The developers of EVE Online and EVE Vanguard discuss the game's current healthy state, recent successes like the Catalyst expansion, and their strategic roadmap for 2026, focusing on player engagement, new player onboarding, and evolving game systems.
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All right, welcome everyone. I am CCB
Swift joined with some amazing people
here to talk about the EVE in 2026 and
where we're going. We got CCP Rotati,
CCP Burger, CCP Okami. How you guys
been? It's been a minute.
>> It's been great. It's been a really good
year. I'm doing awesome.
>> Excellent. Yeah, the la I think the last
time we're all together talking about
Eve in a very nerdy fun way was uh just
right before Catalyst was coming in.
We're talking about stuff that was
coming in the Catalyst expansion. Um,
and what what they do with the Catalyst
expansion? What did players get up to?
>> H I mean it's been it's been pretty wild
actually since the Cadillac expansion.
Who would have thought that a mining
expansion, you know, would actually go
down this well. So, uh, no, people have
been very busy. Uh, we've seen plenty of
rifts being being
>> mind exumed, harvested,
>> annihilated. Uh plenty of of uh
murdering as well happening in these
rifts. Yes.
>> And friendship.
>> And friendship. Yeah. Yeah.
>> Um fleet activity around mining. It's
gone up a lot. Um
>> it it's just it's such a core activity
in Eve Online. Um everyone also wanted
to try out the critical hits and and see
what it felt like. And um the economy
and the the mining opportunities are all
there. Yeah, there's demand for a lot of
stuff. Production is is going up. Um
there's no real bottlenecks. Mostly
healthy healthy demand. So, it's just
like you can go out and mine and make
some money. That's always a healthy
indicator. Uh but it's it's also a
little bit more fun.
>> And new mining ships contributing to
that. Like people people are loving them
and not just for mining. I think that we
found some interesting
>> other uses for them. But yeah, it's it's
been really cool. And also we're also
seeing a lot of people kind of migrating
back into mining from other other play
styles. So that's super healthy. And uh
yeah, just everything feels, you know,
pretty good balance.
>> Yeah, I think when we were sitting here
last year, we were talking about things
like the MPI, trying to get that under
control a little bit more. Um things
like the global Plex market, we're still
on the timetable.
Uh new ships and stuff we were kind of
teasing. If you if you go back to the
2025 director's letter and look for the
breadcrumbs, we we had a couple in
there. Yeah. Yeah.
>> We had a plan.
>> Yeah. Yeah. Gold rush of the the rifts.
That's like we were trying to allude to it.
it. >> Yeah.
>> Yeah.
>> Uh really valuable, really exciting.
>> Um they're being done every day.
>> Um they're also quite covert. If you if
you can get them done without anyone
noticing, then you won't like no one
will notice. So like maybe people don't
notice that they're being done, which is
very interesting. Kind of like stealth
of night kind of mining, which is uh
thrilling like to get in get out like
that fantasy. So raid style mining basically.
basically.
>> Yeah. I mean and there's a lot of
speculation. People are still theorizing
a lot and
>> where they where they appear.
>> Yeah. So that's great.
>> Yeah. That's the the one neat bit is
that we were when we were talking about
this in Kylist the distribution methods
for for these phase fields and stuff. We
we're saying ah it's it's going to be a
little bit different. So players are
still trying to figure that out. I love
it when players still have like a need
to dawn some tin foil to to figure out
exactly how these things work.
>> Actually, I heard wearing a tin foil hat
might help you find them better. So,
just putting that pro tip out there. Yeah.
Yeah.
>> With like
>> But do you wear like a tin foil beard?
>> I do. Yeah. Yeah, exactly. I kind of
scoop up the beard and
>> No, I think it's uh it's just been
generally super well received. Um and
the lasting impact of this expansion is
just um just has to be seen to be
believed. Uh if you look at the PCO
numbers, you look at the activity like
everything everything is being done. Uh
exploration sites,
>> um all aspects of the game are in a very
stable and kind of healthy healthy
place. Um, Meta is in a pretty good
place, but like nothing's perfect, but
this is probably the healthiest the game
has been in in in over a decade.
>> But we've got major updates coming out
as well that that will help with the
meta, right? Like I think that's the
meta is always an ongoing thing. It's
never done.
>> It's never solved and it should never be
solved. And I think that was a
>> that was a huge moment when we kind of
>> accepted it ourselves that like there
isn't any any perfect balance in the
game. should be, you know, it needs to
evolve, it needs to move and and yeah.
Yeah. We kind of play with it in a way.
>> But we have the CSM here also, so they
can they can drill us with all of the
like the little issues that are that are
happening whether a whether a ship here
or there are too overpowered. Um we had
a session yesterday, there's another
today about ship balance. So like we'll
we'll be flexible also on that in the
major update. maybe maybe cram something
in that like came out of the CSM conversations.
conversations. >> Yeah.
>> Yeah.
>> But we're not meeting them for the first
time. They are in our Slack channels
anyway. So like these are not like we
don't need the CSM visit to to get these
good ideas. Yeah.
>> Yeah. And the community are really good
at this as well where they're like, "Oh,
I really like this thing or I really
wish that we could do more with blank."
Uh, I know last year we were talking a
lot about dreadnots,
>> uh, and just the the prices around them,
the build cost, and, uh, we were talking
about last year,
>> uh, driving the price down a little bit
to see what that happens. Um, and the
players went crazy with Dreads. Like, if
you look in LOC, there was, I think, the
period of the week of a week over the
summer where there was a trillion dread
fight or dread brawl and then a day
later another one like two jumps over
and then a day later another one. I
don't know how these guys were were just
getting dreads. It's it's bonkers.
>> And these are T navy dreads.
>> T1 dreads, but a lot of navy dreads. A
lot of Zitras as well, the Triglavians.
They they like their their dreads.
>> Yeah. This is the the careful, you know,
balancing that we want to do ongoing in
both the expansions and the major
updates. Uh that shifting meta. I I
really think like the economy often is
absolutely in the players hands, but we
have to tend to that to make sure that
it feels right. Like I think if things
feel out of line, then people aren't
having fun. They're not building the
ships that flying the ships that they
want to be flying and fighting in. And
and that's what these updates are for.
And and I'm really happy to see how
they're landing.
>> Yeah. The December MR came out and I
know the players were analyzing it. They
could see how much like production was
increasing based on like the new uh new
influx of materials from all these
people mining.
>> Uh and they know that like what lags
just a little bit after that is is
destruction. Mhm.
>> Uh so that's going to be exciting to
watch that one spike to the the
unexpected or the very expected like uh destruction.
destruction. >> Yeah.
>> Yeah.
>> But also the the um control items that
we added into the game uh to be able to
more carefully tune individual costs is
now really paying off because now we
we've tuned battleships to be the right
price, if you will. Um, but we have now
the ability to do navy cruisers or
whatever faction cruiser, whatever you
want. We have way more flexibility and
and tuning tools rather than just like
more titanium, less titanium, which was
the olden system. So,
>> uh, that investment is paying off. Um
and it really gives us more precise
control and also um we have been keeping
like a really close eye on the mineral
faucets and really just reacting to
figure out is it zityrin is it mealon is
it what whatever it it is it healthy
that it's not being mined or is it a
lack of uh like availability just like
it doesn't exist and we're we're able to
tune this and kind of add a little bit
more here and there. But then obviously
the the new reprocessing of
>> radicor has a whole new way to kind of
help solve some of those issues. >> Yeah.
