[Jester's Trek] Valkyrie
Valkyrie
It's more than just a drone.
For those not keeping track, CCP made a major announcement at Gamescom today: they are going to develop the EVE-VR prototype showed off at Fanfest as their third game, called EVE: Valkyrie. The hardware will continue to be the Oculus Rift, and they've set a release date of sometime in 2014.
Here's the story on Massively and here it is at IGN.
What this means in practice is that the personnel that developed this demo in their spare time now find themselves a new team within CCP and they're being moved to CCP's Newcastle site to develop this new game. The implication in the announcements is that the game will be a stand-alone multi-player game (perhaps with a single-player tutorial or missions, perhaps not). No word yet on whether there will be any connection to EVE Online itself or if this will strictly be a one-off. "We have big plans for EVE: Valkyrie and I can?t wait to share more details later this year," is all CCP CEO Hilmar Petursson will say on the subject.
But given a 2014 release date, I think it's safe to assume that the initial release will keep things pretty simple and dynamic, playing to the strengths of the demo. That's no bad thing: the demo was tremendous fun, one of the best experiences I had at Fanfest this year.
So, this is an exciting announcement! The Oculus Rift guys have to be pleased. I'd say they just got their killer app.
Source: Valkyrie