Back in 2021, CCP Games made a big to-do over a browser client for EVE Online called EVE Anywhere – essentially a cloud-hosted version of the game that denizens of New Eden could play from, well, anywhere (except for all the countries they couldn’t). It hit beta in 2021, expanding to multiple browsers and countries, and at the time, CCP touted 30K new users in the United States alone thanks to the client. A year ago, the company then fully launched the service and promised to continue adding territories. And now? Now it’s over.
While there’s no news about the sunset on the official site or Twitter (as we type this Thursday morning), CCP Games announced in the forums and via email that it’s discontinuing the service as of May 24th.
“EVE Anywhere, the cloud-based platform allowing EVE Online to be played in-browser, will be discontinued on Wed 24 May. CCP will continue to support EVE Anywhere up until Wed 24 May; please note that PLEX payments through the service will no longer be accepted from Mon 22 May. As we bid farewell to EVE Anywhere, we extend our gratitude to all the pioneering EVE pilots who have been a part of this incredible journey. Thank you for helping us deliver EVE Online in this ambitious approach, and rest assured that CCP remains open to exploring new ways for players to access EVE Online in the future. For now, players can still explore alternative ways to access EVE Online, such as cloud gaming services like NVIDIA’s GeForce NOW. We’d also like to encourage players to join the ongoing Launcher Beta to help shape its development.”
When pressed for an explanation for the sunset, CCP Zelus replied that “CCP is no longer supporting the technology used to power EVE Anywhere behind the scenes” and will instead by “investing [its] energy and resources into a new and improved desktop launcher for the game[.]”
As the Ancient Gaming Noob notes, the year-old service was poorly promoted and had “serious issues,” including resolution and settings problems. Redditors further reported inaccessibility in their countries as well, so it seems reasonable to assume that a lack of development led to a lack of interest and a lack of profit. Either way, it’ll soon be coming to an end in what will mark yet another sunset for the EVE franchise.
