DUST 514 coming to PlayStation 3 in 2012

Intrepid Pioneers of the EVE Universe,

I just recently finished my walk-on at the Sony Press Conference just before E3 Expo, where I had the privilege to announce that DUST 514 will be launching exclusively on PlayStation 3 in Summer 2012.

The hyper-observant amongst you probably figured it out months ago. Others might have been following along at www.dust514.com and counting down with us. Others still might have found news through EVE or a Facebook link not long ago. Undoubtedly though many of you missed it live though thanks to time zones, so we’ll be putting up a recording of it on our YouTube channel as soon as possible.

During the short presentation we showed the “Pale Red Dot” video, which will be hosted at the DUST514 page.

If you have ever been to EVE Fanfest or watched the presentations, then you realize that I could have gone on to no end on stage. It was not the venue for that so it’s good to have a chance here to go a bit deeper.

CCP would like to thank you for bringing us to this point.

We would more importantly like to thank you for bringing the EVE universe to this point.

A long time ago, when EVE was just launching, you immediately began inspiring us to take the concept of EVE much further than we originally thought made sense. We have seen amazing emergent game play birthed from core features and lend power to giant leaps forward--like Incarna and now DUST. It’s amazing to see what subtle musings of “Wouldn’t it be cool if there were armies on these planets beneath us?”---or---“I would love to add a dropship or two to my hangar… “ can turn into.

Atli Már Sveinsson (now Creative Director for DUST 514) and pilots of a similar, combative mindset have been gently nudging us since EVE’s alpha. In fact, he co-founded one of the first EVE player alliance and credits that for the premise for DUST 514. He was not alone in his bloodlust--at Fanfest we gathered countless ideas from EVE fans, an effort that continues to this day.

The inspiration grew further as the history of EVE stacked upon itself and the friendships and conflicts both great and small continued to thrive and grow bolder. In the beginning, the EVE universe was a vast empty space full of possibility and not long into it all, as migrations happened and wars swallowed regions whole over and over again, each system harbored countless real, visceral memories. Soon shooting people in the face seemed like a good and natural complement to shooting them in the ship.

And because of that history, the close knit, oft-times defiant and always unique culture of EVE’s community has allowed us to grow the EVE universe even more. The war theaters of DUST 514 exist because you have poured the sweat, cried the delicious tears and returned from the clone vats again and again with blood refreshed.

You have given the EVE universe real meaning.

We appreciate your patience with us this past Fanfest as we so desperately wanted to talk more about DUST 514’s development as we did at Fanfest 2009, but we could not due to this impending announcement and all that goes with it.

Soon ™ has now become SOON and the time looms where EVE will take another massive leap forward through the addition of DUST 514 and mercenaries dying in droves at your financial command, crushed beneath your orbital bombardment or even fighting back when you least expect it. DUST 514, like the other sandbox-style features in EVE, is designed to add true and meaningful experiences to play through persistency, human interaction and the simple mechanic of “choice”.

DUST 514 is a unique technical and design endeavor to be sure, that CCP—in particular our Shanghai office—has been laboring tirelessly and expertly for years to create. I could not be prouder of them.

Perhaps more importantly, the endeavor is an equally unique social one. You made EVE into such an amazing game that we had to make another game to supplement it.

Now that the mercs are out of the bag, we hope you will join us as we unveil more about DUST 514 in the lead up to launch.

A few good places to start learning about DUST 514:

• The PlayStation.Blog post about DUST 514. CCP Shadow has been answering player questions there since the announcement took place.
• The Official DUST 514 website
• The DUST 514 Facebook and Twitter Pages
• The ”A Future Vision” trailer we showed at Fanfest which portrays where we are headed with the EVE universe
• The discussion thread attached to this blog

With Sony as a partner we can make the fullest use of PlayStation 3’s technical arsenal (including PS Home and the whole Sony ecosystem). Furthermore, exclusivity brings the powerful ability to design for the highest common denominator by sticking to one platform and all of its strengths.

We are all, as in the day of EVE’s launch in 2003, poised to grasp the potential energy of the EVE universe and once again mold it in our image.

Again, thank you for bringing us all to this point. I look forward to shooting you in the face soon.

Hilmar Veigar Pétursson

CEO of CCP