>> Yeah. >> Yeah.
>> Yeah.
>> And I feel like we we haven't really
like the method hasn't really set in in
eratic yet. So I think we're
>> No, not yet. And they haven't needed to
be used to solve a problem just yet. So
that there may come a time but not yet.
And I think that lends to what you were
saying, the speculation. Um but the
value is is still there and it's still
absolutely worth worth finding and
fighting over and everything. Um but
yeah there's new tools in the ecosystem now
now
>> and it's interesting because there's
like a uh it has kind of created an
element of unknown like yes there's a
people are starting to stockpile it but
what will it end up being like where
will people actually kind of where will
they reprocess it? I think that's going
to be a very interesting
>> very interesting thing to see,
>> but not as much as we worried about. We
were worried about that people would
just stockpile it forever and and that's
just not the case. Um there's a lot of
just straight through
>> uh generation that's happening, which is
very good. Like stockpiles aren't good
for the universe. Um it's like a little
bit of hedging is fine, but um it's
really nice to be able to just alleviate
your like production pains immediately
with this kind of like
>> I'll just get some sidine or whatever
the the thing is that I'm missing. But
you need this control items, expiration
sites or whatever. That's just so that
we have a healthy balance between
activities also.
>> Yeah. It's just like we need we need
everyone to cooperate to and trade to to
so no one gets this kind of what do you
call it u like hold of the market or or control.
control.
>> So it like it's hard to keep kind of
like not being like okay this is like
really good like we're like we're in a
really good place at the moment.
>> Yeah. for a system as complex as Eve, it
feels really nice to to see it in this
state. And yeah, as you were saying, the
players are absolutely thriving with it.
It's nice to see New Eden really active.
Uh the large groups are doing stuff, the
smaller groups are doing stuff, the the
medium groups or some of them are
growing to like bigger sizes, so they're
able to take on some new and creative
challenges. Uh, I always love it when
that happens because it introduces like
this new level of chaos into the mix
because uh the large alliances that have
been around for some time, they know
like how things should be done and
stuff. And when a medium group that
grows into that larger size or gets into
that little ecosystem, they're like,
"Hey, I'm going to try and do it a
different way. How come no one did this
before?" Uh, and it's fun to see
>> people like kind of freak out like, "Oh,
you're you're not supposed to do it that
way, but it's working. Oh god." >> Yeah.
>> Yeah.
And then yeah, I just wanted to talk a
little bit about um kind of I guess the
the content schedule I guess that that
we talk about. Uh so there are this is I
think the third year now that we've been
doing this with uh two expansions a year
and between those two expansions things
that we call major updates.
>> Can you like talk a little bit about
like just what goes into a major update?
>> Yeah, sure. A major update should uh
always be focused first of all on game
balance and meta. So, um, between
expansions, like we launch an expansion,
we know we're introducing a whole bunch
of new stuff, but we're also introducing
new problems usually, right? Like things
might be misbalanced or not quite land
the way we've anticipated or simulated.
And this is a good beat for us to to
just kind of course correct that stuff
before it's too late. So, we don't have
to wait for the full six months for
another expansion or or maybe longer.
So, we get that adjustment period, but
it also gives us time to look at like
how things landed from the expansion
before or the major update before. Um,
and it lets us be a little bit more
meaningful with things like uh updates
to ship meta balances as well and just
say like, hey, like where are dreads?
Are they overperforming for their price
now? Do we need to do something about
that? Maybe. Um, and there's always a
laundry list of of asks from the CSM,
which is wonderful that we can help kind
of fill this out with. And in addition
to sort of like ship balance and economy
uh industry pricing, um we really also
want to take a look at content. So we're
we're we have new content that typically
comes out with major updates or
rebalancing or adjustments to uh other
older content that might not feel quite
good for either just old technology
reasons like maybe AI is bad or uh it's
not paying out for the risk or something
like that. So that's that's what we
usually tend to try to land on our major
updates is is that kind of stuff.
>> Right on. Yeah. And it kind of lets us
tackle things without having to worry.
This is something that you guys talk
about quite a bit without having to have
a silver bullet
>> to like absolutely fix everything. We
know there's no single patch or single
thing that we can do to fix some of the
larger problems, the more complicated
problems. Subt you were talking about
how these systems are so interconnected.
Uh so when we talk about force
projection, we can do it kind of
iteratively, right, through these major
updates and uh expansions and stuff in
in bursts that don't feel super super
far away, but it lets us see how things land.
land.
>> Yeah. And also the good thing about
another good thing about these major
updates is that sometimes in expansions
things get lost in the noise and and
there are certain changes, you know, we
want to we want to make and they don't
really make sense in the grand scheme of
an expansion. So we get with the with
the major major updates, we can
basically kind of add more spotlight to
things that are kind of more niche or or
only serve a small like a smaller
portion of the game. Um and it kind of
yeah just frees up freeze us up in in
doing stuff like that.
>> Nice. So we're going to have a new major
expansion soon or a major >> Yeah.
>> Yeah.
>> major update.
>> Yeah. Coming very soon. >> Yes.
>> Yes.
>> A client near you.
>> Isn't it like
>> March? Well, yeah, it's March, right? >> Yeah.
>> Yeah.
>> No need to be koi about it. It's uh
>> it's March.
>> So, we're trying to build a cadence also
of predictability. So, we we're trying
to have February
>> um and August are the evolved months
where we do technical improvements,
graphical improvements to derisk the
expansion. It's always like if there's a
performance problem or something with a
new graphics, we have time to fix it. We
don't want to introduce like crazy a new
risk on on expansion day.
>> Mhm. Um then the major update in the
month after um and then the expansion.
So like that's a u whether it goes
between months May June like that's
always just a bit dependent on calendar
days and on Easter and all kinds of
things but like that's the cadence and
uh major update is coming up. Uh we went
through it with the CSM again. A lot of
cool stuff in the the major update.
loads of I would say out of left field
stuff that like is going to like it it's
not just like plus one PG
minus 3 CPU on a couple of ships.
There's there's something cooler stuff
coming up.
>> Yeah. And I'm happy to say some wormhole
updates and content coming out as well
for our wormholeers.
>> I know there's a there's a sea of
wormhoers right now that got like very
excited but also very anxious at the
same time. I'm probably not sure why,
but they they have like this weird
feeling now.
>> Yeah. Sadly, we don't have Twitch chat
in front of us, so I I can only imagine
the the wormhole emojis that are flying
through right now.
>> Generally, I think I think everything
we've been doing in the like the smaller
habitats of Potchvven and and we've been
doing iterative quality like undeniable
quality of life improvements and kind of
checking in on the riskreward balance.
And I think we've probably been more
right than wrong. U but we've also been
very iterative on that like
payouts like all kinds of little
experimentations to actually make it
like fair in that sense and and not just
exploitable or whatever. So a lot of
super cool experimentation that then
pays off because there's then if it if
it's a good design or a good paradigm we
can use it to for other content as well
like a better behavior NPC or or
escalation logic or whatever we can
apply it elsewhere.
