CCP Games has delivered a solid roadmap for EVE Online today – the punchy short version and the hour-long stream version. So let’s get straight to the big news: The studio is announcing not one but two expansions for the sci-fi sandbox MMORPG over the course of 2025. The first expansion drops this summer.
“Focusing on empowering players within the sandbox, it will offer enhanced tools for customizing player-owned sovereign space, enabling capsuleers to set their own agendas and create content for their communities. These upgrades are being designed to give corporations a higher degree of agency, deepening the dynamic and player-driven emergent gameplay within the universe of New Eden. The introduction of Freelance Projects will open the door to new levels of cooperation where pilots can craft and complete missions created by fellow capsuleers. From mercenary contracts to collaborative ventures, this new system will create new emergent opportunities for storytelling, conflict, exploration, and relationship-building within EVE Online. With new ships, tactical objectives, and tools for all fleet sizes, the future of war will continue to be reshaped. These additions will offer fertile ground for small and large fleets to thrive, pushing EVE’s signature sandbox to new heights. [Emphasis ours]”
We don’t know what’s in the winter expansion yet, but that’s coming in Q4. Either way, it’s fun to see EVE Online attempt to reinvent itself as a game about “creativity and collaboration.”
“From customizing sovereign space to crafting missions that spark new alliances, the 2025 roadmap is all about letting players create and shape their own moments, their own stories and ultimately being part of the history books of New Eden itself,” game director Snorri “CCP Rattati” Árnason says. “EVE Online has always been a living universe driven by its community, and with the new tools and systems we’re introducing, the potential for creativity and collaboration has never been greater.”
Surely he means the creativity of spies infiltrating enemy alliances and collaboration between alliances to blow up enemy structures, right? We kid – this genre could use more player-generated content tools like The Foundry, Chronicles system, and Architect Entertainment, and Freelance Projects seems like the natural expansion to Revenant’s Corporation Projects, which were aimed only at corps. Welcome to the PGC crew, Freelance Projects. May you fare better than your elders.
