Star Trek Online players have gathered in-game to pay tribute to Christopher Plummer, the legendary Canadian actor who died aged 91 this week.

The Oscar winner was perhaps best-known for playing Captain Von Trapp in The Sound of Music, but he famously starred as Klingon General Chang in the 1991 film Star Trek 6: The Undiscovered Country.

Plummer reprised the role of Chang for the 2000 video game Star Trek: Klingon Academy, which explained how his character lost an eye. The video below shows the intro to the game:

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It's Year of the Klingon in Star Trek Online and to celebrate, developer Arc Games has revealed details of a "major, multipart, 2411-focused Klingon storyline".

"Over the rest of 2020, and part of 2021, we're going to be putting on a major, multipart, 2411-focused Klingon storyline," reads a recent update on the game's official website (thanks, Comic Book). "We can't release the details on what that is just yet (although it's a fair bet that J'Ula and her time travelling cohorts are involved), but as part of this long-planned, face-of-the-game changing story, we're taking a little time to focus on our most honorable allies.

"We love our Klingon content - who doesn't love a story that involves descending into Grethor and fighting a god? - but a lot of it is old, and doesn't contain the technical improvements we've made to the game over the years," the developers add. "So we're spending time and resources to give these pieces of content visual and gameplay facelifts.

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A Discovery expansion is headed at warp speed toward Star Trek Online.

New story arc Age of Discovery marks the first time in Star Trek Online's history that the game will be updated in-line with a currently airing Star Trek series.

Age of Discovery, which is set in the year 2256 during the height of the Klingon War, features Cadet Tilly, who fans of Star Trek Discovery will know well. She's lovable, determined and just a little bit annoying, but key to Discovery's charm.

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Star Trek Online will go free-to-play before the end of 2011, developer Cryptic Studios has announced.

Confirming reports that surfaced last week, the MMO will still offer a standard subscription model but players will now be able to jump in without opening their wallets.

While free-to-play users enjoy the same level cap as subscribers and can access all of the game's sectors and missions, they'll have two character slots rather than three, a smaller inventory and credit storage limit.

Access to Create a Fleet is limited and the Foundry Creator is locked off entirely. Free-to-play users will also see restrictions on in-game chat, forums, mail and customer service, and will have to put up with advertisements in In-Game Vivox Voice Chat.

Take a look at the lengthy FAQ over on the game's official site for more details.

"In addition to seeking out new life and exploring strange new civilizations, part of our continuing mission for Star Trek Online is to expand and improve," commented Cryptic CEO Jack Emmert.

"Transitioning to a free-to-play model is a natural way to share all we've built with a broader community of players and we couldn't be more excited."

Cryptic Studios is developing a free-to-play business model for Star Trek Online, new owner Perfect World has revealed.

The free-to-play model will launch by the end of 2011.

This, not unsurprising news, tumbled from the mouth of Perfect World chief financial officer Kelvin Lau.

"Cryptic is working on the free-to-play model for Star Trek Online," Lau told investors during the company's latest earnings conference call (transcription courtesy of Seeking Alpha).

"This is going to be launched by the end of this year."

"So I think free-to-play model we have a bigger potential in US market and also in China market."

Cryptic Studios' other MMO, Champions Online, switched from subscription to free-to-play earlier this year. Whether Star Trek Online would follow suit depended on the reaction to Champions Online, developer CEO Jack Emmert previously told Eurogamer. Our only indication of Champions' F2P success has been Atari describing the switch as "promising".

Perfect World bought Cryptic Studios in May. The company now owns the rights to Champions Online, Star Trek Online and also, according to the conference call, Neverwinter - the not-quite MMO in development at Cryptic.

"[Cryptic] will help us grow in the US and the Europe," said Perfect World chairman Michael Chi, "and further strengthen our R&D and operations around the world."

Star Trek Online was released in early 2010 and scored 6/10 on Eurogamer. A year and a half of improvements has been made since then, including the addition of user-created missions.

Video: Making your own STO missions.

Valve has announced Steam support for free-to-play titles with immediate effect.

Five launch titles are available now: Spiral Knights, Forsaken Worlds, Champions Online: Free for All, Global Agenda: Free Agent, and Alliance of Valliant Arms (AVA).

Starting tomorrow with Spiral Knights and ending on Sunday with AVA, each one will get a 'F2P Game of the Day' slot which will see exclusive in-game extras up for grabs.

"The introduction of Free to Play games is another example of the constant evolution of Steam," commented Valve exec Jason Holtman.

"Free to Play games offer new game genres and game experiences for customers, while offering developers and publishers new revenue opportunities and the ability to reach customers in areas of the world where the traditional packaged goods model is less popular than F2P."

Cryptic Studios - creator of City of Heroes, Star Trek Online and Champions Online - has a buyer: Chinese MMO outfit Perfect World.

Perfect World paid $50.3 million (£30.4 million / €35 million) for Cryptic. That's 55 per cent more than Atari paid for Cryptic in 2008 - $27.5 million.

Perfect World runs free-to-play cartoon MMO Legend of Martial Arts as well as Battle of Immortals, which looks similar to World of Warcraft.

How Champions Online and Star Trek Online will slot into Perfect World's portfolio is unclear. With Champions Online already free-to-play, however, the transition should be painless.

Perfect World talks of the purchase as a great way to charge West. Will this mean significant investment for Cryptic's new almost-but-not-quite MMO Neverwinter?

Video: Star Trek Online's Foundry mission maker tools.