DUST 514

To an outsider, CCP Games' focus on EVE Online's player panel, comics, incoming television series about player adventures, and museum induction show just how much the company works to earn its players' respect, which might sound weird for studio running a cutthroat PvP sandbox. But I've always felt as if I made stronger personal attachments through high-stakes PvP than through most other gaming activities. I don't play EVE or its console cousin DUST 514, but after stopping by the CCP booth for my interview and hands-on at E3 yesterday, I feel as if I should be doing more than reading and writing about it.

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Sometimes a space cowboy or cowgirl just wants to gaze out of the cockpit and marvel at the beauty of the cosmos. Sometimes being that pensive is a good way to get podded, but at least those final moments are spent in awe.

So whether or not you're facing imminent combat, we've got some new CCP eye candy for you. Below are several new screenshots from EVE Online: Odyssey and DUST 514, and after the break is the E3 trailer for DUST called Fight Your Own War. Enjoy!

[Source: CCP Games]

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DUST 514 may be causing the CCP faithful to go out and buy a PlayStation 3, Vice President Thor Gunnarsson suggested. He claims that sales for Sony's console are increasing thanks to the popularity of the sci-fi MMOFPS.

"We already see that DUST 514, during open beta, had been driving hardware sales for Sony. We actually track that together," Gunnarsson said. "We know that our fanbase, DUST-curious players, are buying the PlayStation 3 to get into our game."

Recently, the studio claimed that DUST 514 was vital to the "long-term trajectory" of the company.

It's been a couple of weeks since DUST 514 launched as a free-to-play title on the PlayStation 3. While it may be too early to tell whether the MMOFPS will be a big success story, a big flop, or something in the middle, Chief Marketing Officer David Reid argues that DUST 514 is vital to the future of CCP Games.

"The second product is often the big product," he said. "Anybody can have a hit, but can you have two? It's very important for CCP right now to make DUST 514 a success. It has a lot to do with the long-term trajectory of the company. We're definitely thinking about that."

Reid says that CCP is not trying to directly compete with MMO industry titans, but is forging its own path with a sustained cult following. He sees DUST 514 as an important step to the growth of the EVE Online universe: "On some level, DUST is a bit of a tracer bullet. A very big tracer bullet, a big investment, but it's a test bed. This could be the beginning of a much more interesting strategy of lots and lots of things joining into Tranquillity, and all being part of that shared economy, those shared politics and that shared universe."

This weekend's downtime in both EVE Online and DUST 514 -- the results of a distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack -- is now over and both CCP games are back online, according to a statement from the studio's COO, Jón Hörðdal Jónasson.

CCP assures its customers that "at no time was customer data compromised or accessible in any way." Compensation to all EVE and DUST players will be announced soon.

If you were looking to play EVE Online or DUST 514 this afternoon, you might want to go with your backup plan. CCP has taken its Tranquility server cluster offline in order to deal with a "significant and sustained distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack."

Tranquility hosts EVE and DUST players, and while CCP initially reopened the servers, it has since decided to close them down in order to conduct an investigation and "an exhaustive scan of our entire infrastructure." The outage also affects CCP's web presence. You can follow the situation via the company's Twitter feed.

[Thanks to everyone who tipped us.]

Last month saw the huge tenth anniversary EVE Online Fanfest, a three-day convention packed full of exclusive reveals, behind-the-scenes talks, and community events. This year's Fanfest was the biggest one yet, celebrating EVE's tenth anniversary with special guest speakers from the scientific community, the reveal of a new virtual reality dogfighter, DUST 514's launch, and details of the upcoming Odyssey expansion. Massively was there to bring you coverage of the big news as it happened, and CCP streamed some of the key talks and events live to viewers at home.

This year's Fanfest sold out so quickly that many people who wanted to go didn't get a chance to, and only a select few talks were shown on the public livestream. With such a packed event schedule, even players in attendance couldn't be there for every interesting talk. Thankfully, CCP recorded over 30 of the most anticipated events and has now uploaded the videos to YouTube. Highlights include the Make EVE Real videos, the EVE keynote, the CCP Presents Keynote, and the talks on how DUST 514 integrates with the EVE economy.

In this week's EVE Evolved, I round up all of the EVE Fanfest videos in a handy list.

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Playing EVE on my couch is bizarre. I know, technically it's called DUST 514, but let's be serious. DUST is basically the beginnings of a massive EVE Online expansion if you subscribe to the notion that EVE is a virtual world as opposed to merely a strategy game featuring internet spaceships and internet drama.

I've played EVE in some strange places prior to this. In an airport terminal, for example. On my toilet, even (yes, nature occasionally calls in the middle of a fleet fight and thank God for laptops). But DUST marks the first -- OK, technically the second -- time I've ever played in New Eden with a controller.

