CCP Games is developing even more unannounced games, and for all of them will be using the Unreal Engine 4. The developer behind massive space MMORPG EVE Online attempted an ambitious expansion as a pioneer in virtual reality a few years back but with limited players online embracing multiplayer VR, had to switch gears and refocus its efforts. Now it’s official that CCP Games has multiple upcoming titles yet to be announced.
EVE Valkyrie, CCP’s first major VR release, now supports non-VR play, and Sparc - still one of the best PlayStation VR games - never earned the player counts it deserved. Coming later this year is the still-untitled first-person shooter codenamed Project Nova that the developer confirmed to us will be playable this fall and there’s more beyond that.
Confirming news first gleaned from job listings, CCP Games announced officially that Unreal Engine 4 is the “exclusive development tool for all of CCP Games’ currently unannounced projects.” They’ve partnered with Epic Games to use Unreal due to the engine’s “stability, quick prototyping and the solid cross-platform support for both established and new hardware.” CCP also specifically called out the engine’s cross-platform support. Bing Xi, Development Director at CCP Shanghai:
Using Unreal Engine 4 in the development of all their upcoming new games allows CCP‘s studios to plan for the future by cultivating a shared in-house knowledge of the engine. When coupled with the engine‘s ability to ease the transition of games to different platforms, UE4 enablesCCP to stay platform-relevant earlier and for longer.
“Although CCP Games has used versions of Unreal Engine for more than 10 years on various projects, Unreal Engine 4.20 has massive improvements. UE4’s latest enhancements, like the new ProxyLOD mesh reduction tool and the new Niagara VFX editor are among the many features that make game development a more efficient process.”
James Dobrowski, Executive Producer on the unannounced action-MMO being created at CCP London:
Snorri Árnason, Project Nova‘s Game Director at CCP Reykjavik:
“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. 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.”
Project Nova is also being co-developed in London with Sumo Digital and the other unannounced games are new and separate from that, we’ve confirmed. There’s no timeline on potential announcements of these other projects or if they’re set within the EVE universe much like Nova is.
“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. The product’s push for cinematic rendering quality is something that we will aim to implement into our future projects.”
More: Where Will EVE Online Be 5-10 Years From Now?
Source: CCP Games
