CCP has been raining rain and shine on the universe for almost 20 years with its space MMO Eve Online, so much so that this FanFest 2022 was eagerly awaited by fans, three years after the last edition.
In the rain and hail of Reykjavik, a large dome in the distance points the way to the endless space of Eve Online. CCP made an appointment with fans for a new edition of its Icelandic festival where the announcements followed one another under the applause. At the dawn of the 20th anniversary of its game, the Nordic studio has considerably revised the user experience of its MMO, reputed to be difficult to learn.
Often described as a messy MMO, EvE Online has made a lot of effort in recent years to completely overhaul the interface, the tutorials, bringing a Spanish version along the way, and also reviewing its economic model - the game is free-to-play until at a certain level, before requiring a monthly subscription.
For its FanFest 2022, CCP had therefore pulled out all the stops, a week after announcing a substantial – and unappreciated – increase in its monthly subscription, including for the oldest players. Because if the hardcore fans are there, the urgency is to renew its player base, which has long suffered from an aging population. Because even if the structure of Eve Online requires a real involvement, thus ensuring a certain commitment, CCP had to reassure on its future. Successful bet ?
A new narrative experience
If the tutorial already benefits from a complete scripted sequence, CCP will nevertheless offer a new narrative experience whose implications will be made over several years. A way for the studio to ensure a certain loyalty, even for new players who will be accompanied by different NPCs dedicated to each of the title's features.
Preparing for the next ten years
The other big project for CCP is obviously the next ten years. A new decade that will see an advanced modernization of the interface. The most important announcement of this segment is nevertheless the arrival of an interface solely dedicated to exploration, so that this segment is not only a question of mining or hacking. A way for CCP to focus on the other big quality of EvE Online, space exploration, and not to base its game solely on PvP and resource harvesting. And in detail, players will also be able to count on new warehouse stations, and access new expertise for free. Veterans will be able to fully review the capabilities of their ships and avatars, and thus change the way they play.
However, this is not the only revision planned in the coming years: the avatars (or agents in EvE Online) and the career program will also be entitled to it. How to convince the most reluctant? Hard to say, but EvE Online will undoubtedly receive more attention from Spanish players with the announcement of a dedicated localization - a few months after the Japanese localization.
An "MMO-Excel" that claims to be as such
Often considered difficult to access and requiring entire documents to develop a strategy of defense and harvesting of resources, EvE Online embraces this state of affairs by announcing, not without humour, a partnership with Microsoft.The Icelandic studio will thus propose an extension which will then allow a complete export to Excel. This greatly facilitates the management of certain information, and undoubtedly makes all the data collected more digestible.
And other projects are in the pipeline, including a new FPS at CCP London which will offer a very dark atmosphere as well as a mysterious shooter, still connected to the MMO. If we are rather happy to learn that the additional developments are continuing, the real information concerning them will come later.
If it is not (yet) time to celebrate the 20th anniversary of EvE Online, CCP nevertheless ensures the future of its MMO for at least another ten years. Far from the all-out expansion of a few years ago - with an interconnected multiplayer FPS, but since closed and projects for VR, the studio is refocusing on its fundamentals with the need to renew its audience in mind, and this without NFT.
