The third string to the whole intriguing project is Dust 514 Neocom – a companion PS Vita app that lets you interact with various systems from the PlayStation 3 game directly from your handheld. In search of a little more information on exactly how it works, we collared CCP Creative Director Atli Mars Sveinsson and Marketing Director Cameron Payne at last week’s Gamescom event in Cologne, Germany.

“It’s a companion app to the PS3 game,” explains Payne. “It brings all the customisation, community and commerce features onto the Vita. There’s no direct gameplay but you can use pretty much all the features that the Neocom user interface offers in the main game.

“You can interact with battles, purchase items on the market, play around with your dropsuit or vehicle and then save it so you can use it on PS3.”

A quick hands-on session with the app demostrated just how much functionality CCP has managed to squeeze in. Players will have access to the complete Fittings system – allowing you to tinker with your weapon load-outs, armour and various vehicle configurations. And as Eve afficionados will likely be well aware, this is almost a game unto itself, with thousands and thousands of different combinations available.

On top of that, the game’s store is fully accessible from the Vita app, complete with daily deals and special offers, while the in-game mail and social features are also present and correct. Not only that, but you can also navigate around the Eve universe’s enormous galaxy map – a feature which CCP plans to build upon further down the road.

“There’s the galaxy of Eve in real time on your Vita,” says Sveinsson proudly, zooming in and out by pinching the Vita’s touch screen. “700 solar systems and you can drill down and look at the individual planets. Over time we’d like you to be able to tinker with those planets and manage their surface infrastructure.”

Those who don’t own a Vita won’t be missing out on anything – all these features exist in the PS3 game – but, for a game as potentially as absorbing as Dust, it should offer a compelling way to stay connected to the game when you’re out and about.

“There are so many parts of Dust 514 that you can take with you and don’t need a PS3 to enjoy, and this was the perfect way to exploit those features,” adds Sveinsson. “The whole PlayStation ecosystem works really well, allowing these systems to connect and be a nice cohesive experience. It’s MMO on the go.”

Stay tuned to PlayStation Blog for more on Dust 514 ahead of the game’s launch later this year.

First and foremost, we have details on our first Beta event of the summer. We know many of you are eagerly anticipating your chance to try out DUST 514, and we’re happy to announce that we’ll be doing a big wave of invites for our first summer Beta event on June 29, 2012, and will run throughout that weekend. This will coincide with an update to the Closed Beta containing what we’ve got on show at E3 and more, you can see it in action in our latest trailer (link below). If you haven’t already, you can register at www.DUST514.com/beta, and players will be chosen at random to participate. But don’t worry if you don’t make it into this first round; this is just the first of several Beta events scheduled for this summer, and we’re going to announce lots of info and chances to join the action in the coming weeks. If you are already in the DUST 514 Closed Beta as of today, you will have “All Access” to the Beta events over the summer.

Next, starting this week as a part of Sony’s Virtual E3 experience, DUST 514 will be fully integrated into PlayStation Home. Our DUST 514 Home Space is a great way for you to get up close and personal with the New Eden universe, and we’re really proud of how it’s turned out. Its a War Barge cantina in the EVE Universe, you can learn about the history of New Eden, hang out, earn awesome stuff like companions and armor for Home, play multiplayer Slay – the incredible strategic board game – and much more. In addition, we’re very excited to let you know that we are making available a wave of 10,000 “All Access” Closed Beta invites that visitors to the DUST 514 Home Space can earn by completing all the activities inside, with access to all the DUST 514 Beta events over the summer. So hurry and get yours before they’re gone! That said, the DUST 514 Space will remain live, and new content will be added, so Home users can definitely look forward to additional Beta keys to be distributed through the DUST 514 Home Space in the future.

Finally, we’re ready to talk a bit more about the DUST 514 companion app on the PlayStation Vita, DUST 514: Neocom. The app brings the feel and functionality from DUST 514 on PS3 to Vita, focusing on customization, communication and trade. Every character you use can be customized via DUST 514: Neocom, so you can create and edit customized fittings (load-outs) with a ton of different dropsuits, weapons, vehicles, items and more. You’ll also be able to use Neocom to access the in-game Mail system and Friends List, as well as use the Market to get new stuff for your character from the DUST 514 Marketplace using either ISK (in-game earned currency) or Aurum (purchased currency). DUST 514: Neocom is rolling out this year alongside DUST 514.

