During this year's Eve Fanfest gathering in Iceland, Eve Online developer CCP announced that they're making a third attempt at a first-person shooter attached to their long-running space ship combat game.

Their first attempt Dust 514 didn't fully deliver on its promise and their second Project Nova was cancelled in development following a scathing PC Gamer pre-alpha demo preview.

That said, they're not telling us much about it.

We recognize that a hard sci-fi FPS game set in the EVE Universe is a very popular concept and CCP is committed to offering an innovative multiplayer shooter with atmospheric visuals.

We want to show you rather than tell you how we have evolved this concept and we’re looking forward to doing so when the time comes to reveal the game.

The online game market is unforgiving.

One of the resources you're competing for is finite player time.

Unlike single player games which you can buy, play and then forget, online games require a longer term commitment to really get your money's worth.

In a very crowded market any new online game hoping to capture an audience needs to be exceptional.

Eve Online is one of the longest running and more successful online games, though for most of their history they've lacked any real competition for what they offer.

Now there's Elite Dangerous which is superior in many respects and also added FPS in their Odyssey expansion. But it doesn't appear to have developed a strong following.

Also famously expensive and forever in development Star Citizen.

Many - including us - are uncertain about whether Star Citizen will ever make it to launch but if it does, it will launch with both ship and first-person combat and could be a game so exceptional that it instantly dethrones Eve.

Fantasy roleplaying game World of Warcraft has enjoyed dominance in the market in part because once players are invested in any given online game, factors like sense of time and money invested and social connections make sticking with that game much more attractive.

Eve presently enjoys that advantage on the sci-fi side of the fence and it might be what Elite Dangerous wasn't able to overcome.

But Star Citizen could.

So Eve's third attempt at an FPS component might need to be a bullseye for the game and its developer to continue.

[ Main Image: Even Fanfest. Credit: CCP. ]

References

Clayton, Natalie (May 6, 2022). CCP is still trying to make the EVE Online FPS happen. PC Gamer.

Eve Online (November 5, 2022). EVE Fanfest Returns in 2022.

Messner, Steven (October 25, 2018). Compared to Dust 514, EVE Online's new FPS is boring and unambitious. PC Gamer.