CCP Games today announces that their epic ships-n-stats sci-fi MMO has soared past the 500,000 subscriber mark, filling the interstellar skies with an ever-growing number of ruthlessly Machiavellian space-bastards for a tenth year running.
Meanwhile, the awesome scenes of gigantic player-driven events, like the Battle of Asakai , have drawn a lot of attention. In fact, Hilmar said these sorts of events were the game's best advertisements - chief marketing officer, David Reid was himself inspired to join CCP when he read about the operatives of the Guiding Hand Social Club in an article by PC Gamer's very own Tom Francis: Murder Incorporated . The cross-platform integration with Dust 514 has also helped drag some gamers away from their consoles and into the larger, more sophisticated EVE universe, and the game's profile at large has increased thanks to its induction into MOMA's collection of videogames.
As for the future, Hilmar said that sandbox would certainly continue to expand - as it has with the addition of new territories accessible through wormholes - but also that they were looking to grow the game inwards: "There are lot of things within the solar systems that are yet to be explored." Hilmar also alluded to some distant future event which would truly unify the game worlds of Dust 514 and EVE Online.
The late April EVE fanfest will kick-off a year long celebration of the game's second decade. What this celebration will entail remains vague, but David Reid pledged that it would go off with a bang: "We haven't even shown you our best work yet."
As Hilmar then rejoined: "EVE will outlive us all."