>> Yeah. And it's also been really helpful
and this is something that if we go back
like three or four years C spiritati
that you were uh really kind of pushing
people to do a little bit more is come
together as a group and just like bring
us some issues. So there's the wormhole
UN that I know Mick Fightmaster member
of our CSM helps curate some ideas from
and he meets with them regularly and
it's great to see like communities come
forward give us a list of issues that
like are affecting them uh things that
they're worried about in their gameplay
circles and things like that. So, we've
got a whole bunch of these groups to to
augment things like the CSA. I mean,
just normal feedback channels to help us
make these decisions and bring like more
ammunition for the designers to kind of
solve these problems.
>> Yeah, I'm in the the wormhole one and I
think LOCK one as well. Uh really
appreciate the way that the community
comes together and and how that's kind
of formalized in like really digestible
pieces of feedback. It's super helpful.
>> Yeah. The manifestos they were called back.
back.
>> Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Um, also I think we've
I said this actually in the intro
yesterday to the Steve Summers is that
it the the conversations are also just
better like there's more decorum
generally in in in how Eve players and
the CSM and everyone is working
together. Um, less partisanship and more
like you know the greater good conversations.
conversations.
Um, for sure there's always like pros
and cons, but I feel much more confident
to take like a manifesto and kind of
like implement it
um or like have a designer go through it
and kind of trust it more than distrust
it. Like the the lever or the dial has
turned over to like we we trust these
things a lot. We don't feel that we're
being manipulated or
>> or like kind of controlled. It's just
like, yeah, these are pretty much all
good ideas. Like there's no reason,
there's no hubris or kind of like
ownership that CCP must must develop
these internally like we're being
dictated by the community like it's a
collaboration more and it's just like u
it it just keeps getting better it feels.
feels.
>> Yeah. I think to that extent something
that I'm really proud of over the past
year is just how strong our sort of
relationship both as developers and
community has become and I just see the
sort of like growth of the really
powerful conversations that we're having
around how we develop Eve and the
approach we're taking and just how we we
can process feedback and be transparent
about how and why we're doing things.
And I I think that it's really kind of
setting the the ground level for this
next era of of our development.
>> Yeah. And it's a it's it's I mean just
to echo what you guys have said like the
the the relationship between CCP and the
CSM is in a really great state right
now. It's not always been that way. like
there have been like periods of very low
trust and building trust is a is
something that takes a very long time
and and it's not something you kind of
create overnight but you can break that
trust really quickly and very easily and
we I feel like we're all
>> uh very cognitive of that today and and
you know there is a lot of transparency
there's a lot of very healthy debate but but
but
>> at the end of the day I feel like yeah
the game definitely benefits a lot from
from these conversations and and we're
seeing a lot of great uplift because of
of the success of this relationship.
>> No, like a like almost all of these
quality of life improvements in the
habitat are just coming straight from the
the
>> like and we wouldn't be able to do it
this rapidly. We didn't trust the manifestos
manifestos
>> because then we would have to do our own
research and validate all of the assumptions
assumptions
>> and we'd constantly be questioning ourselves.
ourselves. >> Yes.
>> Yes.
>> That's the the thing. We get a lot of
data. Obviously, we get to see
everything going on in the EVE universe,
but like adding that context to the data
to tell the whole picture and tell the
whole story. Um, and just
>> figuring out I think this is something
that that you guys were talking about to
the CSM is just like figuring out what
are the problems that you're
experiencing that you're trying to
solve. And the players themselves are
also really good at just like realizing
that they can say here's the problem I'm
facing rather than here's my solution to
the problem.
>> Um, and that's yielding such great
results. Uh, Mhm.
>> It's It's exciting to see all these
little micro communities say, "Oh, I
want I want us to get together to do
something like this so we can get this
cool update."
>> Yeah. Yeah. Yes. Um on that, um we've
talked about the plight of the new
player a little bit.
>> Um and we're always cognizant of of the
new player. Y
>> which is a a usually was an
underrepresented at the CSM uh
community. um which is much better now
with our CCP kind of invites when
there's a lacking representative but we
have um strong representation this year
uh for new players and it's something
that we are always thinking about um we
have been kind of helping the social
onboarding uh with corporation tools and
freelance goals and all that uh and
improving mining one of the first things
that people do but we are like we need
to do better. We need to save more new
players from from from uh just leaving
too early. They they they simply leave
too early and we're trying to figure out why.
why.
>> Um so that's a a big challenge for us to
to figure that out. Um and it's the the
only way for Eve to grow. And this is
actually now that you know we feel that
we've that Eve is in a very healthy
place. We want to kind of we want to
move part of our focus back to new
players and we want to make sure that we
we help them kind of you know realize
the the awesomeness that the game is and
there we're just I mean I think we
talked about this at FanFest few years
ago like we're incredibly good at
killing new players like incredibly good
at it and and we have to be a bit better
in in like you know holing them and and
nurturing them
>> nurturing them a bit um and I mean
there's a lot
There are a lot of issues early on. Like
there's like first impression issues. Uh
it's it's there's a lot of stuff you
need to learn very quickly. Uh there's a
lot of like foreign stuff, you know,
what the hell is a capacitor? Oh, it's
kind of a battery. Okay, I kind of get
that. Um and and there's also just a lot
of scary things like breaking the
breaking the ice in in communicating
with people and and kind of
>> it's it's daunting, it's scary. And this
is stuff that we want to dive into a bit
more in in 2026. Um, and kind of fulfill
the fantasy that we've been we've had
for a very long time to kind of how how
do we get new players into factional
warfare? How do we get them to like, you
know, participate in war, participate in
kind of the trailers that we, you know,
that they see before they join the game.
And and that's so that's something that
we've been playing playing with now and
and are are excited to share more on
FanFest. It is funny how like um uh art
imitates life in in in a sense where Eve
players love new players that come in.
They recognize that these new players
are going to be instrumental to the
future of everything. Um recently as uh
one of our CSM was on the way to Iceland
for the CSM summit, Kashal Aderon, her
corp was robbed by like a rogue director
who stole like a hundred billion worth
of the like the free handouts that they
give out. And the community reaction to
that was just like, man, that guy's a
jerk. Like, usually when someone does a
heist, they're like, "Oh, that guy's so
cool." When this one, they're like,
"Screw that guy." And they all just like
overwhelmingly donated just a ton of
stuff to Eve rookies. And Kashall uh
when we were talking to her, like as she
arrived, she was like, "We're already
made whole." Like within like 12 hours,
the community just overwhelmingly was
like, "Yeah, yeah, you do stuff with new
players." Uh, so it's cool to see that.
And Okami, you were talking about this
like talk touching on some fundamental
Eve systems
>> in a long scale in a the long term and
also kind of built into helping newer
players get settled easier
>> feeling they're they're not playing a
22-y old game all the time but they're
playing a game with like legacy and
history and gravity.
