Sony and CCP announced yesterday details about the new MMOFPS DUST 514 and while the concept sounds amazing, CCP completely dropped the ball by making it a PS3 exclusive title. However before I get to that, allow me to give you some background info about exactly what DUST514 is.
DUST 514 is a FPS set directly into the existing Eve Online universe where players actions will have a direct effect on the Eve universe. There are no matches in DUST 514, when you log in you will join others in battle, across many of the Eve Online worlds and when you log off those battles will continue without you.
Your fights impact the entire EVE setting, comprised of both DUST 514 mercenaries and EVE Online starship pilots, known as “capsuleers“. When you capture or destroy planetary structures, you are asserting dominance over regions of that planet – perhaps eventually the planet itself. As you profit while wiping out your opposition in DUST 514, the outcomes of these conflicts can affect territorial control of vast regions of space in EVE Online, something of great importance to EVE’s starship pilots.
Players in both Eve Online and DUST 514 can communicate with each other through a communication link dubbed Eve Gate. The economies of both games will also be intertwined with ISK being the virtual currency for both titles.
The colossal mistake CCP made was making DUST 514 a PS3 exclusive title, which completely alienates Eve Online players who don’t own a PS3. Think of it as if Halo or Zelda made a MMO and it wasn’t on the Xbox 360 or Nintendo consoles respectively. Eve Online is a PC game that has been running for eight years and has only grown over time. I don’t know about you, but if my favorite MMO game came out with a MMOFPS and integrated it into the original I would be in heaven.
However CCP seemed to leave its core fan base behind by making this a PS3 exclusive title. I cannot image what the reason for doing that could possibly be, but I do know it’s a huge mistake. MMO tiles on consoles have not had a good track record thus far with success, so DUST 514 will have an uphill battle there. It will also not have its Eve Online fans to fall back on since I’m sure the percentage of Eve Online players that also own a PS3 is most likely not very high. Perhaps 20-30%, but of course that’s just a guess, even if it’s 50% you still alienating half of your fans. My only assumption on that is that most Eve Online players most likely prefer PC games to consoles and probably don’t have a PS3.
I luckily am not an Eve Online player, but if I was I would not only be jealous of PS3 owners, I would be pissed off that I am forced to buy an entire console if I want to enhance my Eve Online experience.
Anyway, check out the official DUST 514 trailer below and more info on the official DUST 514 website.
fyi it’s Dust 514 – not 415…
please train Proof Reading I
June 7th, 2011 at 11:15 amQuote
Also CCP announced DUST 514 (yes, it’s all caps for some reason) two years ago, and said from day one it would be a console title.
However, look at Fable 3. It’s “Xbox 360 exclusive” but it’s also on PC. The PC often isn’t factored into gaming marketing anymore if consoles are involved.
I’m not an EVE player though I was semi-interested in DUST 514 but I’m not buying a PS3 for it. Shame MS’ keeps their damn network so closed-off and won’t allow stuff like this. I still think the game is going to fail in the long run because there are just too many shooters out there and from more experienced teams. The EVE-to-DUST connectivity and whatever form of “persistence” DUST has won’t matter in the slightest if the gameplay isn’t fun and when the next Call of Duty ships, DUST will be … collecting dust, or traded in.
June 7th, 2011 at 11:22 amQuote
woops, thanks, I fixed all the 415 mistakes.
June 7th, 2011 at 11:26 amQuote
So Scott; I take it your a psychic or someone with supernatural powers…..as you clearly know and have seen DUST 514′s epic fail????
I mean so far this gen, the ps3 is the only console that aproached mmo’s & bridged that pc-console gap, MMO’s on ps3….free radicals, warhawk, starhawk, the whole portal2 relationship with pc…..not to mention unreal allowing modding and pc online versus ps3 play…..then we have games still doing great online like MAG, Point is, mmo’s are nothing strange to ps3….and thus i beleive DUST514 has got a hell of a better chance surviving on PS3 than 360….whom only caters for their child plaything kinect
sooo personally, DUST 514 definitely has what it takes to be highly successful.
Lastly, ps3 also brags with over 40Mil users, if half of them adopt Dust…. you still have 20mil…not bad
Just a different perspective…nothing more :)
June 7th, 2011 at 12:37 pmQuote
Did I say “epic fail?” No. I said I think (which implies opinion, not time-traveling fact reporting) it will fail *in the long run* simply because, as I said, there are tons of shooters out there and most shooter fans will look at it as just another one and will trade it in if it doesn’t measure up to whatever their standard is. Even if their standard is another Call of Duty.
It’s good that PS3 is at least allowing MMO or MMO-ish games where Microsoft won’t get off their butts and do something. Is MAG very successful? I don’t hear anything about it, other than stories of lag and sub-par gameplay (lots of good ideas but not so great execution, or something like that? Brink comes to mind for that same theme.) On the flip side, it seems the PS3 crowd is the only thing keeping DCUO alive at this point.
I won’t totally discount CCP on their first FPS venture, but they’re not Blizzard doing a WoW in an MMO’s early days, or Bungie showing console shooters could work back in the early Xbox days. They’re competing against veteran design studios and, perhaps more importantly, a completely unknown name versus the popular IPs. It can be done, but just looking at various games over the years, we have less patience when we drop $60 for a game and it doesn’t live up to the hype (again, Brink) and it gets traded in damn quick.
June 7th, 2011 at 3:05 pmQuote
Wow, this is heartbreaking news. I love all the ideas in EVE, the freedom, etc. But making a PS3 exclusive is horrible.
Ive managed to completely boycott Sony since the Rootkit fiasco, and DUST will not change me.
June 7th, 2011 at 8:24 pmQuote
The kinds of people that like FPS games and the kinds of people that like EVE online are 2 VERY DIFFERENT people. Dust 514 will most likely have Millions of players, vs EVE Online has only a couple hundred thousand players. Eve online Players will view Dust 514 players as an expendable commodity. Mercenaries on Dust514 will be hired by the hundreds by a single Eve Online Player. Does a General go and join his Marines or does he sit at his Command Post and direct the action?
June 28th, 2011 at 11:56 amQuote