More details on EVE FPS Dust 514

Although details were sparse on last week's announcement of the EVE Online console FPS spin-off, Dust 514, there's been a trickle of information since that does a little to clarify how CCP's two MMOs will interact.

The best summaries are to be found in a video interview with CCP head Hilmar Petursson by German site Gamona, and Massively's article on what we know and speculation on what it might mean.

Petursson explained that Dust 514 will be an online shooter, for consoles only, with elements of real-time strategy - deployment of installations by commanders throughout Dust 514's battlefields will change the flow of the fight - and persistent MMO character advancement. Player characters in Dust 514 will be able to own things, including customisable vehicles and weapons.

But the real juice is in Dust 514's connection to the EVE Online universe. The console players will act as mercenaries - with the potential to be contracted, funded and armed by the fleet pilots of the PC game - and fight for control of planets in the same universe. The battles in both EVE and Dust will contribute to the NPC faction warfare and player-driven territorial warfare in the EVE universe.

"The two worlds will affect each other in a meaningful way," said Petursson. "You can still have great fun without thinking about the strategic connections between these two games... but everything has this additional meaning or relevance... for thousands or tens of thousands of other players."

Petursson said that Dust 514's development was a result of a desire to satisfy gamers who took an interest in EVE's persistent universe, but weren't attracted to the dry and complex gameplay of the space MMO.

"We've seen a lot of people are excited by EVE Online," he said. "There are a lot of stories that come out of EVE, and there's a lot of interest in the social, political and economic things that go on in it. But the EVE experience is focused on a particular play style, and there are people that want to play different types of games. So we thought, OK, what is the most different type of game from what we have now? And a first-person shooter was our conclusion."

Petursson declined to give a release date for Dust 514, stressing that CCP would take as long as it needed to get the interaction between the two games right. "But we have been working on it for three years, so we're quite far along already," he added.

We'll hopefully have more information on Dust 514 come the CCP Fanfest, held on 1st to 3rd October.