The CEO of the Sci-Fi MMORPG EVE Online, Hilmar Veigar Pétursson, talks in an interview about the future of EVE. Apparently, huge battles are planned and Chinese space travel could play an important role.
What Pétursson discusses: The colleagues from venturebeat conducted an interview with the head of EVE Online shortly after the Game Developers Conference (GDC). In this, they asked Pétursson several questions about a new technology that is supposed to support EVE.
It was mainly about the Aether Engine and the underlying Hadean OS. Both are intended to help EVE Online serve the iconic mass battles of the MMORPG even better.
The Aether Engine was already tested during the GDC. In the test, over 10,000 ships participated in a deathmatch, with nearly 4000 players taking part in the battle. But that’s just the beginning:
We had the largest battle in EVE Online last year, with 6400 people in one battle. We are now hoping for 10,000. We expect to learn a lot about the capabilities of the engine, something we need to focus on. I hope we find the next era of technological evolution for EVE, as I call it.
Pétursson on venturebeat
This is how the future plans should succeed: Pétursson also spoke about how everything should work in the future. He dreams of a system composed of the Hadean OS and the recently unveiled Stadia by Google :
What we are doing with Hadean and what Google is doing are two complementary things. Combining these would allow for some really cool things to happen. One of the elements of the fleet battles in EVE is that people are interested in participating.
But when you tweet: “A battle in EVE is happening right now!”, the first step to participate is to download the client, create an account, and find the location of the battle. I have often talked about “deep linking”, where during a fleet battle you just tweet a link, people click on it, and are in right away.
Pétursson on venturebeat
Pétursson sees the limit for such a technique significantly higher. He dreams of “something like 100,000 players” being able to participate in or watch the battles.
Why are the Chinese so important? In the interview, Pétursson also talks about how the current political developments in the world could provide an advantage for EVE. He specifically mentions the efforts of the Chinese space program:
Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos are operating for-profit companies to get into space. This has transitioned from science fiction to science fact. A space game like EVE Online is much closer to our current reality. […]
If a country like China sets its sights on space, I think that will also bring America back into the “space race”. We have the most legendary space MMO ever. I think there’s a significant opportunity for EVE to get a new upswing in growth.
Pétursson on venturebeat
The new technological achievements offer new possibilities for EVE, improving the experience for new players and streaming services.
This is how EVE will proceed: An important step in the development of EVE Online was also that the Korean MMO giant Pearl Abyss (Black Desert) acquired CCP in 2018.
According to Pétursson, the future of gaming in the West is already seen today in Korea:
Korean companies are living in the future. […] Korean society and games have progressed much further than the West. Gaming is so integrated into Korean life. […]
During my career, which has now lasted almost 20 years, you could see what was happening in Korea. And five years later, that happened here. Look at eSports, Free-to-Play, or even MMOs in general. […] The role that Lineage plays in Korean culture is much greater than what WoW means for the West.
Pétursson on venturebeat
Similarly, Pétursson remarked in September 2018 about the current mobile trend. EVE Online is already planned for mobile platforms and according to Pétursson is even already well developed. Whether his claim that something that was in Korea five years ago will come to us later will remain to be seen.
