end at any point.”
Scragnog released a video explaining the situation and making an emotional goodbye to the Stage-9 project, that video statement can be viewed below.
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