Future Eve NEX goods dwarf $70 monocle

By Robert Purchese Published 11 July, 2011

"$10,000 gold-coloured scorpion" anyone?

There will be far more expensive Eve Online virtual goods to buy than a $70 monocle, game maker CCP has revealed to Eurogamer.

"I fully expect so at some point - yeah, definitely," senior producer Arnar Gylfason answered Eurogamer during a CCP press conference. "$10,000 gold-coloured scorpions - who knows? At some point."

And such astronomically priced vanity goods will be met with no opposition from the game's player-elected Council of Stellar Management.

"My perspective and the CSM's perspective," said CSM chairman Alex "The Mittani" Gianturco, "is that if they come out with something like - just as a hypothetical [example] - unique ship models with limited runs that they want to charge $1 billion for: as long as it doesn't impact the competitive gameplay of Eve Online - If some crazy rich person wants to buy that, I don't care and, by and large, the CSM doesn't care, and that money helps go to develop Eve."

"There are a lot of people who will spend - If you look at the World of Warcraft mount secondary market, a good example are these ridiculous spectral tigers: people will pay $850 trying to buy one of those things which is, to me, nuts. But it doesn't impact my gameplay if they want to buy themselves a sparkle pony and if they want to spend their money on stupid things.

"Humans spend their money on stupid sh*t all the time."

Alex "The Mittani" Gianturco, CSM chairman

"Humans spend their money on stupid sh*t all the time," he added, "whether they're playing an MMO or whether they're buying sports cars or houses that are too big for them."

Gylfason went on to explain that there will be varying tiers of pricing for items. A subsequently released Eve Online dev blog notes how these tiers can range from "affordable" for the majority, to "deluxe" for "the flamboyantly rich". "An exceptional tier is rumored to exist that represents a very special and rare investment for the wealthiest members of the EVE community," the post added.

Gylfason said CCP hopes to have "continuous launching of new assets over the coming weeks and months". "This is something we're dedicated to populating up to an acceptable level. We have items in each pricing tier, but we haven't really seen extreme examples at either end of the spectrum," Gylfason added.

The virtual goods store, the Noble Exchange (NEX), was added in recent expansion Incarna - the update that allows player avatars to move around interior locations (confined to Captain's Quarters at the moment). CCP came under heavy fire from the community when a 'Fearless' newsletter was leaked that aired plans to charge players for game-altering goods at some point in the future. CCP has since reassured the community that this won't be the case, although the developer is reluctant to say "never".

The second phase of the Incarna expansion - the multiplayer part - will happen this year.

Picture of Robert.

About Robert Purchese

Bertie is Eurogamer's Senior Staff Writer. When he's not hunting down news stories he's often found playing with his kids or gabbling about fantasy games and strange online worlds. @Clert on Twitter.

Read more articles from Robert by visiting the Robert Purchese archive page.

You may also like...

Comments (37) Latest comment 11 months ago

Comments for this article are now closed, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • yoomazir #1 11 months ago

    in the end, it's always about money

  • the_dudefather #2 11 months ago

    Eve Online's target audience

  • bobfish09 #3 11 months ago

    One sparkle space ship please, kthxbye.

  • patch #4 11 months ago

    They'll only break the $1bn mark when they bring out a Nyan cat ship.

  • Silvergun-Blue #5 11 months ago

    Following the "A fool and his money" business plan I see.

    But as they say it won't effect gameplay, so why not ?

  • overcorpse #6 11 months ago

    The Mittani is awesome.I used to love the super nerds in BoB go apoplectic with rage towards him.

  • kestral #7 11 months ago

    Perhaps people are a bit cautious of a game turning into a virtual shopping mall, like farmville, as long as the focus is on the gameplay first and shopping mall second who can complain?

  • Concrete #8 11 months ago

    The industry term for such big spenders is "Whales" and they are almost always the spoilt children of very very rich people. They do exist, and they are so well off that 10k isn't even pocket money.

    Think of the satisfaction you will get for blowing up their bling spaceship though :D

  • telboy007 #9 11 months ago

    I more worried by the fact the Mittani has fingers in every CSM member's pies.

  • rojjer #10 11 months ago

    @telboy007

    that's not prison lingo is it I hope?..

  • geeza2020 #11 11 months ago

    I reckon these new microtransactions are actually all a big scheme by this chairman chap to turn EVE space into a new galactic Empire, Palpatine styleee.

    /imperial march

    so this is how free to play dies? to rapturous applause :-P
    Edited by geeza2020 at 11/07/11 @ 15:32

  • misinformed #12 11 months ago

    Another bit of really encouraging eve news.

  • Sparc #13 11 months ago

    The first person to spend $10k on a ship in Eve may as well paint a hoofin' great target on themselves. Someone will take them down, Empire space or not.

  • Lexx87 #14 11 months ago

    It's mad though!

