Studio Playtechtonics, Austin, TX-based independent game development, is pleased to announce that interest in their free online space game Starport: Galactic Empires, http://www.StarportGame.com , continues to grow and accounts created for the game has surpassed the 200,000 milestone while simultaneous users online has also reached a record high. As opposed to the subscription model, Starport: Galactic Empires demonstrates the viability of the free to play business model, for independent MMO games. While while employing a small team of less than 5 developers, Playtechtonics also serves as a model for small independent studios as it maintains a MMO game.

"I believe Starport has reached this new milestone because we are committed to providing new and exciting improvements to the game based on player requests", said Aaron Hunter, Playtechtonics CEO. Recent upgrades to Starport: Galactic Empires include: a new classic server that brings back classic gameplay style for veteran players, improvements to graphics and sound, logos for player run corporations, and championship competitions for players to compete for the title of champion of Starport. In the new Starport: Galactic Empires wiki located at http://www.StarportGame.com/wiki, the player community has also begun to document the more subtle aspects of Starport and play strategies for players.

Self published by independent game development studio Playtechtonics and released in 2004, Starport: Galactic Empires is a free to play massively multiplayer online role playing game (MMORPG). RPG players, in this space, take the role of a space ship captain and explore and conquer a vast galaxy filled with others players. Players can take over planets to expand their empires and form corporations with other players, participate in real time combat with others players, to fight for control of the galaxy. Starport is free to play and can be downloaded directly at the Starport website.