Hi guys, Bamm Havoc here, and this time I want to talk to you all about EVE:Online!

No, not the Free2Play alpha-clones for unwashed masses, but instead something I’ve come to realize over the last few months.

“Ok, so what do you have to say BAMM? It better not be another doom peace about DUST 514. Or a fanboy piece about Eve : Valkyrie.”

Actually no, this time it isn’t.

“So CCP keeps releasing the same game with the same engine!”

No, not that either.

CCP Games is developing Eve: Online for the PS4.

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“BAMM, you have lost it! Go take your face part for another shit! There is no way Eve online can be played on the PS4.”

Before you close this window, hear me out. You can get back to your Eddie Rio and Manley Scotsman videos in a few minutes after you tell me I’m utterly brilliant or just completely nuts, in the comments below.

Ok, for those of you that don’t know what Eve Online is, Here is a quick summary…

Eve Online is an MMO developed by CCP Games based in Iceland. An island in the frozen North Atlantic, where winter is allways coming. They are famously well known for games such as DUST 514, Eve: Valkyrie and Eve: GunJack, all of which are based in the New Eden universe.

Boring part over, let’s get down to the nitty gritty



Hardware Requirements

CCP has developed Eve: Online with very low requirements it only requires a minimum 2 Gigs of RAM and runs on almost any piddly graphics chip from 2007; saddle that abacus with an asthmatic 2GHz Intel Dual Core and you have yourself a winner.

With 8 Gigs of delicious GDR5 RAM and a superbly integrated CPU-GPU combo, this goliath develops an awesome 1.8 TFLOPS of pure win, and to make matter worse the PS4 even blows the recommended requirements for Eve: Online out of the water.



User Interface

In recent and probably still ongoing updates, the volcano banana growers used their brooms to sweep away years of clutter and DUST in order to clean up and streamline Eve: Online’s messy UI. CCP has opted for a cleaner, simpler look and method of input, with the most recent changes being the 3rd-person-view and WASD controls, you can only point out that these are clearly steps towards consoles and controller gameplay.

Yes, I said Eve: Online being played using a controller. It is possible! It would be different from the PC, yes, but possible. UI elements in other very complex MMORPG cross-platform games have shown us how, and CCP has already spent time introducing menu-wheels; R1 to open wheel of offensive module(s), right-stick to select, and X to activate or de-activate them. All thanks to CCP Shanghai’s development of DUST514.

Here is also where clever marketing and product placement can overcome any controller issues for the more die-hard users: sell an EVE-PS4 keyboard and mouse pack with Eve decals as the premier Eve: Online experience.

Problem solved!

Yes, Sony is usually reluctant keeping part of “The Playstation Experience” away from their customers, but a cheap chinese made keyboard and mouse sold at a premium for the (financial) benefit of all will persuade them! It would only take a few minor tweaks like this for the PS4 community to be integrated into the New Eden universe.



Market Capitalization

We all know the PS4 has sold well over 40 million units, if you didn’t, then you have been living under a rock in Anita’s back yard. With the potential for 40 million users to see and play your game, you have got to be crazy not to develop for the PS4. I’m sorry to say this, but in most triple A titles, their biggest user base is the PS4. It is a no brainer: Look at the FIFA sales, look at the COD sales, hell, look at any cross platform game and you will find the filthy PS4 peasantry king of the hill. Sorry PC master racers, the simple truths sting the most.

With Sony’s marketplace, CCP also gets easy access to push EVE:Online as a F2P game with the Alpha Clones, and upsell to the full experience. Add in DLC in the form of special ships, SKINs, premium currency, perhaps with cross-buy on some elements with EVE: Valkyrie. All these marketing tactics were employed on DUST514. Good to see the old girl still kicking about.



EVE Universe on Consoles

I know a lot of you will already have been repeating to yourselves, “Patching is impossible on Consoles”, but with the PS4, Sony actually made it a metric fuck-ton easier than it was on the PS3. Just look at Planetside 2, Warframe, World Of Tanks and Paragon, 3rd party titles that push out regular updates, and in some instances have PC-PS4 cross play. Yes, going through Cert on consoles is still harder than just pushing out a new version on Windows, with no promises of quality, but it is not as impossible as some PC Master baters claim it is.

Also, not to forget, the bearded men and women up at CCP are already intimate with Sony and consoles! They have a launch-title for Sony PSVR with EVE:Valkyrie, later they’ll release EVE:Gunjack, and I’ll bet you an empty beer-can and a half eaten bacon sandwich that we’re going to see EVE:Frisbee-Tron-Tennis on there next year – yes, the whole EVE Universe is coming to the console, including that no-go project!



Conclusion

So to recap.

The hardware to run the game is not an issue, with a few minor tweaks to the game, the sword wielding, axe swinging sailors up in Reykjavik can optimise their game to run perfectly fine on the PS4, or whichever console supports DirectX 9.

More UI/UX work is definitely needed to make it controller friendly, but CCP Seagull’s minions are already well underway with that, and many of the improvements can also be of value to the Glorious PC Gods.

As for console peasants coming back to the worlds of New Eden, yes, it’s an investment, and a non-trivial one, but with the market potential and possibilities for monetizing on both hardware and ingame purchases, it does look like there is a good business case here, and it really is a slam dunk for CCP Games to integrate the PS4 into the Eve: Online experience.

Yes, suckaz, get ready for EVE PS4 Edition! I have already purchased my pre-order for the Eve decal’ed keyboard+mouse pack. You should too…

Note: The opinions and views expressed in this piece may be complete rubbish and/or taken from a parallel universe…