WCCFtech has an interesting interview with Dual Universe’s Jean-Christophe Baillie out this week that sheds some fresh light on the upcoming sci-fi sandbox. Baillie says that even if five million people show up to play the game, they’ll all be on the same server thanks to cloud tech and “dynamically split space” and “recruiting more CPU power to that particular spot.” Another concern for sandboxers is how much destruction of player buildables gamers should expect.
“Of course, it’s a fundamental issue: we don’t want to come back and find the house destroyed. It will still be possible to destroy the stuff created by other folks, but only outside of the safe zones. Though you could also use a ‘protection bubble’, a shield of sorts, to protect your stuff in that area: there are a lot of layers of protection.”
Dual Universe’s Kickstarter currently sits at almost 70% of its $557,724 US goal with 20 days left to go and nearly 5000 backers. The alpha is expected by summer 2017, with beta to follow in the first part of 2018 and the launch by the end of that same year. Consoles are out, Steam is a go, and VR is a maybe.
And like CCP with EVE Online, Novaquark does indeed intend the game to be “effectively free to play for those wealthy enough” thanks to the unusual credits-to-sub business model. “[It] makes a lot of sense in a world where players have to create the content,” Baillie says. “We’re aiming at the hardcore PC gamer. We’re perfectly aware that there’s a lot more people outside this population and that it would be good for business, but for now we’re just trying to make a great PC game.”