>> Exactly. I I think what's really
important like we have a living game and
it's been around for 23 years now
>> and we want it to keep going on. So we
have to realize and recognize that there
are new generations of people who are
onboarding into this game
>> and their sort of lived reality in the
context of of them coming into Eve is
different than when we did
>> like gaming was different when you
started playing Eve. when you started
playing Eve, it it the expectations that
you had at that time, uh the attention
that you had at that time were very
different. And so a lot of now when I
think about design for Eve Online, it's
about how do we design for the modern uh
like context while sort of preserving
the heart and core and soul of what's
there. And I think like the a glimpse of
that is what the work we did with with
the mining UX and the mining experience
where we just said, "Hey, this thing is
super old. Like it it's not fun." Let's
be real, like the way mining worked,
people were just used to it. That's how
it worked. But it wasn't great and it
didn't feel super sci-fi and you didn't
get the information that you needed or
might have expected coming into a game
that's this crazy sci-fi game. And so we
just said, let's let's push that bar up
and even like 10%. And I think we're
seeing how people react to and and and
feel when we kind of tend to the game in
that way. And so a lot of what we'll do
with newer players especially is
thinking about how like what what do
they expect when they come in and how do
we just like make them feel cool here?
How do we make them like see what a cool
game this is and just like understand
some of this stuff. There's a lot of
knowledge based mastery in Eve, but we
want to look at where we want to do that
meaningfully. And then the like the
other stuff that are just like hard
things that people just had to learn.
Can we just soften that a little bit
just to make it more approachable so
people can get into the cool part of the
game where they actually need to put
that effort in?
>> Yeah. And striking that balance between
like, oh, you still need to like master
a concept. It's not all given to you. >> Yeah.
>> Yeah.
>> But it's not just like beating you over
the head before you can even get involved,
involved, >> right?
>> right?
>> Uh in something like that. >> Exactly.
>> Exactly.
>> Space to for trial and error. >> Yeah.
>> Yeah.
>> Like a little bit of like just
confidence. we've talked a lot about. Yeah.
Yeah.
>> Should be easy to easy to grasp, hard to
master. Like that's the that's kind of
the aim.
>> Right on. So, we talked a little bit
about the major update stuff. We'll we
teased a little bit about stuff that's
coming in the major update. It'll be
really exciting and we'll talk to people
more about it as we get a little bit
closer and we know all the cool exact
things that we're going to put in there.
>> Um, but what about like the the next
expansions and and FanFest and what can
players kind of look forward to? Not
don't spoil everything. We we got to
keep them like still interested. We got
other dev chats to have. Yeah. Uh but
like what can people like look forward
to for for FanFest and just the rest of 2026?
2026?
>> Well, FanFest is always crazy. So, you
know, it's it's just always amazing. So,
you can always look forward to that.
But, uh we are putting more focus on new
players. Uh, and we're also putting more
focus on war in general and and you
know, war being kind of the purpose, you
know, what kind of drives purpose and
and really, you know, makes you want to
dive into the game. So, uh, we've been
looking at we've been looking at ways
how to kind of expand faction warfare.
You know, can we are there opportunities
to kind of allow the war to spill more
into heist? You know, is there a way to
to kind of create clearer objectives of
the war? We understand that that faction
warfare can kind of you know capturing a
plex then capturing another plex and
then losing and then you know it it
becomes a grind quite quickly right now
or kind of quite repetitive. So
>> for 23 years whenever
>> yeah plus minus. Uh so we've been
looking at at ways to to kind of add
more uh uh meaning and and kind of more
objectives to the war. And this is
something that we've been uh calling uh
military campaigns. Uh that name might
change. It's a it's no love it.
>> I think we're keeping it.
>> It's very now so we got to keep it.
>> We got to keep it. So it's the
for me there's a there's a promise of
Eve is that you can like it's different
than other games like like uh I came
from D and World of Warcraft and you'd
capture Terran Mill and then you lose it
overnight and you'd go back and then D
never really like you could never
actually win and conquer and hold land
and like that was the idea and then they
just gave up on it and had battlegrounds
And like and I feel like faction warfare
is just kind of like battlegrounds. You
just if you don't know it's just like a
>> eternal PVE that really doesn't do
anything. It just like it's a guaranteed
fight like you like it's guaranteed and
you'll get rewards and you get LP and
like that's interesting. But this idea of
of
u a meaningful like impact like actually
changing something is that like Eve can
only do like there's no other game that
like really allows you to change the
universe nar or whatever like a
meaningful change happened.
Um, but we hide a lot of it through
sovereignty which is null sack which is
far away and then faction warfare which
is kind of like there's a lot of hurdles
from a new player to faction warfare not
just standings and and all that just
like it just takes weeks of gameplay to
to get the confidence to go somewhere in
PvP. So uh impact from day one is
something that is kind of like a
a a goal for us. Uh it's not going to
happen overnight, but the the the idea
is can you be impactful on day one? Can
you actually come in, do the MPE, and
then immediately do something that maybe
not like maybe it's an alternative, you
can do career agents or maybe you can do
X and that's actually maybe contributing something.
something.
>> Um and that's the dream like because
that's that's the Eve Evenness of the
whole thing is that it it's different
than other games. Yeah, we talked a lot
about it when we're uh in preparation
for uprising. We talked a lot about this
idea of of empires at war and then
stitching the boats and this idea of
like war doesn't only happen on the
front lines. It also happens like you
know in the headquarter systems where
you're making you know you're you're
building the ship, you're you're
stacking up the ammunition and and
things like that. you're planning out
the next, you know, your next attack and
and we really want to kind of find ways
to to kind of push this idea forward so
you feel like you're contributing
something to something greater right
from the bat.
>> Yeah. And that I mean those analogies
also play to the largest conflicts that
happen in Nulk 2. Uh, I remember meeting
one player at FanFest who didn't get
involved in any of the the null wars or
anything like that, but he made every
single stiletto that players used in the
war. Like he cornered the market on
stilettos to the point where no one ever
wanted to make it.
>> There were like other things that they
could do. They were making units and
stuff. So he was like, I'm going to be
the stiletto guy. And he just has like
>> the knowledge that every stiletto that
was lost in that war, every scout that
went out, every interceptor that tackled
someone, he was like, yeah, I did that.
I am the reason that that fight happened
in that way. And it's super cool that
players can have that impact, right?
Like you can have that person who is the
builder that still has a huge impact on
this huge conflict 20 jumps away between
50,000 players that they might not know
>> and we don't even show it to them
because we don't have manufacturer on
like the ship because they just can't.
But it loads of people don't understand
or realize that the when they go into
the market, it's not an NPC market.
>> Like everything has been made by
players. So like
>> that's that's often like a conversion
point or retention point when they
realize no way. Like no way. Like
everything in the market, hundreds of
thousands of items, someone made them
from scratch. >> Yeah.
>> Yeah.
>> It's uh it's it's almost inconceivable.
I'm getting some horrible flashbacks
here because this is very much how I
first started the game as well. I had no
idea that the items on the market were
from other players. There were two items
that were identical on the market. It
was uh it was actually a shuttle, but I
was like, "Okay, this shuttle's 10,000
is, but this shuttle's 100,000 is. I'm
going to save up so much to get this
shuttle that's 10 times better." And
what actually happened is I just got
scammed by and overpaid for a shuttle.
And it made me so mad that I like just
stuck with the game just to to prove
that I wasn't a stupid guy that got
fooled and now you work here. >> Exactly.
>> Exactly.
