Today CCP Games is celebrating all things EVE Online at EVE Fanfest 2023, and it had quite a few interesting announcements for and of the venerable space MMORPG.
The first and perhaps most surprising is EVE Vanguard, a multiplayer FPS module for EVE Online developed in Unreal Engine 5.
Players will deploy to planets full of conflict and opportunity and complete missions, acquire resources, and do battle against other players and AI enemies.
Vanguard will be connected with the main EVE Online universe and will impact its own wars via frontline corruption.
More content, features, and connections with the main universe will be added over time.
Players will be able to access a public mass test in December 2023, with the ability to access Vanguard directly from the main client. Registrations for this test are already available at the official site.
This isn't the first time CCP tries to get down and personal with your characters, first with the addition of in-character interaction that was strongly opposed by a large part of the player base and was then redirected into a new character creation.
The second attempt came with the FPS Dust 514, released for PS4 in 2013 and then shut down in 2016. It remains to be seen whether Vanguard will be better accepted.
Certainly less unpredictable is the new expansion for EVE Online, titled Havoc, which will launch for PC on November 14, 2023.
Players will be hired by the Angel Cartel and Guristas to spark insurgencies that would disrupt the power balance between the empires vying for control of New Eden.
Capsuleers will have to decide whether to side with the empires or carry out the pirates' chaotic missions. They'll also be able to enjoy faction-specific storefronts for plenty of rewards.
Of course, there will also be new ships like the Angel Titan and new faction-specific Battlecruisers and Destroyers, on top of the new Carbon Engine that will bring technical and graphical improvements.
For those who enjoy mobile games, we also got the announcement of EVE Galaxy Conquest, a 4X strategy game for iOS an Android coming in 2024, with soft-launches in a number of regions in Q4 2023.
You can play as one of the four Empires of the EVE universe, the Caldari State, Gallente Federation, Amarr Empire, or Minmatar Republic, and set out to conquer New Eden.
EVE Galaxy Conquest is developed by CCP Shanghai, which incidentally was behind Dust 514 as well.