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It's DUST 514's launch day, and if you've hit dirt with your face more than your combat boots, then you might need a helping hand with CCP's MMO shooter. PlayStation Universe has posted a pair of guides to help new players get off to a strong start, and since Massively cares about each and every one of you, we wanted to pass them along so that you don't end up a shallow grave on an alien world.

The first guide is a hodge-podge of beginner's tips, and the second has to do with earning much-needed skill points. "In the early days, we think it's wise to hoard ISK and SP until a time when you're ready to decide on your specialization," the author writes. "Until then, the Militia Gear is good enough."

Good luck, soldiers! If you have any DUST 514 tips or tricks that you'd like to pass along to other Massively readers, please do so in the comments.

This is it, soldier! Training is over, and it's time to head out to war. DUST 514 settles today, officially launching into the New Eden universe also occupied by EVE Online. Available only on the PlayStation 3, this shooter pits forces against each other in a ground assault while orbital strikes rain down from EVE allies and enemies above. Are you ready?

Ah, trapped behind a desk for a while still, are you? Well, don't worry; if you won't have the opportunity to soothe your itchy trigger finger until later, we've got some things to tide you over until you can join the fray yourself. Check out the factional warfare, learn about rewards, and much more in the hands-on experiences, screenshots, videos, news, and impressions after the break.

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Tomorrow marks a huge milestone in MMO history as sci-fi sandbox EVE Online officially turns ten years old. Released by a tiny icelandic development studio whose only previous release was a board game featuring Reykjavik's favourite cross-dressing mayor, EVE has slowly grown over the past decade to become one of the industry's biggest and most stable subscription titles. Following 2011's monoclegate scandal that led to around 8% of players quitting and CCP Games shedding 20% of its employees, this year saw EVE Online climb to new heights as it regained the playerbase's confidence and smashed the 500,000 subscriber barrier. As a special side-note, the EVE Evolved column also turned five years old last week; it has now officially been running for over half of EVE's lifetime.

The past year has been remarkably successful for CCP, with both of the year's EVE expansions being extremely well received and console MMOFPS DUST 514 finally starting to take shape. The Inferno and Retribution expansions fixed a staggering number of small issues that were broken in the game while also making big changes to bounty-hunting, piracy, and PvP across the board. We also saw huge emergent events like the Battle of Asakai, a $6,000 ship kill, and the five trillion ISK faction warfare exploit this year. With DUST 514 officially launching in just over a week on May 14th and players fired up about the upcoming Odyssey expansion, the future's looking bright for EVE Online as it heads into its second decade.

In this week's EVE Evolved, I look back at some of year's top EVE stories, stories that touched real life, and what the future holds for EVE's second decade.

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This year's CCP fan festival featured a bunch of interesting news items including DUST 514's official release date, more info on EVE's upcoming Odyssey expansion, and even a glimpse of the progress being made on World of Darkness.

There was also talk of EVE tales being immortalized in more traditional media formats, a ginormous 10-year collector's edition, and an early look at EVR, a new virtual reality EVE game designed for the Oculus Rift. Now that you've had a chance to digest all of the details, what was your favorite Fanfest 2013 reveal? Vote after the cut!

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We usually don't expect to see much from the final day of the EVE Fanfest, but for this year's tenth anniversary celebration, CCP isn't doing anything by half measures. The first two days of the event had a strong focus on DUST 514 and EVE Online, delving into the specific details of DUST's upcoming Uprising update and EVE's Odyssey expansion. I went into the convention centre today expecting a nice slow wind down with the usual CCP Presents keynote looking at the state of the company, but I left with several huge reveals that seemed to come out of nowhere.

Not only did we find out that EVE Online is finally getting a collector's edition box full of goodies, but CCP revealed that a new EVE comic book and lore compendium are both on the way. As if that weren't enough, there's also an EVE TV series in the works based on player-submitted stories of true events inside the EVE universe. I couldn't help escaping the feeling, though, that this year's CCP Presents talk was more than a little marketing-oriented. As one of the press put it to me after the talk, it felt at times like watching an infomercial. On the plus side, we did get to see more of CCP's future vision for the EVE universe and an amazing new trailer showing the game's core storyline.

Read on to check out the incredible EVE Universe Origins trailer and my summary of the final day of Fanfest 2013.

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CCP Games has just announced at this weekend's EVE Fanfest that the wait for DUST 514 will soon be over: DUST 514 is launching on May 14th.

The free-to-play PlayStation 3 shooter is built to connect with CCP's sci-fi MMORPG sandbox, EVE Online; players in one game can directly influence the players in the other.

"Gamers can look forward to an ever-progressing game, built on the experience CCP has gathered over the past decade, as new features and upgrades are rolled out for years to come," declares the press release posted today. Massively published a hands-on with the game in January.

[Source: CCP press release]

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