>> Yeah. And and and above all of that,
when we talk about campaigns, there's
there's another part of Eve that I think
doesn't get enough love and attention
sometimes, which is our sort of like
rich world building and lore. Like it is
so cool, but sometimes so opaque. So
with campaigns, this becomes another
sort of storytelling device for us where
we can really put sort of some of our
central players in the universe and
actors at the forefront of what's
happening. Like these empires, our four
empires have needs, they have desires,
and they have goals. And we want to be
able to have those manifest in ways that
players can either like support with
their action and vote on the outcomes
through aiding the empires and their
objectives or other organizations
potentially in the future as well. And
so this will let new players who come in
get a just easier glimpse of what's
happening in New Eden and who's doing
what. And like you guys were saying, I
can do something. I can help, right?
like I can I whether I'm flying into
factional warfare to help flip some
systems or or get a goal kind of an
objective completed for the side that
I'm on. Uh I could also just maybe
manufacture some things or turn some
things in or or support in other ways or
clean up some rats to in a in a certain
area and see that I'm getting the
feedback that I'm supporting my side and
that that progress is is leading towards
a meaningful outcome or a meaningful
potential change in the universe.
>> Yep. Yep. And we basically just we give
people more agency and more kind of
ability to to
set the risks that they're willing to
take. You know, are they do they want to
hang back and help out, you know, in the
in the you know, back home at in high or
or, you know, do they want to go out on
the front lines or dive into
>> Yeah. battlefields, you know, day one.
>> So, I guess it's safe to say that in
2026 we're going to be hearing from the
empires or at least players are going to
be interacting with the empires a little
bit more. Yeah, they're they are major
players in this universe and we feel
like they've kind of taken the back seat
for a little while. We've had the
Deathless and the Drifters recently. Uh
and it's time to kind of revitalize this
war between the Empires and their
conflict. We'll be seeing a lot happen there.
there.
>> Yeah. And and kind of sharpen their
story a bit. Like we haven't really
progressed uh the Empire story for a while.
while. >> Yeah.
>> Yeah.
>> And and I think there's a lot of like I
think we can go a bit darker.
>> Nice. He was actually super dark
compared to almost everything out there.
So that we're going to go a little bit
darker is
>> a lot of exciting
>> chronicles that are >> Yeah.
>> Yeah.
>> more than PG-13, I think. >> Yeah.
>> Yeah.
Um, no. I I I love that because like
from a that modern new player like you
expect like there's an NPC faction that
I belong to when I start like what
whatever that is and then I will
eventually progress but there's
something that that's happening. Uh but
this would be like different and aiding
someone I think is just such a core
experience like just immediately like
it's interesting. You're like if if you
just donate that like the shuttle to the
to the cause. Yeah.
>> You're like that feels good. Like I just
like it like it's better than just
selling it or trash looting it. It just
like it feels better because
>> one of the Sorry. One of the other very
dumb things I'm just This is just a
whole flashback of all the dumb
decisions I've made is like starting on
I was in the Center for Advanced Studies
as my first character. I was like I want
to help the Center for Advanced Studies.
They're cool. So there is an option. I
don't know if we've removed it, but
there's an option to donate your money
to the NPC Corp. I was like, "Oh,
that'll probably like carry me favor or
something." So, I did and like nothing
happened. My standings didn't change. No
one cared. And I told people in like the
rookie help chat, they were just like,
"Yeah, you just lost all that money. You
can't get it back." I was like, "Son of
a bitch." So, that was just another
moment that made me want to stick it.
>> But, it made you feel good, but it did
>> for a little while in the moment. But
now that people are able going to be
able to do stuff like that and actually
have an impact and I actually get that
feeling that I was seeking uh back then
>> could donate your um disc to Okami Corp.
>> Yeah, I hear that you can double it if I
uh if I give it to you.
>> Yeah, just in a couple weeks. So >> yeah,
>> yeah,
>> but I think it's on faction warfare like
because there's an there is a
reinforcement option in Plexus. You can
you can put LP or something in it to
strengthen it, right? So like
>> no one appreciates it. So you like you
don't do it, but if it's meaningful, but
the the universe is full of like little
features like this that haven't been
touched for years. So we're also going
to use the opportunity when we go into
faction warfare like to do the same
iterative improvements of like okay this
is a habitat like Botchven or wormholes
like it's like there are issues there's
riskreward issues there's too many like
the these sites too few of these sites
the NPCs are not like smart enough or
they're too hard whatever so we'll we'll
use the opportunity to clean up um a lot
of this stuff um we'll take a look at
awxing take a look at some standings
issues who's like we're not going to
we're not going to solve like we pretend
to solve anything in this expansion. It
this is just like meta and balance like
we will iteratively raise the bar.
>> No magic bullet. No no no
uh uh yeah no simple answer. uh we'll
just get the information that we need
from the community and then say like
okay what's your worst problem and we
fix it in a simple manner or do we
completely have to redesign the whole
thing? We're not going to do that. We're
going to do something. Same thing with
force projection. We'll just we will
trim the branches. We're not going to
plant a new tree for any other stuff. We
we'll just fix.
>> And actually this time around we are uh
we're actually planning three
expansions. So the teams are the teams
are going into these topics not just for
the next expansion but they're very kind
of strategically thinking about okay
what can we fit here what makes more
sense as a as a winter expansion then
what makes you know more sense as a as a
summer 2027 expansion. So that also
gives us uh gives the teams more freedom
to take on bigger more complex projects.
it gives them the freedom to take on
like okay let's let's try a fix here or
let's do the quick thing see if it works
and then iterate on it or or should we
then you know or do we throw it out and
work on something bigger down the line.
Um so that's a that's kind of
continuation of what on how we've been
working but we've been very focused on
certain elements of the space of of the
game and and now we're kind of diving
into these topics. I think we very exciting.
exciting.
>> We have the confidence because of the
state of the game
>> to think longer and and further into the
future because we the the house was a
bit on fire and now we put out the fire
and and now we we can just we can start
picking out curtains and and actually
having fun and and like building the the
the game that we want want it to be. So
that's also just a huge relief is to not
have like anxiety um at every expansion
of like okay like I I knew this would
happen because of this thing and this
thing something lurking in the shadows.
So um I've the the confidence to plan
three expansions has it it's it it's
been a very long time since that happened
happened
>> um if if ever if I'm I'm honest. And
there are so many things we're not
telling you right now and it's so
exciting and I'm so pumped for FanFest
and we're going to go into like
incredible detail there. Uh and yeah,
it's it's like Yeah, we're like poking
each other like don't say it, don't say
it cuz Yeah.
>> nice. Yeah. And it's it's really cool
after building like foundational stuff,
building on top of those foundations and
having the as you were saying, having
the confidence to know that like it's
not going to fall down. It's not going
to go into a sinkhole. the the kitchen
sink's not going to fall out from under
us. Uh so it's just it's neat to see.
And what's even more exciting is just
the what players do with all the stuff.
Um because no matter what we design, we
know they're going to use it in some
weird way, but it's still going to be a
very fun way and a very emergent way.
Probably the best way to call it is
emergent, not weird or play out weird
some of you. But yeah.
