About a year ago we began a similar journey with DUST 514.

We set out to create something so ambitious and so crazy that we as gung-ho Vikings, had no choice but to make work. We sought to expand the EVE Universe from the stars to the planetary surfaces by creating an intense FPS on console and linking it to the largest single-shard PC-based MMO in history. Not only did we want to link DUST 514 to EVE, we wanted a ramped-up level of interaction where DUST mercs communicated with EVE pilots and cooperated in space and on the ground to generate galactic conflict of amazing scale.

Mission accomplished. We are humbled and proud to be with you here on launch day to deliver on that original vision. Now that DUST 514 has launched, a new door has opened for the EVE Universe. And while there are two separate games, it will always be about “One Universe, One War” in New Eden.

We are excited to take the beta label away from DUST 514, and now that we have launched, we look forward to the stories that our players will create as they jump headfirst into the massive galactic conflicts that await them.

This is only the beginning of the road for DUST 514 we turn it over into the hands of our players to mold and shape. We, the development team, will always be updating the game so that it grows with its players. And the ways they interact with DUST 514 are always evolving. At CCP, we think of launch as just that: the beginning of an endless upward climb. Today begins a truly exceptional gaming experience where the ramifications of every laser blast will be felt across the galaxy.

It takes a team of developers, designers, artists, testers and producers to create a game, but it takes the players to transform it into something truly fantastic. So a final thank you to the teams of developers I work with and to what I can only call the most honest, vocal and best community of players in the world. We could not have done it without you guys.

See you on the battlefield!

Atli Már Sveinsson
Creative Director, DUST 514
CCP Praetorian

Pioneering PlayStation community! We’ve reached an exciting milestone in our development of DUST 514: the open beta. Some of you may already be familiar with the concept after having followed our dev blogs or news articles, or perhaps you have been helping us in the closed beta. But some may be hearing about this for the first time. I would like to give you guys a quick overview on the game, and the new phase of development, the open beta.

What is DUST 514?

DUST is a PS3-exclusive triple-A free-to-play MMOFPS (massively multiplayer online first person shooter), directly set in and connected in real time with the science fiction universe of EVE Online.

What that means is that not only is DUST a full-fledged MMOFPS in its own right, with unrivaled persistence and customization, it also coexists on the same servers as its older PC sibling, EVE Online. DUST and EVE share several game systems such as mail, text and voice chat, corporations, the in-game market and more.

Not only are the players of the two games able to communicate with each other and belong to the same social institutions, they can also interact in real time. Spaceship captains of EVE Online are able to provide real-time support in the form of orbital bombardments to the boots on the ground, the DUST 514 mercenaries, all while coordinating in a shared voice chat.

Mercenary? Empire Builder?

In DUST, you are an immortal clone soldier. Initially you are a mercenary, and at any point in the game you are free to choose your own path.

You accept contracts issued by warring corporations, in the process earning both ISK (Interstellar Kredits, the in-game currency) and skill points. With these earnings you purchase and upgrade skills that affect your in-game abilities, in addition to unlocking advanced equipment such as dropsuits, weapons, vehicles, modules and more.

The game features an in-depth dropsuit and vehicle customisation system that allows you to define your role on the battlefield to respond to whatever tactical situation you may encounter. Battles are fought in districts located on planets in the EVE Universe (we have about 7,000 temperate planets out of a total of 50,000). Districts are generated with modular components where the type and location of the planet are taken into consideration, the goal being to make every battle experience unique (there are literally billions of combinations).

Now, in the beginning you may limit yourself to accepting contracts from warring NPC corporations, but over time you may find like-minded individuals to group up with and form a Corporation, which is our version of a clan or guild.

As an organised corporation, you and your colleagues may decide to venture out into the great unknown and claim your own piece of territory, thereby affecting the political landscape of the New Eden universe. You might even find yourself forging alliances with EVE players, and through a combined effort, performing coordinated strikes upon your enemies.

Free to Play

DUST is completely free-to-play for anyone with a PS3 and can be downloaded directly from the PSN store. There are no restrictions. All features, maps, game modes, skills, dropsuits, vehicles and module groups are fully accessible, and since it’s a massive multiplayer game you’ll never run out of content; the war never ends.

