What can you tell us about DUST 514?
It's a first-person RTS MMO that's connected to EVE. That's the basic foundation, but it's really a fundamental part of us breaking down the barriers of EVE and going to new platforms. Our belief is that we can't really see there being a port of EVE to console but we can expand the EVE universe and provide access on the console in a gameplay medium where it fits the console better -- a shooter. This is part of our larger strategy of when we go to new platforms, for example mobile, we will be catering for that platform's experience. With an iPhone you can't do a lot of real time stuff but we can expose a lot of gameplay on the mobile... They're all still interconnected with each other in a meaningful way. They're all affecting each other, so basically it's still the same huge universe.
Tying DUST 514 into EVE Online's system of territorial control is a pretty bold move. Will DUST 514 players really be able to exert a strong influence on how EVE's alliances control territory, or will it be a small aspect of a larger picture?
We haven't gone into detail how the interaction between the worlds will be, but there's going to be a meaningful relationship between the two.
We're seeing the EVE Online setting entering new mediums in console games and in novel form with last year's "Empyrean Age" and soon in the upcoming novel "The Burning Life". Since CCP Games acquired White Wolf, how likely is it we'll see EVE Online expand into a pen and paper RPG?
We already have a tabletop game and we're exploring it all, but it's more that we're looking into how we would apply it and how would you actually play in a pen and paper environment. It really has to be a different approach than, for example, how EVE itself is. Again this is about creating an experience for a specific medium and we don't think that flying around in spaceships in a pen and paper setting is the right way to go. So we have to find the correct setting and environment that's still a meaningful part of the EVE universe but what kind of persona will you have? What adventures and world are you experiencing? So I wouldn't rule it out but it's currently still in a back and forth phase of trying to figure out and see if there's something meaningful in bringing it to pen and paper.
When we've spoken with CCP Games in the past, they emphasized a goal for EVE Online is to be a complete sci-fi simulation. Is EVE where you want it to be in this respect?
No. The problem with us I guess is that we keep on thinking forward. So we basically have a huge backlog of what we want to do with the EVE universe. DUST 514 is an excellent example of how we want to expand the EVE universe and we'll be doing more of that into other platforms. I think that we'll pretty much never be happy with where we are and we always want to go further. That's basically what's been driving EVE for a long time. We keep growing the EVE team and we're now quadruple the size of when we launched and we're nowhere near done. We need more people, we're actually trying to hire a hundred people right now. It's difficult but we'll get there. [Laughs] Well, we'll probably never get there but closer to where we want to be.
EVE arrived on the MMO scene as an underdog 6 years ago. Today it's regarded by many as the current king of the hill in sci-fi MMOs. Did you ever envision the game coming this far?
Yes! To the point that we said it'll never die. And it never will. Regarding numbers themselves, they don't really matter that much to us in a sense. I mean, CCP started becoming a profitable company when we had 50,000 subscribers so that isn't really the point of the whole thing. It's that we're living the dream of seeing our game still going strong and continuously evolving. What's most important for us is that we can keep on doing that. We will.
Yes, it's living a dream actually.
Thanks for speaking with us Nathan.
