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