While DUST 514 does offer exclusive items that must be bought with AUR credits (our microtransaction currency, purchased through the PSN store), it’s important to note that these items do not provide players with an unfair in-game advantage. Unlike most other console games, our expansions are free to download. While you can purchase AUR items for real money, in the game, you will never need to pay for a map pack. DUST is a free to play MMO that will be maintained and evolved for years to come.

Always Evolving

DUST has been in closed beta for about a year now, with a small group of dedicated players that have given us invaluable support and assistance with their feedback and suggestions. The game has gone through an amazing transformation this past year. We’ve released multiple patches and expansions, each bringing performance improvements, new features and bug fixes. We have gone from our own small development servers to the much larger shared EVE / DUST test server (Singularity), and we’ve done countless character wipes and inventory resets along the way.

These last few weeks have seen tests of core DUST / EVE link features such as the corporation system and orbital bombardment, and a major migration of DUST from its closed test servers onto Tranquility (EVE Online’s global server).

We are now ready to open the game up to a wider audience by moving to an Open Beta. There will be no more character wipes or inventory resets. We will lift all access restrictions to our servers. Anyone with a PS3 and a PSN account can download the game, create a character and join in on the fun. We will be updating the game regularly, soliciting feedback from you on our forums, balancing and tuning, replacing and polishing.

This is a first of its kind in gaming, a merging of two communities from two very different game genres, in real time in the same setting and on the same server. Already players in both games have formed corporations and alliances. Emergent tactics are cropping up all over the galaxy. This would not be possible if it hadn’t been for the amazing support we have had from our friends at Sony, our shared vision for the future of online gaming, and the openness of the free PlayStation Network.

We couldn’t be more excited to be part of this and we hope you join us on this journey.

The mercenary life is grand, but how do you put the “profit” into intergalactic warfare for fun and profit? I mean, we all love to see new places (and blow them up) and meet new people (and blow them up), but you’re not just doing this for your health. So let’s talk about how DUST 514 rewards your effort.

There are three things you can come away with from a battle: money, skill points, and salvage, and here’s how you get them:

We know interplanetary violence is its own reward, but we’re always striving to reward your destructive tendencies in other ways. ISK, SP, and Salvage are just three of the ways your time pays off. Every victory, every kill, every clone, brings you one step closer toward being the scourge of the stars.

It is known that in New Eden only the strongest corporations survive. Others just perish in their wake, or join them. The EVE Online universe – where demigods operate vast numbers of ships and immortal mercenaries fight for planetary dominance – will be cruel to anyone that dares to venture deep enough into it. Do you believe that you can form a corporation and lead the merchants of death? Are you ready to put money, your pride, and your eternal life on the line for a group of people that you can trust for the eternal glory of New Eden? You better be, because Corporations are what holds this universe together, and should you choose to either lead or follow, this is what you should know before you begin your immortal journey in DUST 514…

New Eden is a single shard universe, hosting hundreds of thousands of EVE Online players for more than nine years, and everyone plays together at the same time. Now, you have the opportunity to be part of it. It is only suitable that DUST 514 (exclusively available on PlayStation 3) goes together with EVE Online (on PC/Mac), so you and your friends can form unstoppable corporations and dominate the battlefield together. We know you’ve been patiently waiting to find out more about Corporation management in DUST 514, and now, we are ready to give you all the info!

For this to happen, we needed a system that allows players to form and join an organization in the same way players join Corporations in EVE Online. This is similar to guilds or clans that are available in other MMO games and shooters. However, in DUST 514, we will take this concept a bit further and allow players from both EVE Online and DUST 514 to join the same Corporations. People will be able to be part of these Corporations regardless of which gaming platform they happen to be playing on – EVE Online on PC/Mac or DUST 514 on PS3 – and whoever created the corporation will become its CEO.

Starting with our next major update, DUST 514 players will be entering a universe populated with established social groups as well as ongoing politics associated with these groups and are welcome to become part of that social dynamic. This means that overnight, a DUST 514 player can go from being in an NPC newbie corporation to joining a 7,000-player strong empire that owns a sizeable chunk of the known space in the EVE Online universe.

For the intrepid souls who aspire to create their own future empires within EVE Online, that will soon be a reality, because Corporations created in DUST 514 will be no different than those in EVE Online. Although all aspects of Corporation management related to EVE Online in DUST 514 will not be available initially, you will be able to appoint a player from EVE Online as a director for your corporation in DUST 514 who can then act as your right-hand man and be able to utilize all aspects of the Corporation feature for the EVE Online players.

