'EVE Online' on Smartphones an "Exploratory Project" Say CCP
by Kenneth Hubble, posted on 11 April 2011 / 786 Views
CCP, the Icelandic developers behind sci-fi MMO EVE Online, would consider expanding their game to smartphones and tablets if they were able to find a successful way of running the game on those platforms.
Speaking to Develop at their recent EVE Online FanFest, held in Reykjavík, the company said that EVE Online would benefit greatly from an expansion to mobile devices.
Joining CCP on stage at the event were representatives from Nvidia. They demonstrated, on an unknown Tegra-2 powered tablet device, a few seconds of both interactive spacecraft from EVE and the game’s User Interface.
At a press conference that followed the demonstration, CCP’s CTO Halldór Fannar stated that, "We have been working a lot on the backend to enable Eve over http. The problem that we run into there is that a lot of people seem to equate that with a web browser."
He explained further by saying that, "It doesn’t necessarily mean browser... What it means is any of these devices can start extracting data and also writing data back. It opens up the possibility of having dedicated applications for doing market transactions, managing your skill queue and fitting your spaceship."
Fannar described that the creation of EVE Online for mobile platforms was part of an ‘exploratory project’, which has been undertaken in collaboration with Nvidia. Although no release date was given, Fannar did say that EVE’s extremely dedicated fanbase would probably demand to see a final product before any further development was made, such is their relationship with their hardcore fans.
Fannar was very quick to point out that right now CCP is not aiming at running a full version of the game on mobile devices, "[To do] trading on the market or managing your skill queue, you don’t need much in the way of graphics – but we are a very visually oriented company and our players are really attached to our models. It would be far more meaningful for them to see their assets."
For further details, and a bit more info on Nvidia's role in this, please visit Develop's site.
