Perpetual Entertainment, founded in March 2002, was an American

developer Developer may refer to: Computers * Software developer, a person or organization who develop programs/applications * Video game developer, a person or business involved in video game development, the process of designing and creating games * Web d ...

publisher Publishing is the activity of making information, literature, music, software and other content available to the public for sale or for free. Traditionally, the term refers to the creation and distribution of printed works, such as books, newsp ...

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 (commonly referred to as HQ) denotes the location where most, if not all, of the important functions of an organization are coordinated. In the United States, the corporate headquarters represents the entity at the center or the to ...

was located in

San Francisco, California San Francisco (; Spanish for " Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the fourth most populous in California and 17th ...

, 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'' 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

network Network, networking and networked may refer to: Science and technology * Network theory, the study of graphs as a representation of relations between discrete objects * Network science, an academic field that studies complex networks Mathematics ...

ed 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, cellular phone, cell phone, cellphone, handphone, hand phone or pocket phone, sometimes shortened to simply mobile, cell, or just phone, is a portable telephone that can make and receive calls over a radio frequency link whil ...

, and

hand-held computer A mobile device (or handheld computer) is a computer small enough to hold and operate in the hand. Mobile devices typically have a flat LCD or OLED screen, a touchscreen interface, and digital or physical buttons. They may also have a physical ...

s. One notable licensee of this platform was

BioWare BioWare is a Canadian video game developer based in Edmonton, Alberta. It was founded in 1995 by newly graduated Doctor of Medicine, medical doctors Ray Muzyka, Greg Zeschuk and Augustine Yip, alongside Trent Oster, Brent Oster, and Marcel Zes ...

. The Perpetual

Game Engine A game engine is a software framework primarily designed for the development of video games and generally includes relevant libraries and support programs. The "engine" terminology is similar to the term "software engine" used in the software i ...

, 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, often referred to as simply the Bay Area, is a populous region surrounding the San Francisco, San Pablo, and Suisun Bay estuaries in Northern California. The Bay Area is defined by the Association of Bay Area Gov ...

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