So, to recap, the following features are just a part of what’s in store for this major update to DUST 514:

• You can join any Corporation in EVE Online or DUST 514
• There will be a dedicated Corporation chat channel
• You can be a CEO or director of any Corporation in EVE Online or DUST 514
• You can create a corporation, design its logo, assign roles, accept and take part in corporation battles (there will be another dev blog about this topic)
• You can accept members from both EVE Online and DUST 514
• You can now create social bonds (or vendettas) that last
• You will see EVE Online players’ character names and portraits and vice versa
• Strategize and fight together in real-time

And this is just the beginning. In time, we hope to see the already vast canvas of the human drama within EVE Online expand and include those of you, that merry band of mercenaries, from DUST 514.

The first live DUST 514 / EVE Online integration

Linking the intense front-line combat of DUST 514 with the galactic ship warfare of EVE Online has always been our keystone to building a vibrant community, and now that keystone is coming into place. With the Precursor release, we move DUST 514 from its standalone testing server over to the long-standing EVE Online test server, Singularity (aka “Sisi”). This means DUST 514 on PlayStation 3 and EVE Online on PC/Mac will be officially running on the same server.

When the Precursor Closed Beta build goes live, players on the Sisi server in DUST 514 and EVE Online can chat in real time and send in-game mail between games. We can’t wait to see what happens when these games collide in the same shared universe, and we’ll bring you more info on additional interconnectivity features as we move towards our next releases.

Orbital Strike Framework

The first framework for Orbital Strikes goes live in the Precursor build. These powerful, space-based attacks help link DUST 514 and EVE Online, letting squad leaders call in Orbital Strikes from the War Barge flying overhead when their squad achieves certain conditions in battle.

This is just the first level of Orbital Strike capability. In the near future, players on the ground in DUST 514 will be able to request strikes from ships piloted by EVE Online players. These strikes have the potential to do far more damage than the War Barge, their accuracy and power determined by factors like your DUST 514 Merc’s skills and what turrets the EVE Online pilots have trained and fit to their spaceships.

But Mercs on the ground won’t be helpless. We’ll soon add the Orbital Artillery outpost on the ground, which they can use to attack EVE Online ships in space.

Instant Battle Matchmaking

The Precursor update also implements several matchmaking features. Players will be able to find their friends, form squads and jump quickly into battles together using “Instant Battle.” In addition, the matchmaking system has been implemented to intelligently place solo players and squads into matches based on skill, creating a more inviting shooter experience, especially for new players.

New Environments

We couldn’t put out a major new release without adding tons of new game content. Precursor brings our Galaxy system online, which assembles maps from components based on planetary attributes and what is built on the planet, for tons of potential combinations. Closed Beta users will be able to help us test out a substantial array of new environments to battle in utilizing this new system.

Keyboard and Mouse Implementation

That’s right, with the Precursor release, you can use a USB keyboard and mouse to play DUST 514. We’re looking forward to seeing how this impacts play styles, and will be watching closely to see how keyboard/mouse players match up against Dual Shock and Move gamers. We are also working to add controller-based filters into Instant Battle/Matchmaking for a following update.

Tons of Other Great Stuff (including lots of polish, graphical enhancements, and bug fixes)

Everything mentioned above is just a small subset of what we’re adding to DUST 514 next week. All of these features are just the latest improvements to an awesome massively-multiplayer first-person shooter that will be free to play for every PlayStation 3 owner.

In addition, we’re launching a free companion app on the Vita, DUST 514: Neocom, to augment your gameplay experience and let you customize your fittings, train skills, use the market, browse the starmap, and much more, on the go anytime and anywhere.

Log In and Check it Out

The DUST 514 Closed Beta update launches on August 21! We’ll be announcing new events very soon that will give more PlayStation 3 owners a chance to test DUST 514, but if you’ve already gotten a beta key, you can check it out as soon as Precursor goes live.

If you’d like to sign up for a chance to test DUST 514, head over to the beta site.

We invite you to log in, check out the Closed Beta, and let us know what you think. We’ve made a ton of improvements to DUST 514 since Closed Beta testing started. CCP is committed to making this revolutionary game and service a success, just as we’ve done with EVE Online, and we will continue to improve your experience constantly for years to come.

I hope you enjoy the Precursor update to DUST 514, and I’ll see you on the battlefield!