Eve Online plans to add vanity microtransactions

Eve Online developers CCP are planning to introduce the sale of vanity items such as additional clothing and furniture to their space-warfare sim, with plans to sell further features further down the line.

CCP employee Zulu made the announcement on the Eve Online blog , saying "Virtual goods sales in EVE Online will evolve through sales of vanity items, first in Incarna [the forthcoming free expansion] but later in-space features. The scope will be (and there's no design has been done around this, we're just talking strategy now) that anything that doesn't affect gameplay directly can be, potentially, sold for PLEX or other means."

Talking about the kinds of objects that could be sold, Zulu mentions "clothing and furniture, logos on spaceships and swapping out portraits. This is by no means a comprehensive list, nor is it a commitment that said items will be available for sale, I mention these as an example for what type of items we're thinking about."

Zulu also explains CCP's thinking behind the new direction: "It's important to clarify that virtual goods sales isn't an arbitrary - or particularly greedy - decision. There is a constantly decreasing number of MMO's out there that don't incorporate virtual goods sales at some level. - games that aren't responding to this trend are dying out." He adds "if we don't react to the wishes of the market we will simply become the dinosaurs of the industry. And everyone knows what happens to dinosaurs."

The news comes ahead of the release of the first part of the new Incursion update , scheduled to hit on November 30th.