In the first part of a multi-part week long look, we introduce what we learned at EVE Online Fanfest held last week in Reykjavik, Iceland. There, CCP Games explained a wealth of information on the future of their virtual society, including a look at the upcoming Trinity expansion, the Ambulation and even a democratic initiative within the game.
Check back every day this week for a dedicated, focused feature on a specific aspect of the game's future.
"War on the impossible," is the company's latest mantra, according to CEO Hilmar Petursson. But, EVE Online has always defied expectations. It launched as a shell of a game to a very limited to subscriber base, yet while most games follow a very predictable life cycle, EVE refuses to quit growing. As of last week, the game has 197,773 subscribers, up substantially from last year. It creates a growth chart that looks more like Google's stock price than the typical bump and decline most games see.
Part of this success is how the world of EVE has taken on a life of its own. While most games divide their players between servers for technical and gameplay reasons, CCP capitalizes on the infinity of space and runs a world that recently hit 37,290 concurrent players logged in. The value of this is not just technical, and their Fanfest demonstrates the fact perfectly.
Read part one after the leap.