EVE Online surpasses 500,000 subscribers

<p>Developer CCP Games has announced that its massively multiplayer online sci-fi game <em>EVE Online<&sol;em> has surpassed the 500&comma;000 subscriber mark worldwide&comma; a first in the game&&num;8217&semi;s history after ten years of consecutive growth&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Recent developments concerning <em>EVE Online<&sol;em> include the December 2012 release of the game&&num;8217&semi;s eighteenth free expansion pack&comma; while the same month also saw the game being relaunched in China in conjunction with publisher TianCity&period; Also&comma; January 2013 saw <em>Dust 514<&sol;em>&comma; a free-to-play massively multiplayer online first-person shooter directly connected to the <em>EVE Online<&sol;em> universe and exclusive to PS3&comma; enter its open beta phase&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&&num;8220&semi;Ten years after release&comma; it is incredibly inspiring that&comma; through a lot of hard work from our EVE Online team&comma; we are crossing the half-million subscriber mark&comma;&&num;8221&semi; said Hilmar Veigar Pétursson&comma; CEO of CCP Games&comma; in a press release&period; &&num;8220&semi;For me&comma; this is a true testament that EVE can live on forever&comma; as long as we do right by her&period; We have not come to this point alone&semi; millions of players have helped push us to this milestone&period; I now know in my mind what I previously only believed in my heart&colon; that EVE will outlive us all&period;&&num;8221&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>According to the press release&comma; CCP Games will commemorate the tenth anniversary of <em>EVE Online<&sol;em> throughout the coming year under a unified &&num;8220&semi;Second Decade&&num;8221&semi; theme&comma; which kicks off in Iceland in April with EVE Fanfest&comma; an annual festival&comma; while the official start of the game&&num;8217&semi;s second decade comes on 6th May with the official tenth birthday of <em>EVE Online<&sol;em>&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;