What are you up to at this year’s E3?
Ian: “A victory lap for Eve Online. We’ve been going 10 years and have over half a million players, which is an incredible achievement. We’re also proud to introduce [PS3 exclusive] Dust 514, which is fully integrated into the Eve Online universe.”
Pete: “Eve Online is a massively multiplayer online (MMO) game. Players pilot ships through over 7,500 star systems, engaging in a number of professions. It’s played on one single shard, which means every player can affect every other player. Unlike other MMO’s, everyone shares the full Eve experience together. Dust 514 players connect as well, so their actions affect the same universe. That was a massively technological challenge for us –how to merge these two worlds –but it’s up and running. Players are interacting with each other.”
What’s Dust 514?
Pete: A free to play, MMO first person shooter. Anyone who owns a PS3 can simply download Dust and start playing. It’s the first of its kind on the PlayStation Network. We just launched on May 14 and will be providing updates monthly over the next three months. We’ll be improving matchmaking, weapons, vehicles, etc.”
CCP’s VR demo has been an E3 highlight. How did this come about?
Ian: “Some of the guys at CCP were Kickstarter investors in VR kits from Oculus, a small American company. When they got the early version of the kits, they wanted to make game content for it.”
How does the standard of virtual reality differ today to the 1990’s?
Ian: The concepts were always good, even back in the 1990’s. The problem was the technology wasn’t there to facilitate it. A whole collection of different technologies have matured at the same time, so something like Oculus Rift is possible. We’re talking about high density, lightweight LCD /LED displays with accelerometers. Now is the time for VR to come good. I think there’s great future in it. We’re looking at $300 to $400 for a consumer version [of the headsets]. CCP are excited to potentially create some content for it.
Do you plan to package your EVR space shooter with the glasses?
Ian: “At this stage nothing has been announced. We’re showing it to people at events like E3. We’re still learning about VR ourselves.”
Pete: “We’re looking for feedback from everybody who is playing. Where does VR live within the Eve universe? Is it a standalone product? Does it incorporate into Eve or Dust? There’s a lot of potential for Oculus Rift in what we’re doing.”