CCP Games & Hadean Go for World Record with EVE Aether Wars Phase III at London's O2 Arena

21 November 2019 - Reykjavík, Iceland - CCP Games, creators of the biggest single-shard spaceship MMO game of all time EVE Online, in partnership with London-based tech start-up Hadean, as well as PlayFab and Steam, are inviting players to become part of videogame history by shattering the world record for the "most concurrent players simultaneously involved in a single multiplayer PvP videogame battle" at 20:00 UTC on Saturday 23 November at London's O2 Arena, using the EVE Aether Wars Phase III tech demo.

EVE Aether Wars Phase III is available for players to download for free on Steam, with CCP Games and Hadean hoping to get 10,000 players into the tech demo simultaneously in order to break the world record.

The partners have announced that two prizes will be awarded. One prize will be given to the pilot who attains the most in-game currency (ZPC) during the event, and the other will be given to another lucky pilot who will be chosen at random.

The two winners will each receive two tickets to EVE Fanfest 2020 in Reykjavík, Iceland, including paid-for flights and hotels. In addition, the winners will get the opportunity to meet the EVE Online development team face-to-face at the event.

EVE Aether Wars is an ongoing research and development initiative to push the boundaries of large-scale, multiplayer experiences and explore the possibilities of Cloud Gaming. Earlier this year, CCP Games and Hadean unveiled the first EVE Aether Wars technology demo that ran live at GDC19 with 14,274 connected clients in a single-instanced, multi-region game world. At Gamescom 2019, they showcased a gameplay demo that a seven-person team at CCP Games built in just eight weeks, in which 4,369 players from 88 different countries participated.

“We are thrilled to have the continued support of CCP Games with EVE Aether Wars,” said Craig Beddis, Hadean’s CEO. “We wanted to show the world that our Aether Engine technology can perform flawlessly under unprecedented strain while enabling unique and exciting gameplay experiences that can only be delivered by our technology. We’ve done that, but we’re not finished. We have a world-class team of engineers at Hadean working with CCP on the creation of EVE Aether Wars and we can’t wait to demonstrate the next phase!”

“We are continuing to build on the success of our joint efforts with Hadean on EVE Aether Wars and push this technology even further,” said Hilmar V. Pétursson, CEO of CCP Games. “By using it to test the limits of the virtual worlds we want to create, we are opening up new possibilities for developers, the industry and ultimately the players themselves. We’re eager to showcase the next step in this exciting partnership and continue to push the boundaries of what can be achieved in large-scale multiplayer gaming.”

The record for "most concurrent players simultaneously involved in a single multiplayer PvP videogame battle" is currently held by EVE Online players, when a total of 6,142 players took part in an enormous online battle - the Siege of 9-4 - on 23 January 2018. The world record attempt will be streamed live on CCP's official Twitch channel from the popular EVE London event, itself the last stop on the epic and successful EVE Invasion World Tour.

About EVE Online®

EVE Online (PC/Mac) is a compelling, community-driven spaceship MMO game where players can build and pilot a wide variety of starships, traversing vast solar systems for free and choosing their own path from countless options, experiencing space exploration, immense PvP and PvE battles, mining, industry and a sophisticated player economy in an ever-expanding sandbox. EVE is a captivating game in which hundreds of thousands of players compete for riches, power, glory and adventure, forging their own destinies in a single thriving universe. For more information, visit eveonline.com.

About CCP

CCP is a leading independent game developer that has been praised for its artistry, technology and game design that facilitates emergent behavior, empowering players with compelling means of self-expression. With the launch of EVE Online in May 2003, CCP established itself as a pioneer of cutting edge massively multiplayer games, winning numerous awards and receiving critical acclaim worldwide. Founded in 1997 on the principle of pushing the envelope and breaking new ground on all levels, CCP is on a mission to create virtual worlds more meaningful than real life. CCP is headquartered in Reykjavik, Iceland, and has additional studios in London and Shanghai. For more information, visit ccpgames.com.

About Hadean

Founded in 2015, Hadean is a deep tech start-up based in London. Creator of HadeanOS, the world’s only cloud-first operating system, Hadean is redefining state of the art computing for research institutes, AAA gaming studios and financial services, allowing developers to write, ship and scale massive, real-time, distributed applications. Aether Engine is Hadean’s pioneering distributed simulation engine that uses HadeanOS to power games and simulations of unprecedented fidelity and scale. For more information, visit hadean.com.