CCP readies EVE Online push with Atari

EVE Online developer CCP is beginning a huge push for the MMOG, starting with a free expansion pack available from March 10th, working in partnership with Atari.

The expansion, EVE Online: Apocrypha, is dated to coincide with the core game’s boxed product launch. Additionally, as part of the increase in focus on EVE Online’s prominence a ‘New Player Experience’ has been instated in a hope to attract new and returning users.

"Just this past week we broke our concurrent user record with 45,186 people flying unbound in the same game world at the same time—a huge percentage of our quarter of a million current subscribers and a true testament to EVE in our sixth year of operation," said EVE Online senior producer Torfi Frans Olafsson.

The new concurrent user record sets a new single-server high for any online game.

"Today is an unprecedented time to start playing,” added Olafsson. “As you can get ahead of the curve before Apocrypha releases in stores and our hard work hits the server cluster. It’ll be easier than ever to get ‘lost in the wormhole’ that is EVE with what we have planned for the future of our expanding universe."