EVE Vanguard gets extremely vague roadmap promising “major event” before early access launch

Aim for the stars and all that

Image credit: CCP Games

They get knocked down, but they get up again, and you’re apparently never going to keep Eve Online studio CCP Games from trying to make an FPS set in the universe of their Excel(lent?) MMO happen. EVE Vanguard – the studio’s admirable fourth crack at it – was announced last September. Since then, it’s had several open betas and, according to a new and rather vague roadmap, should release sometime post this coming November. Here’s said infographic – more pork scratching-stained napkin scrawl than sat-nav.

Image credit: CCP

As you can see, the roadmap as it stands is effectively a yawping gap charting the time between now and the last open beta event, although there are a few details for plans (though not dates) moving forward. The wishlist includes establishing more economic links between the shooter and their long running MMO, which I still find very cool conceptually despite having no real interest in either. Also planned are more weapon customisation options, “diverse environments”, more progression options, and “expanded gameplay elements” which, y’know, you’d hope so yeah.

The intervening time between now and November-ish will also host a bunch of closed founder tests, culminating in a major update on the 16th of November, and dev diaries such as the below “future visions” trailer, which makes a few comparisions with CCP’s previous FPS Dust 514.

Vanguard in Focus | A Future Vision

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As noted, EVE Vanguard is only the latest in a series of attempts at grafting a standalone shooter to the wildly successful and undeniably storied MMO. Dust 514 launched in 2013 for PlayStation 3, and shut down a few years later. Project Legion was announced in 2014, but never saw the light of day. In 2018, CCP were kind enough to fly me to Vegas to show off Project Nova, but that was canceled in 2020. Vanguard has neither numbers or the words ‘Project’ in the title, so maybe it’ll fare better?

Last October, Julian Benson wrote about why CCP haven’t stopped trying to make an EVE Online shooter for 15 years. “I can’t say if Vanguard will be what the team’s looked for for so long, but it has two things going for it that give it a greater prospect of success,” wrote Benson. “EVE Vanguard is described by CCP as a module of EVE rather than its own game, not because they run in the same engine but because you launch both through the same client. CCP are trying hard to make sure even if Vanguard develops its own player base, they will be well aware of its ties to EVE Online. Secondly is the ‘vE’ in Vanguard’s PvPvE’s pitch. Even if you were the only player in the world who booted up Vanguard, there would be a game for you to play.”