We may earn a commission when you buy through links in our articles. Learn more.

EVE Online expansion to be revealed at PAX this month

eve_online_ccp_store_closure

EVE Online’s next expansion is to be revealed later this month at the Penny Arcade Expo. Following on from the Retribution update released in December, which saw an overhaul to the game’s bounty hunter system, this will be the first update to use CCP’s new method of expanding the game, dropping feature driven updates in favour of across the board change.

More below.

Having just broken 500,000 subscribers worldwide and having only launched DUST 514’s open betatwo months agothere are a lot of eyes on CCP to see how they will change their deeply complex MMO. Past expansions have riled up their avid fanbase, such as the Incarna update that addedpurchasablecosmetic items; it was one of the few times in EVE’s history when subscriber numbers dropped.

It may be that the new expansion will relax some of the trade restrictions currently in place between EVE and DUST.

Speaking to me in January, CCP’s resident Economist, DrEyjolfur Gudmundsson,laid out the plan for joining the two game’s economies. At first they“are going to monitor the flow of money between the two universes in such a way that to begin with there will be none. Then we will open up flow from one end to the other – from Eve to Dust – and we will have a taxation on that one. In the beginning it will be heavily taxed while we are understanding the flows and the demand for moving money from Eve to Dust.” Then, “The future vision is that there will be not only ISK movements between the worlds but also resource and material movements”, but that is not due for some time yet.

PAX is taking place between the 22 – 24 March and CCP will be allowing convention-goers to go hands-on with DUST 514 and demo the link between the two universes. The expansion is due to be released this summer, likely around June-time.

Thanks, VentureBeat.