Since the Battle of Caldari Prime 5 years ago, Mordu's Legion had kept the peace on the Caldari homeword in the middle of Gallente space. But mercenary groups, like living organisms, grow and evolve. Since the titanic battle that saw the first mass use of cloned ground forces, Mordu's Legion had joined up with The Upwell Consortium in the construction of the massive space structures that dominate space today. Upwell's salesmanship, along with capsuleers' success at destroying many of the structures, placed a demand for manpower that even a group like The Legion (often referred to as "The Best Legion" in the halls of power) found hard to meet. On 14 September, that strain manifested itself in the non-renewal of the contract with Ishukone Corporation and Material Acquisition keeping the peace on Caldari Prime. But that led to a basic question. With the proliferation of Upwell structures around New Eden, where would The Legion find the manpower to meet its obligations?
While writing lore is fun, I'm probably best known for analytical pieces, not fiction. Sometimes though, lore and business combine to reveal a surprise. Perhaps I've spent too much time studying the recent acquistion of CCP Games by the Korean game studio Pearl Abyss, but Friday's news article about Mordu's Legion preparing to depart Caldari Prime led to what I thought was an obvious question: are we about to receive news about Project Nova at EVE Vegas next month?
Project Nova is CCP's successor game to DUST 514, a first-person shooter set in the EVE Online universe. Caldari Prime has a place in the lore of ground soldiers in New Eden, with the first massive battle serving as a promotional event at a game convention in March 2013. Why not believe that the movement of Mordu's Legion indicates potential news about a new CCP project? This October is shaping up as a blockbuster month for CCP Games.
The biggest news, of course, is that the purchase of CCP will be finalized 12 October, one week before the start of EVE Vegas. The player meet was already the biggest EVE Vegas ever. Now the event takes on bigger significance as the EVE community presumably get to meet our new Korean overlords for the first time.
The news from China should also turn some heads. Not only is NetEase taking over from TianCity in October, but will launch the new Serenity server with an updated version of EVE. I'm not sure which version, but with a name like EVE Online: Rise of the Clones, watch for Alpha clones to make their first appearance in China. But NetEase is not just the new publisher for EVE Online in China. The gaming giant is also working on a new augmented reality game set in the EVE universe, EVE: Infinite Galaxy. News reports indicate the beta will launch in October, just in time for EVE Vegas.
Of course, not all news comes out of the Far East. Last year, CCP introduced Project Aurora as the new mobile game set in New Eden and even allowed attendees to try out an alpha version of the game. Work has progressed since then, with CCP giving the game a new name, EVE: War of Ascension, at Fanfest. Will CCP & PlayRaven announce a launch date at the keynote? I would not doubt it.
Given the event, could we even hear about CCP's new MMO currently under development that will use the Unreal 4 engine? If one wants to make a good first impression, I'd think so. But the news I think would bring down the house would be an announcement that CCP was opening Project Nova up for beta, with those who had already signed up for news getting first crack at the invites. Far fetched? In interviews at Fanfest, Hilmar stated that the game was months, not years, away from being available to players. I assume that meeans beta, so why not make the announcement at EVE Vegas?
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