CCP Games, the studio behind space 'em up EVE Online (which you may have spied our Stephen writing about on occasion), has agreed a deal with Epic Games. The latter's Unreal Engine 4 has been named "the exclusive development tool for all of CCP Games’ currently unannounced projects." One of these is an action-inspired MMO.

That's according to James Dobrowski, the executive producer on the as-yet unrevealed project that's in-development at CCP London.

"Working with Epic Games using their engine source code, which is open to all Unreal developers, is great for both AAA and indie studios alike, thanks to the huge amount of support options available," says Dobrowski. "UE4‘s Blueprints system allows us to prototype and iterate quickly, and its world-class AAA pipelines allow us to focus on crafting great gameplay and stunningly beautiful worlds."

Snorri Árnason, Project Nova‘s game director at CCP Reykjavik, adds: "Considering that Epic uses its own engine to develop games like Fortnite is a great example of the trust they have in their own product."

As we learned this week, said trust in its own engine, and, you know, the small matter of Fortnite's roaring success, has worked out alright for Epic—it's now said to be worth $8 billion.

Adding CCP to its wider pool seems like a shrewd move, but I wonder what this unannounced MMO is all about. Share your speculation in the comments down south.