Dust 514 – the first-person shooter spin-off of popular MMO EVE Online – is due to shut down on May 30 to make way for a new PC shooter, developer CCP have announced.
Released in in 2013 exclusively for PlayStation 3, DUST 514 is a free-to-play online shooter set in the same fictional universe as CCP’s spacefaring MMO that encourages players to make their mark on its multiple galaxies in whichever way they choose, be that piracy or the more noble route of joining a corporation (guild) to conquer worlds with a group of friends.
Speaking on a community blog post about the impending closure, CCP said that:
We are very proud of what we’ve learned and accomplished with DUST 514 on PlayStation 3 over the past three years and it is an honour to be a part of such a dedicated community. We consider DUST 514 one of the best free-to-play offerings on the platform, but the years have caught up with us.
It is with a heavy heart that we inform you that DUST 514 will be shutting down on May 30th, 2016. We therefore will not be releasing the 1.3 update as we had planned. Players will continue to be able to play for free on our servers until then, but all further PSN packs and purchases have been removed and disabled from the in-game marketplace and the PlayStation Store. Players with existing Aurum will be able to continue to purchase items from the in-game marketplace.
Thank you for being a part of DUST 514 on the PlayStation 3. We look forward to the next chapter, and hope you’ll be a part of it and continue the journey with us.
For everyone that still enjoys playing DUST 514 on a regular basis, those words will be a tough pill to swallow, but don’t be too sad, all is not lost. CCP have a new game in the works that aims fill the hole left by DUST‘s closure due to release in the future.
CCP’s development team in Shanghai has been working on a prototype for a first-person shooter for PC with the goal of building a great FPS set in our sci-fi universe of New Eden (the universe in which EVE Online, DUST 514, EVE: Valkyrie, and Gunjack are set). Their experience is being utilized to build a new game from scratch using Unreal Engine 4 while harnessing all our learnings from DUST 514.
CCP says that the unnamed title is early in development, but it hopes to offer an update on its status at the annual EVE Fanfest on April 21. What’s more, loyal DUST 514 players will be given some form of special recognition for their loyalty when the new title launches. What exactly that will be remains to be seen, but we’ll keep you updated on the details as and when they come.