That’s it for now. Be sure to check out the new trailer we’ve released for E3 which features all new footage of Beta gameplay. Please watch for DUST 514 updates at and after E3!

Thanks! We look forward to seeing you on the battlefield!

Here are some of my learnings, although I’m sure there is one pressing question on your minds before we get into that – when can you play the game? Well, the closed beta is currently underway and Fanfest attendees were told that they would be able to access a more open beta in April, which will open in waves throughout the following months. Rest assured, we’ll be keeping you up to date with opportunities to join in here on PlayStation.Blog.

One Universe. One War

We’ve spoken before about how DUST 514 and EVE Online are ‘linked’ but, actually, that’s putting it lightly. The two games exist on the same single-shard server, they occupy the same universe and economy, and they share social tools such as voice and text chat; it’s more accurate to say that they co-exist, rather than point to one specific point of linkage.

At the DUST 514 keynote last week we saw perhaps the most tangible interaction so far, when an EVE Online Player unleashed an Orbital Bombardment from his spaceship, down on to the ground battle happening in DUST 514, all live on-stage. Afterwards, I caught up with DUST 514 Executive Producer Brandon Laurino to learn exactly how that happened. “So what you saw there uses all of the communication tools we’re making available,” he explained. “We were up on stage but, when you’re at home playing DUST 514, you’re going to be communicating via voice and text chat and saying ‘I need some help down here buddy’ to an ally playing EVE Online.”

“Then what you do is use your Cortex, which is kind of like your portable computer, to paint a target on the surface. That target will show up for the EVE Online player to make their way over to, ready their cannons and, if it all goes off successfully, that shot is going to come down from one game on the PC to another on the PS3, all in real time.”

PS Vita Companion App

We’ve know for some time that the team at CCP Games is working with PS Vita but, until now, we’ve not known what kind of form that is going to take. At the closing keynote on Sunday, Brandon Laurino took to the stage and revealed the first official details on a PS Vita companion app currently known as ‘DUST 514: Neocom’.

“It’s basically a way to stay connected to your game, on the go,” Laurino told us afterwards. “It’s a way for you to have certain features like mail, chat, the marketplace, character fitting and more with you at all times. As we’ve said, this game has a serious amount of depth so it’s useful to be able to sort all of this stuff out on the go so that, when you’re on your couch, you’re straight into the action.

“Above and beyond that, we’ve also got a lot of exciting ideas for how players can also use their PS Vita as a tool to help them when they’re actually in the middle of a battle.”

The Long and Winding Loadout

DUST 514 is an MMOFPS and, therefore, it has a wide array of customisation options and character-levelling opportunities – so many, it was claimed, that it could take players up to seven years to fully level up their characters, and that vehicles are “deeper than most characters in other games.”

To help you on that journey, you will be able to set it up so that your character can accrue skill points passively throughout their existence, so you can be progressing and developing new skills even when you aren’t playing the game.

Back to School

EVE Online fans are some of the most dedicated I have ever seen, but it’s not all aimed at earning profit and taking over galaxies. One group of players has set up the EVE University, which sets out to educate players and maintain an extensive library of wikis.

One group member told me that there are plans to extend the kindness to DUST 514 players, whether you’re looking to learn more about the vast history and politics of the universe, or are finding the aforementioned customisation and levelling systems a little hard to master.

The Future

It’s clear that, when DUST 514 launches fully, it will be the start of a seemingly endless project for the developer. Even at this early stage they offered a glimpse of what they have planned for the future, including giant mechs called MTACs (OPSM even managed to grab a picture); support for eSports and the ability to watch matches in EVE Online and bet on the outcome; and the possibility of extending the action to ‘non-temperate planets’, where fire, gas and other elements may necessitate the use of vehicles.

Perhaps the biggest statement of intent of the weekend was when CCP Games CEO Hilmar Pétursson declared their intent to make the EVE Online / DUST 514 universe the biggest gaming environment in the world. It’s certainly going to be one to watch over the coming years and, perhaps best of all for PS3 owners, it needn’t ever cost you a thing to experience.