Perpetual Entertainment, founded in March 2002, was an American developer,

publisher Publishing is the activities of making information, literature, music, software, and other content, physical or digital, available to the public for sale or free of charge. Traditionally, the term publishing refers to the creation and distribu ...

and operator of networked

multiplayer A multiplayer video game is a video game in which more than one person can play in the same game environment at the same time, either locally on the same computing system (couch co-op), on different computing systems via a local area network, or ...

games and

MMORPG A massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) is a video game that combines aspects of a role-playing video game and a massively multiplayer online game. As in role-playing games (RPGs), the player assumes the role of a Player charac ...

s. Their

headquarters Headquarters (often referred to as HQ) notes the location where most or all of the important functions of an organization are coordinated. The term is used in a wide variety of situations, including private sector corporations, non-profits, mil ...

was located in

San Francisco, California San Francisco, officially the City and County of San Francisco, is a commercial, Financial District, San Francisco, financial, and Culture of San Francisco, cultural center of Northern California. With a population of 827,526 residents as of ...

, United States. From October 2007 to February 2008 (following a transfer of assets) the company was known as P2 Entertainment. The company was best known for its development of two MMOs: ''

Star Trek Online ''Star Trek Online'' is a massively multiplayer online role-playing game developed by Cryptic Studios based on the ''Star Trek'' franchise. The game is set in the 25th century, 30 years after the events of '' Star Trek: Nemesis''. ''Star Trek O ...

'' and '' Gods & Heroes: Rome Rising''.

Products

As Perpetual Entertainment, the company had previously developed to beta status ''Gods & Heroes: Rome Rising'', which was put on indefinite hold in October 2007 after several rounds of layoffs. At that time, the company announced an intent to focus exclusively on ''Star Trek Online''. On or after 14 January 2008 it was reported that the company had ceased development of the ''Star Trek'' license, which was transferred to Cryptic Studios. Perpetual was also developing the Perpetual Entertainment Platform (PEP), a complete solution for developing, hosting, monitoring, and operating any networked online game. The PEP would have enabled games to simultaneously function on a wide variety of consumer game devices, including PCs, videogame consoles,

cell phones A mobile phone or cell phone is a portable telephone that allows users to make and receive Telephone call, calls over a radio frequency link while moving within a designated telephone service area, unlike fixed-location phones (landline phone ...

, and hand-held computers. One notable licensee of this platform was BioWare. The Perpetual

Game Engine A game engine is a software framework primarily designed for the development of video games which generally includes relevant libraries and support programs such as a level editor. The "engine" terminology is akin to the term " software engine" u ...

, a suite of reusable game tools and libraries for high-quality and stable development of networked games of all genres, was also being developed.

Company liquidation

After a previous round of layoffs in December 2006, Perpetual underwent several further rounds of layoffs and staff defections in September and October 2007, before finally announcing the indefinite suspension of Gods & Heroes to allow the company to focus its efforts on ''Star Trek Online''. Subsequent to this announcement on October 10, 2007, Perpetual Entertainment Inc. transferred ownership of all its assets including ''Star Trek Online'' to Perpetual LLC, for liquidation and distribution of liquidation proceeds to creditors of Perpetual. Shortly thereafter, Perpetual Entertainment's IP was "picked up" by P2 Entertainment, though the management remained unchanged. On January 14, 2008, it was announced that the company was no longer developing ''Star Trek Online'', and that the Intellectual Property license, as well as game content, but not the game code, had been transferred to a

Bay Area The San Francisco Bay Area, commonly known as the Bay Area, is a region of California surrounding and including San Francisco Bay, and anchored by the cities of Oakland, San Francisco, and San Jose. The Association of Bay Area Governments ...

game developer. It was later confirmed that the new owner was

Cryptic Studios Cryptic Studios is an American video game developer specializing in MMORPG, massively multiplayer online role-playing games. It is headquartered in Los Gatos, California, and was a wholly owned Perfect World (company), Perfect World subsidiary, a ...

. In December 2007, a well-publicized lawsuit was bought by PR Firm Kohnke Communications against Perpetual. On January 24, 2008, it was announced that the suit had been dismissed following a mutual resolution by both parties. On February 25, 2008, it was announced by several sources that P2 was closing its doors entirely.Warcry: Confirmed: P2 Entertainment Closed
/ref> The company's websites have been shut down.

References

{{reflist

External links

Official website for ''Star Trek: Online''
now run by Cryptic Studios Defunct video game companies of the United States Video game development companies Video game companies established in 2002 Companies based in San Francisco 2002 establishments in California