>> Yeah. Yeah. And even if we're saying
that we're putting more focus on on
newer players, like everyone will
benefit in many ways, like you know,
looking at at the the mining mining
interactions in in the last expansion in
Catalyst, uh ultimately that benefits
everyone. So, it's not we're not going
to go and kind of rewire the NP. That's
not our plan at all. It's it's more kind
of how do we how do we ease access into
these these awesome systems, not dumb
them down, but make it easier to grasp
and and you know, and then it can be as
hard as you want to to master. Um, so
ultimately it will result in a better
game, more players, more fun.
>> And campaigns, while they kind of add
some structure and, you know, if you're
a new player, you log in and go like,
what's a meaningful thing I can do
today? And it should be an easy answer
to that. Um, it's for everybody really
like this is something that will touch
the entire universe. It will have real
stakes and like every campaign should
have meaningful lasting change in the universe.
universe.
>> So, everyone should want to participate
on some level. >> Um,
>> Um,
>> so it's big. It's big. There's a lot
there and we are, like you said, focused
on on your players. We're really
thinking about how Eve can, you know,
graduate in complexity, right? Where the
MP is low complexity, like it's very on
rails, and then and then you're just
kind of dropped into the the water
there. So, like, how do we sort of like
smooth that out a little bit, that
transition, and then get you
participating in campaigns and then get
you participating in our structured PVP,
factional warfare, and eventually
released into the open wilds to do
whatever you want. So, uh, campaigns
also give you a really interesting, um,
motivation. Um, competition is is a huge
driver in this, but and there's no real
competition in faction warfare, but if
you have a winnable goal,
you have competitive people. Not
everyone's competitive, but you have
competitive people in faction warfare
militias and and places. And just by
saying you can win or lose, they will be
desperate not to lose. and to win. And
that gives like a a fire brand leader
like so much firepower and motivation to
to pull other people in to just we're
going to win this. Like guys, we're
going to win this people, players, our
team members. Um we
it's not like it's much easier to to get
someone, hey, do you want to run forever
or do you want to compete in this sprint?
sprint?
>> Yeah. Yeah. And just like
motivationally, it's just like much
easier to to like, hey, new players,
we're going to go and we're going to win
this war and it's here rather than like,
hey, join this never- ending war. Like,
it just like isn't the same appeal.
>> I always find like in Eve, there's this
there's this idea of like, yes, of
course, there's this idea of winning and
losing, but there's also this idea of
preventing others from winning. It's
like this this the joy of inflicting
damage on others is is kind of a it's
kind of a thing in Eve where you're
like, well, I'm not going to win, but
I'm just going to make sure that you
won't, you know,
>> never win.
>> One of the main motivations that I had
when I was playing Eve, like for like a
huge portion of it, when I was telling
people this that aren't Eve players,
they look at me like, whoa, that guy
might be a psychopath. I don't know. But
Eve players, yeah, as you were saying,
Cer, they get it. They're like, yeah,
yeah. It's almost even more rewarding to
say like you don't get that thing
>> rather than like we collectively can get
this thing together.
>> And I mean ultimate is is like we got
our objective and we made sure that you
did not get yours.
>> Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That's killboards
green all around.
>> Yeah. Green.
>> Uh but like we talk about a lot like uh
new players and stuff like this and
that's going to be the focus. But there
are things still that like veteran
players can look forward to. Um, I know
you guys were were teasing this a little
bit with the catalyst expansion. We've
made a few changes to carriers and we've
seen that now like reduction in cost,
uh, fighter support, uh, like the
fighter tubes being a little bit
beefier. We're seeing a lot more
carriers in space doing stuff. >> Yep.
>> Yep.
>> Is is that over? Are you going to keep
keep going? You going to What's the idea
with carriers?
>> Yeah, I have more more carriers. I I
think without spoiling too much, we have
more to talk about here. Um really happy
with how the changes are going so far.
Um both anecdotally and through data.
We're seeing just usage go up, more
carriers participating in battles. Um
but we definitely have some top tier
upgrades that we're saving for maybe
FamFest to talk.
>> Nice. And I mean there are like a couple
of we didn't expect carriers to become
this popular. So like our graphical
additions maybe, you know, became
>> Yeah, they were there were more of them
on on
>> victim of your own success.
>> Yeah, they're kind of victim of your own
success in a way. So, so we're looking
at at those issues and and fixing them. But
But
>> yeah, so if you're flying a carrier and
you're like running into performance
things, definitely on our radar.
Definitely things that teams are looking
into. A couple of changes have already
gone in, a couple more in February, I
think, as well.
>> Um, but yeah, we'll we'll definitely
keep an eye out for it. And yeah, it's
it's one of those things where like, oh,
we didn't know when there are so many
carriers on grid like, oh it's
actually causing like these problems
that didn't necessarily get to see in
testing and things like that.
>> I think it's the um it's the same thing
with the ecosystem of balance. Like if
there's a healthy meta, it's way easier
to fix one thing at a at a time rather
than try to like stir the whole pot. Now
the meta is pretty good. And a couple
years ago, we decided, okay, we just
need to fix dreads.
>> Like we anchor battleships as in like
there there's this whole progression of
like we moved battleship to this kind of
conversion ship of like that needs a uh
reaction like there's a fundamental
difference between sub like they're the
the path to to capitals. So it's uh
battleships. Get them into good place.
Find the right price point. People
talked about 240 mil or whatever. Like
find going figure that out. Anchor
battleships at the center of the
universe. Then the next progression
dreadnots aim and shoot powerful power
fantasy. Everyone can fly them. Everyone
can use them. Whether it's assault or um
at the at the home front um in null and
in dread brawls. So iteratively figuring
out the rock paper scissors of the
universe is much better than trying to
move all of them at the same time. And
now carriers just are going to get the
same treatment. We're going to figure
out the cost and the power and the risk
and reward thing and then whether they
need faxes to be optimal or not. Like
this is all a whole thing but we anchor
it on battleship dreadnot carrier and
then we'll pick the next ship to to kind
of fix and fit into the mix.
>> Yeah. Watching how the escalation paths
unfold is really exciting. Uh, and it's
it's so much fun to see how players
minds try to solve these problems. Like,
oh, uh, if battleships are popular,
maybe I'll take carriers to do this.
Some people are like conduiting their
carriers really well. Some people are
still using it to kind of like siege for
desirears and structures, but uh just
unlocking that creativity and that like
uh spark from the theory crafters is is
really neat
>> and killing the like the the little
issues or like skynetting and figuring
those things out at the same time. Even
if we knew, okay, we're taking the only
thing that they're kind of good at, but
it's a bad thing to be good at. So like,
let's just rip that band-aid off.
>> Yeah. Yeah. Let's find the new good thing.
thing.
>> Right on. Um, and I guess uh the other
thing that uh you know players can
hopefully still look forward to, are
there still going to be like events and
stuff like is that still going to be
will there day?
>> Players have a crazy year to look
forward to.
>> Yeah, absolutely.
