EVE Online GDC tech demo pitted more than 10,000 ships against each other

EVE Online is famous for its titanic battles, and it's during those battles that even people who've never played the stellar MMO pay attention. But EVE is 15 years old and struggles when thousands of players are all duking it out in one gargantuan brawl. CCP reckons it has a solution, however, which it tested out at GDC with a 10,000-ship battle. 

The developer has partnered with a cloud-based computing company, Hadean, resulting in the EVE: Aether Wars tech demo. The Aether Engine uses Microsoft Azure and is built on top of HadeanOS, the company's 'cloud-first operation system'. 

GDC might be a great place to show off new tech, but live events and technology frequently clash. As Hadean's Ryan King notes in a recent blog post, there wasn't a safety net. But it worked. 

3,850 human players participated, fighting each other and against AI connected clients. The total number of ships involved in the battle was an astronomical 14,274, with 10,412 ships fighting concurrently. A whopping 88,988 ships were apparently destroyed when all was said and done. Check out one of the player streams here

Expect more details about how Hadean managed to support such a huge battle soon, as well as a panel at EGX Rezzed that will cover what was shown off at GDC. More tests, which will obviously require more players, are coming in the future, so keep an eye out for the chance to sign up. 

Fraser Brown
Online Editor

Fraser is the UK online editor and has actually met The Internet in person. With over a decade of experience, he's been around the block a few times, serving as a freelancer, news editor and prolific reviewer. Strategy games have been a 30-year-long obsession, from tiny RTSs to sprawling political sims, and he never turns down the chance to rave about Total War or Crusader Kings. He's also been known to set up shop in the latest MMO and likes to wind down with an endlessly deep, systemic RPG. These days, when he's not editing, he can usually be found writing features that are 1,000 words too long or talking about his dog.