Dust 514 Will Get PvE Horde Mode in 2012, Gladiator Arenas in 2013

Giuseppe Nelva March 24, 2012 2:19 PM EST

Executive Producer of Dust 514 Brandon Laurino made a few last moment announcements on a few new features that will be implemented in the game between 2012 and 2013.

First of all, the game will include a PvE co-op “Survival mode” in 2012 (Laurino actually didn’t specify if the feature will be implemented at launch or not. He just said “in 2012”). It will be basically Dust 514’s Horde Mode and will prompt players to defend outposts from the Rogue Drones that are already established as some of the most prominent PvE enemies in EVE Online. You can see them in a concept design above.

Dust 514 will also support competitive gaming and e-sports with an expansion in 2013. The game will include Gladiator Arenas that will support capture the flag, deathmatches, and custom matches. Battles will actually be streamed both in Dust 514 and EVE Online, allowing the playerbase to spectate them (and bet on them), in order to create a realistic e-sport experience.

In addition to that, the 2013 expansion will also include non-temperate environments, like lava and frozen planets. They will be so hostile that according to the current concept (that you can see below) vehicles will be necessary to navigate them and fight on them.

As a final icing on the cake, the 2013 expansion will also introduce MTACs (Mechanized Torso-Actuated Chassis), that are giant metal exoskeletons normally used for heavy duty mining work. They are armed with mining lasers and can be remote controlled or worn.

As we already knew a companion app is in the works for the PS Vita. The app is currently named Dust 514: Neocom and will include networking features like chat, mail, market, the star map, selecting skills to level up and fitting vehicles. Further expansion of its features are being considered, especially in relation to possible multiboxing capabilities between PS3 and PS Vita.