>> Uh we talk about the empires bringing
them to the forefront and the war
between them. Uh, I'm not going to spoil
much right now, but that is absolutely
coming to the forefront of both the
story we're telling narratively and and
the flavor of events to come. So,
Capser's Day on the horizon. There's
going to be some special changes in that
that you'll you'll see. Uh, and a whole
host of things leading up to the
expansion release later. I think I think
there's a a natural kind of um we never
branded it as such but kind of the
deathless saga is kind of it coming to
an end like rise in power introduction
of new technology zarzac all of that
like now now this this stuff is
evergreen I think we're we're entering a
new basically multi- multi-year saga
maybe in in the in the
>> empires intrigue politics >> y
>> y
>> all that kind juicy stuff
>> and it'll be bold. I'm sure it'll be
controversial and people will be talking
about it. It's it's going to be fun.
Like we want to
>> shake it up a little.
>> Yeah, absolutely.
>> Going to have some new faces on the
scene, actual faces that people, you
know, will will start to recognize and
and so definitely learning a lot from
from the from the sagas that we've been
telling over the last few years and
applying it to to the empires.
>> Neat. Um, one event that like was aside
from the like the the really cool events
like Drifter Crisis and all that um and
the the latest events u we're actually
we just reviewed the road map for events
um which was
um we've been using events to to be very
experimentational also like to bring in
brand new content um or because it's we
take it offline we can we can afford to
make mistakes in in events and like
maybe like balance them a bit wrong or
something, but it's a really good
grounds for experiment experimentation.
I've seen a lot like the labyrinth like
new like kind of game modes almost in in
in these events. There's a lot of
exciting new puzzles, but one of the
events that we also ran was Nemesis, the the
the
uh Vanguard crossover event that we ran.
Um it really is the third
third or fourth even event where we hold
like a Vanguard is live. Uh it impacts
Eve in in some way because we're also
experimentation experimenting on how
does Vanguard in the future connect team
online. Um it's social is it direct
advantage and and in front lines and and
now this convoy concept of wouldn't be
fun if if Vanguard generate content on
the other side. Um we will do something
like that also after the expansion. I
hope like we'll we'll uh I'm confident
saying that. Um and just be bolder, grow
grow that stuff, build on the on the
foundation, but like take it to the next
level as well. So there's a lot of
narrative connection there. Deathless
introduced these new workloads that are
in Vanguard. So it's kind of like also a
little bit part of that, but uh I can't
wait to actually see that too. But a lot
more information on on that at Fenfest
as well.
>> Right on. And actually, we can chat with
a little bit more about Vanguard to see
what players can kind of get up to with
Vanguard in 2026. CCB Convict sat down
with CCB Collins to to chat all about
that. So, let's let's hear from them. Hi
everyone. I hope you've been enjoying
the director's chat so far. But a rare
alignment happened this week, which is
the week before the the stream you're
watching right now, where we saw someone
haunting the aisles at uh CCP Rake, and
that person would be CCP Collins, the
game director for E Vanguard. and uh
you've been able the people have been
able to watch the interview so far with
CCP Akami, CCP Burger, and CCP Atarati.
But we thought since we had you, let's
snatch you and bring you into the studio.
studio.
>> I flew all the way here hoping that
you'd find me accidentally.
>> Yeah, we just saw you. Yoink. Uh to talk
about E Vanguard a little bit during
this director's chat. So, we don't want
to don't want to leave that out because
uh it's been uh a few months now since
Operation Nemesis, I think.
>> Yeah, November.
>> November, which was the last time
players had really gotten their hands on
with the game. and wanted to ask you
like how did Operation Nemesis go from
your perspective in the London studio
and what have you been sort of like cook
I know we've had Christmas and some
people have hopefully had a well- earned
break but what have you been cooking in
the uh in the interim since uh Operation
Nemesis wrapped up.
>> Yeah, Operation Nemesis was massive for
us in the sense it was um our most
comprehensive test that we'd ran um in
pre-alpha to date, right? uh the amount
of features that we had in it, the
stories that we were trying to tell, um
the type of experience that we were
trying to create for new people who
hadn't come in and played Vanguard
before as well. Um all in the sense of
just building up huge beds of data and
feedback that we can kind of take
forwards into improving the game and
seeing where we need to focus in more on
and where we need to focus less. So for
us, it was extremely successful in that
all that feedback and that the data that
we got back was incredibly useful for us
to realize what's working and what's not
working. This is why we run these tests,
right? We know this isn't perfect. It's
a collection of ideas. We're in
pre-alpha. There's a lot of prototypes
in there. There's a lot of kind of
placeholder things. And seeing what
people respond well to and what people
don't respond well to, how much it can
keep people engaged in the experience
and how long we can keep people playing
the game and engaged for was like a huge
reason why we ran Operation Nemesis. And
kind of introducing people to some of
the themes and the story lines that we
want to start telling as well as the
Vanguard start building up a stronger
presence in New Eden. So getting all of
that feedback and data back was
absolutely incredible. It's the most
amount of feedback that we've ever
received in a test. Um and putting the
data alongside that because sometimes
people tell you what they don't like,
but sometimes you need to see it. You
need to see it in the data. What people
say they don't like and how they play
the game are two very different things. Sometimes
Sometimes
>> we see that all the time in like Eve
Online as well. Players will be telling
us one thing about a a you know a
feature or something and then we look at
the data. It's not necessarily
congruent. It's not necessarily the
players are being dishonest about it.
It's just that sometimes you get a
little bit of tunnel vision. you get
focused on on a certain gripe or a
certain feature and you sort of forget
about how that applies more broadly to
the game.
>> Exactly. And it works both ways that we
can't just look at the data as well. We
need to you know what we say the
qualitative and the quantitative data
that we get on is really important part
of the experience. So we did a lot after
operation nemesis of reviewing that
doing a lot of analysis on the data to
see how people were playing how people
were sticking around what was kind of
the common threads that were leading to
people enjoying and playing the game for
long periods of time. what were the
common threads that were leaving people
to kind of leave early and what were
some of the complaints that were doing.
We looked at a lot of our own
individual, you know, our inside
community that we have on Discord, our
VIPs. We looked at a lot of streamers
and influencers that were playing the
game and a lot of feedback that we got
from um new people that had never played
the game before that and are even new to
the universe, which is fantastic. And I
think if we if we think about what we've
been doing since then is getting a lot
of that feedback and kind of analyzing
what we need to be doing next. What the
a lot of the feedback was telling us
that certain parts of the core
experience are just not quite there yet.
That real center of the running and
gunning having a gun in your hand and
feeling that fantasy of being a war
clone in this universe. Um, we're still
working towards that, but we not have
haven't quite punched through getting
that feeling and getting that fantasy
and getting that kind of uh what it
should feel like to be in this universe,
this kind of on the knife edge of allout
war and making that gun feel responsive
and the enemies that you're shooting at
feel human and like opportunistic.
There's still a lot of work that we need
to do there. Um there's a lot in the
experience that started to really
positively shine through like the
addition of expeditions and sending
people on these kind of more structured
missions in the worlds and different
environments that they can go down to
was all being positively received. So
we're just now focusing on um the next
steps as we start thinking about a
really important step of um what coming
out of pre-alpha looks like and taking
the next bold steps into making an alpha
version of Vanguard. I think a lot of
people have probably uh because the
development of Vanguard has been so sort
of like open
>> and and we've involved players from a
very early stage. I'm sure a lot of
people have gotten a taste of what the
actual process of game development looks
like because I remember before I was
involved in the industry. I think of I
think of alpha as kind of like the the
white box scratch starting point. But
that's actually quite far along the
development process. There's so much
that hap has to happen before that. And
Vanguard has been working through that
pre-alpha phase now for a couple of years.
years.
