DUST - Insert Dirt Pun Here

Just a quick aside, Massively posted this sentence in regards to SWTOR: "You can keep asking for Star Wars: The Old Republic's release date, but it won't make a difference. You won't get it until Electronic Arts is ready." I feel a bit better about this game from that. Companies with big budgets take a lot of pages from Blizzard's book, but waiting until the game is done to release it is one they should copy more often.

I really want to talk about DUST though. I've been incredibly impressed at the scope of this project for Sony and CCP. To be able to integrate a first person shooter not only into the canon of a game, but into the already wide scope of EVE as well is a huge project. There are a lot of places this can go wrong, and balance issues will be abound for a long time after this is implemented. My major concern here is actually the fact that it will be only for the Playstation 3, a move that will not only limit the audience but (in the event it is a lasting part of the game) will cause issues should we get a Playstation 4.

There are plenty of great possibilities for this though. I hope the game to be on par with EVE's difficulty and unforgiving nature, if only to create a similar experience, but I wouldn't be surprised them to smooth out the learning curve as first person shooter fans are not typically the type to be invested in their characters or the game as much as MMORPG players. And here we find another potential issue: Is the FPS crowd willing to deal with certain EVE standards, such as battle needing to take place at certain times of the day, or the strict rules of contribution that some corporations may require. Interaction in EVE typically requires a serious commitment of time. There could be ways of reconciling these issues using game features, and I'm sure there will be corporations with some skilled and dedicated squads at their command. But will it be the rule or the exception?

Even so, I have to applaud CCP and Sony for innovation. I'm far more interested in seeing how this turns out than most other announcements on the market.