More details on EVE FPS Dust 514

By Oli Welsh Published 28 August, 2009

How CCP's online worlds fit together.

Although details were sparse on last week's announcement of the EVE Online console FPS spin-off, Dust 514, there's been a trickle of information since that does a little to clarify how CCP's two MMOs will interact.

The best summaries are to be found in a video interview with CCP head Hilmar Petursson by German site Gamona, and Massively's article on what we know and speculation on what it might mean.

Petursson explained that Dust 514 will be an online shooter, for consoles only, with elements of real-time strategy - deployment of installations by commanders throughout Dust 514's battlefields will change the flow of the fight - and persistent MMO character advancement. Player characters in Dust 514 will be able to own things, including customisable vehicles and weapons.

But the real juice is in Dust 514's connection to the EVE Online universe. The console players will act as mercenaries - with the potential to be contracted, funded and armed by the fleet pilots of the PC game - and fight for control of planets in the same universe. The battles in both EVE and Dust will contribute to the NPC faction warfare and player-driven territorial warfare in the EVE universe.

"The two worlds will affect each other in a meaningful way," said Petursson. "You can still have great fun without thinking about the strategic connections between these two games... but everything has this additional meaning or relevance... for thousands or tens of thousands of other players."

Petursson said that Dust 514's development was a result of a desire to satisfy gamers who took an interest in EVE's persistent universe, but weren't attracted to the dry and complex gameplay of the space MMO.

"We've seen a lot of people are excited by EVE Online," he said. "There are a lot of stories that come out of EVE, and there's a lot of interest in the social, political and economic things that go on in it. But the EVE experience is focused on a particular play style, and there are people that want to play different types of games. So we thought, OK, what is the most different type of game from what we have now? And a first-person shooter was our conclusion."

Petursson declined to give a release date for Dust 514, stressing that CCP would take as long as it needed to get the interaction between the two games right. "But we have been working on it for three years, so we're quite far along already," he added.

We'll hopefully have more information on Dust 514 come the CCP Fanfest, held on 1st to 3rd October.

Picture of Oli.

About Oli Welsh

Oli is Eurogamer's acting deputy editor and reviews editor and likes to take things one word at a time. He is among the best dressed people in South London.

Read more articles from Oli by visiting the Oli Welsh archive page.

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Comments (23) Latest comment 11 months ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • mcmonkeyplc #1 3 years ago

    This game has gone straight to the top of my most wanted list....yes above any halol game.

  • psousa #2 3 years ago

    This is a f*cking epic idea. I've always been fascinated by the EVE online universe, but unfortunately I can't spare the free time that this game deserves. This FPS looks like the perfect compromise. Bring it on :)

  • Eraser #3 3 years ago

    It certainly does sound interesting. However, if there's not a good FPS game on top of this Eve online interconnectivity, it's not going to be fun to play.

  • Lemming81 #4 3 years ago

    "Petursson said that Dust 514's development was a result of a desire to satisfy gamers who took an interest in EVE's persistent universe, but weren't attracted to the dry and complex gameplay of the space MMO.

    See, while I appreciate that, I'm a little insulted by the fact that the solution is 'ZOMG FPS BANG BANG!' just because I find Eve hard going.

    The Elite games managed complex systems without feeling overwhelmingly obtuse, and that was about 30 years ago.

  • Eraysor #5 3 years ago

    Sounds very good, especially as it avoids the complete yawn-fest of the actual MMO.

  • Dizzy #6 3 years ago

    Good stuff! Impressive.

  • Schiraman #7 3 years ago

    Making it console-only seems nuts to me - surely most of the people who'll be interested in this game will be PC gamers? I mean if you're a console gamer without a gaming PC, then are you really likely to give a crap about EVE? And doesn't the game sort of lose it's main point if you're not interested or familiar with the EVE universe?

  • TheBoyChris #8 3 years ago

    @Lemming81

    Yes, but Elite wasn't massively multiplayer.