>> Yeah. People forget how early on we
still are with Vanguard. You know,
pre-alpha, you I in modern day that
would never see the light of day. You
would never be playing a pre-alpha in a
public play test. Um you'd maybe be
seeing a late stage alpha as a game
moves into beta. So I think sometimes
people forget how early we still are in
this journey. So I think we we have been
in pre-alpha now since we announced what
was it FanFest 2023
I want to say. Um, so we think it is
time now. We've got all the necessary
data. We've had some really great
experiments in pre-alpha and types of
features and experiences that we want to
have in the game. Um, but we are ready
now to to take that uh that next step
and we are the team have started
pre-production on working towards what
an alpha version of uh Vanguard looks
like. That's cool. Um, question that uh
sort of comes up from time to time. Is
there anything you can tell us about how
the connection between Eve Online and E
Vanguard is shaping up? like how will
those two sort of those two universes
influence each other from a game boy
game boy gameplay.
>> I'd like that. That'd be nice.
>> Yeah, that would be we're adding a game
boy to Vanguard. >> Sick.
>> Sick.
>> Um yeah, I I don't want to go into too
many details right now because there's
still a lot that we need to figure out.
Um we've done a lot of experiments over
pre-alpha into things that feel a bit
more economic that feel, you know, um
when we added uh the insurgency PvP mode
into the game that was having an impact
on insurgency. um the whole sense that
the um as a vanguard and the battles
that you're going through are
contributing to the the warfare that
exists in the universe. That's the the
angle that we feel is the coolest and it fills into the fantasy. I'm I'm an
fills into the fantasy. I'm I'm an operative war clone, you know, feeding
operative war clone, you know, feeding into the warfare that's happening in the
into the warfare that's happening in the universe is the angle that we want to go
universe is the angle that we want to go down. Um and we're going to be
down. Um and we're going to be announcing more details about that
announcing more details about that connection across two games, you know,
connection across two games, you know, working very closely with CCPA and the
working very closely with CCPA and the like. And we're hoping um well we're
like. And we're hoping um well we're aiming for at FanFest this year to talk
aiming for at FanFest this year to talk a lot more about that connection um that
a lot more about that connection um that will be part of the experience as we
will be part of the experience as we work towards an early access in 2027.
work towards an early access in 2027. >> Yeah, I was talking to CCP Monty before
>> Yeah, I was talking to CCP Monty before about some of the plans we've got for
about some of the plans we've got for for FanFest and this sound like it's
for FanFest and this sound like it's going to be a really really cool event
going to be a really really cool event this year. I can't wait to hear more
this year. I can't wait to hear more about that Vanguard Eve connection then.
about that Vanguard Eve connection then. Yeah.
Yeah. >> Um I guess the the other thing I had to
>> Um I guess the the other thing I had to ask for you for you to ask was
ask for you for you to ask was >> um when is uh when will players be able
>> um when is uh when will players be able to get their hands on E Vanguard next?
to get their hands on E Vanguard next? Yeah. So, as we we work towards um early
Yeah. So, as we we work towards um early access um we u are taking that next
access um we u are taking that next steps of taking Vanguard into alpha. Uh
steps of taking Vanguard into alpha. Uh we what we want people to play next is
we what we want people to play next is that core alpha experience is it's not
that core alpha experience is it's not uh something that feels a bit more
uh something that feels a bit more release ready, a lot more polished um
release ready, a lot more polished um version versus what people have been
version versus what people have been playing in pre-alpha which is kind of a
playing in pre-alpha which is kind of a lot of prototypes and ideas. We want to
lot of prototypes and ideas. We want to create something that feels more solid
create something that feels more solid and is a more you know polished
and is a more you know polished representation of the game that we want
representation of the game that we want to make. So, um, we will be announcing a
to make. So, um, we will be announcing a date at FanFest, but we're aiming for
date at FanFest, but we're aiming for summer this year. We'll be running a
summer this year. We'll be running a Steam play test, which will be the first
Steam play test, which will be the first play test of Vanguard as an alpha.
play test of Vanguard as an alpha. >> Mhm.
>> Mhm. >> Awesome.
>> Awesome. >> Yeah.
>> Yeah. >> All right. Well, that's about it. We'll
>> All right. Well, that's about it. We'll get back to the the other directors for
get back to the the other directors for the rest of the sort of EVA flavored
the rest of the sort of EVA flavored directors chat, but it's been great to
directors chat, but it's been great to catch up with you and hear about what's
catch up with you and hear about what's happening with Vanguard. Um, so I'll
happening with Vanguard. Um, so I'll hand it back over to CCP Swift and those
hand it back over to CCP Swift and those other guys, and you'll be hearing more
other guys, and you'll be hearing more from this guy at FanFest in a couple of
from this guy at FanFest in a couple of months.
months. >> Thank you. Bye-bye.
>> Thank you. Bye-bye. >> Bye.
>> Bye. All right. Well, thanks CB Convict and
All right. Well, thanks CB Convict and CB Collins. That was great. Um, guys,
CB Collins. That was great. Um, guys, it's been wonderful to chat about the
it's been wonderful to chat about the the plans for 2026. A little bit of look
the plans for 2026. A little bit of look back at 2025 to remember all the cool
back at 2025 to remember all the cool stuff that players did. Uh, but CB
stuff that players did. Uh, but CB Okami, CB Burger, CBati, really
Okami, CB Burger, CBati, really appreciate hanging out. Uh, any any last
appreciate hanging out. Uh, any any last words before we uh last words sound so
words before we uh last words sound so daunting.
daunting. >> Yeah. Wow.
>> Yeah. Wow. >> Any any final words for our chat right
>> Any any final words for our chat right here before we uh go off? No, this is
here before we uh go off? No, this is this is the best part where we get to
this is the best part where we get to talk about the exciting stuff. So,
talk about the exciting stuff. So, thanks for making the space. Thanks for
thanks for making the space. Thanks for listening. Yeah.
listening. Yeah. >> Yeah. I mean, I I can't wait to see
>> Yeah. I mean, I I can't wait to see everyone at FanFest and uh or out in
everyone at FanFest and uh or out in space. So, until then, pew pew pew pew.
space. So, until then, pew pew pew pew. >> I think 26 is going to be the best year
>> I think 26 is going to be the best year ever. Like, literally,
ever. Like, literally, >> yeah,
>> yeah, >> that's it.
>> that's it. >> It's a great way to say it.
>> It's a great way to say it. >> Yeah. Yeah. Love it. Well, thanks for
>> Yeah. Yeah. Love it. Well, thanks for everyone. Thanks for watching everyone.
everyone. Thanks for watching everyone. really appreciate it and uh look forward
really appreciate it and uh look forward to to staying in touch, chatting with
to to staying in touch, chatting with you in Discord, in space, on the forums,
you in Discord, in space, on the forums, on Reddit, wherever you are. And uh stay
on Reddit, wherever you are. And uh stay safe, fly safe, and we'll uh see you out
safe, fly safe, and we'll uh see you out there.
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