using duty officers (junior crew members) to make items, depending on the level of the school (category- such as science, beams, etc.) chosen. To raise the level of the school being researched, it is necessary to perform a research project using a crafting material. Unlike in some other MMO's, crafting is a "set-and-forget" procedure. The player will set up the project, click a button and after a specified time the task will be completed, rather than spending time actually performing the crafting. Duty Officers can also be sent on assignments which also follow the set and forget methodology, and are not available during the time the assignments are in progress. Characters of level 52 and higher can send any ships they have, or have had, on admiralty missions, similar to duty officer assignments—but these do not use duty officers to perform them. Again, the mission is selected and a certain amount of specified time passes until the player is told it is complete, at which time they will be informed whether it was successful. Free-to-play On September 1, 2011, Cryptic Studios announced that Star Trek Online would switch to free-to-play, but without full access to all the items. Later, it was announced that free-to-play would be starting Tuesday January 17, 2012. Free-to-play for existing, but cancelled, customers began Thursday January 5. Development Cryptic Studios officially announced the development of Star Trek Online on July 28, 2008, as a countdown timer on Cryptic's web site reached zero and the new official site was launched. A letter was sent out from Jack Emmert, the game's online producer, detailing some aspects of Cryptic's approach. Console versions were announced several months before the release, with no specific console platform specified, but Cryptic announced that all console versions of their games are on indefinite hold due to difficulties "on the business side of things," largely referring to the fees assessed by Microsoft for their Xbox Gold premium online gaming service and the difficulty in asking a player to pay both that and the Cryptic subscription fee to play a single game. Console support, for both Microsoft Xbox One and Sony PlayStation 4 was made available in September 2016. The initial release was in North American regions, but will be rolled out to additional regions in the Americas and Europe. Star Trek Onlines closed beta test officially began when it was announced on October 22, 2009.