  • vegard #9 3 years ago

    "Petursson said that Dust 514's development was a result of a desire to satisfy gamers who took an interest in EVE's persistent universe, but weren't attracted to the dry and complex gameplay of the space MMO"

    hey, sounds like i'm in the middle of the target audience for this one. excited to see how this game shapes up!

  • KillerMonkey #10 3 years ago

    Holy shit that sounds fucking awesome!

  • Spekingur #11 3 years ago

    They have been working on this for three years. Wow. Talk about keeping it well under wraps.

  • skullstorm #12 3 years ago

    While I am excited by the premise of this, I was absolutely gutted there has been no new news on their World of Darkness MMO. /sadface

  • AphoticCosmos #13 2 years ago

    Motherfucking sold.

    I didn't have the time to devote to EVE, but I'm getting good vibes from this.

  • basalarmageddon #14 2 years ago

    I wonder how this will tie in with system control for EVE, weather it will just add a coupple of fairly useles perk's for the fleet's trying to take or hold the system or be quite more usefull boost in taking systems, if the it's the latter the console player base are going to have to get used to a little thing we EVE players like to call metagame shenanigens.

  • Bazfrag #15 2 years ago

    Im still playing de_dust 2. God thats 512 dusts behind!

  • KDR_11k #16 2 years ago

    It sounds fun but aiming with dual analogs still feels like maneuvering a shopping cart to me and I don't have XBL gold so I wouldn't be able to play. Oh, right, will probably have a monthly fee as well?

  • RedSparrows #17 2 years ago

    KDR, nobody knows what that end'll be like.


    In other news, orgasmz. I didn't enjoy visiting the EVE forum after this was announced. Waa-fest.

  • DodgyPast #18 2 years ago

    The responses here are definitely a breath of fresh air after the eve-o forums.

    It'll be interesting how it pans out and bringing in some new blood to the mmo is always appreciated,

  • actionfitz #19 2 years ago

    nice idea. tried the eve demo, was nice but not for me.
    this sounds like a cool idea for synergy between gamers of different tastes :)

  • Lemming81 #20 2 years ago

    TheBoyChris

    it wouldn't have been very different if it was, though.

  • bioreit #21 2 years ago

    @ MilkybKid1985

    "But its a console ONLY game, they link a console only game to a pc game and not give a PC client, it just sounds like a stupid thing to do."

    I thought that, too, at first, but I've come to realise it makes quite a lot of sense - have the ridiculously complex, uber-geeky time-sink of a game on the PC and have the brasher, more visceral experience on consoles.

    I suspect that this game is CCP's 'foot in the door' of the console market and releasing this game on PC as well will only serve to dilute that market, resulting in fewer console sales. I mean, the PC hardcore are forever evangelising about how FPS games are absolute gash on consoles and 'real' gamers would only dare to play them on PC - they already have a game that obviously appeals to quite a large segment of the PC gamers market, so why should they be going after the same people with this game? They might even steal sales away from EVE as people start to try it instead.

    Have to say, this could be awesome - an underling at work is an EVE die-hard and he'd love it if he could contract me as a merc and boss me about! Always thought it would be a company like Novalogic that did this kind of integration first - I mean, they had all the Delta Force games and flight sims like MiG-29 and F22 all ready and waiting...

    On the other hand, would love it if you could Starship Troopers it - log in, spawn into a space station, get your briefing and choose your load-out, load up into dropships with your squadmates, then one of the big ships transports you to the planet, whereupon you scream down to the surface in your little bullet magnets!

  • hiruu #22 2 years ago

    I'm interested...but I need for each day to become 48 hours, so I can have more time to play all of these games on the horizon.

  • calamarimaster #23 11 months ago

    I'll take it as an insult if they don't decide to include PC client in the future. After all when it comes to FPS / Shooter based games my preference has always been PC over consoles. Main reason being I play console games mainly for RPG's, Racing, etc... I just don't like the feel of a console controller for a serious shooter game!