    Virtual items which cost a few dollars to produce being put out at hundreds or thousands of dollars. It's as close to free money as you can get, great business but utterly bonkers at the same time.

  • crooky369 #15 11 months ago

    So even if you spend 10 grand on this item you could still potentially lose it forever?

  • cowell #16 11 months ago

    That's quite a title for an article. Thought some spambot had got control of Eurogamer.

    "Future Eve NEX goods dwarf $70 monocle"

    It reads like a random string of nouns

  • Sparc #17 11 months ago

    @crooky369 yes. everything can be lost forever in Eve. There's no such thing as 'safe'. Some parts of the universe are 'safer' than others but nobody is 100% safe anywhere.

  • paulf #18 11 months ago

    he's right though, if it's purely cosmetic and doesn't effect the fairness of the game what does it matter.

  • munki83 #19 11 months ago

    Wouldn't having a £10,000 ship make people want to attack you more in...0 space i think its called, where most of the pvp happens

  • Kelduum #20 11 months ago

    Having a $10,000 ship will make people want to attack you *everywhere*, just to be the person who killed the fancy ship.

    @geeza2020 - I'm already on it, Mittens will have to wait his turn :p

  • overcorpse #21 11 months ago

    'Wouldn't having a £10,000 ship make people want to attack you more in...0 space i think its called, where most of the pvp happens'

    Buying a $10000 ship is just making yourself primary target or a suicide teams wet dream.

  • Bedders Verified Content Editor, Eurogamer Network #22 11 months ago

    @Sparc I believe the monocle is indestructible once put on your character. How this will apply to other goods isn't so clear.

    For the $10,000 dollar ship skin, perhaps they lose the ship but get to apply paint jobs for free.

    Although they'll certainly be targeted by all and sundry regardless.

  • darkmorgado #23 11 months ago

    "If you look at the World of Warcraft mount secondary market, a good example are these ridiculous spectral tigers"

    Heh, I got one of those via on of the CCG cards in the random booster pack that came with the CE of Cataclysm. Triple the value of my account overnight :)

  • Dizzy #24 11 months ago

    "Humans spend their money on stupid sh*t all the time"

    Maybe so... but you shouldn't provide stupid shit to buy just for your greed. People buy drugs all the time as well.

  • DodgyPast #25 11 months ago

    I wouldn't say the CSM is united on this, since quite a few of them have remained rather silent on the issue.

    While some players have been assuaged others are concerned that no non-vanity MT items has been re-written as no game-breaking MT items because apparently non-vanity MTs is an unquantifiable term. This has made a lot of people rather suspicious that MT for convenience is coming which will be abused into MT for power by Eve players.

    Will be interesting to see if the numbers for the game continues it's acceleration downwards, as a rather rabid player even I would be hesitant to recommend anyone to start playing right now since by the time you'd have got to grips with game it could be unrecognisable.

  • arcam #26 11 months ago

    Maybe so... but you shouldn't provide stupid shit to buy just for your greed.

    Agreed. Do people have no shame? Just because someone's stupid enough to buy it, doesn't mean you should feel good about selling it.

  • DodgyPast #27 11 months ago

    ^^ depends on your cocaine intake.

  • Optyk #28 11 months ago

    Great way to become a griefing magnet

  • Ginger #29 11 months ago

    @arcam, that's what businesses are all about.

  • TrevHead #30 11 months ago

    Shiny extras that dont effect gameplay is good as it gives the devs money to fund their other projects, plus the game is pro capitalistic and it enjoyed by a few gamers who are rich successfull ppl in RL nothing wrong with letting them buy the bling.

    I plan on returning to EVE later this year but only if they dont break the game adding gameplay changing items that are unavailable elsewhere.

  • BigJonno #31 11 months ago

    They seem to have missed the entire point of virtual goods and microtransactions. Why sell one for ten grand when you can sell ten thousand for 50p?

  • coolbritannia #32 11 months ago

    I fully expect this content to be hacked and given to all at some point.

  • Zomeguy #33 11 months ago

    Maybe so... but you shouldn't provide stupid shit to buy just for your greed.
    Please define "stupid shit". Many people consider that games in general clearly fall into this category. To each is own...

  • dagas #34 11 months ago

    If only iy led to us poor players having to pay less, it never does. Games have not become cheaper since they started being full of ads.

  • Tyrhinis #35 11 months ago

    @BigJonno: They seem to have missed the entire point of virtual goods and microtransactions. Why sell one for ten grand when you can sell ten thousand for 50p?

    Because that's half as much money...?

  • outy #36 11 months ago

    "Humans spend their money on stupid sh*t all the time,"

    There's something very Ratner-esque about this guy...

  • BigJonno #37 11 months ago

    @Tyrhinis

    And that's why I shouldn't try and do maths past my bed time.