EVE Online Publisher CCP Opens Up UK Studio for Dust 514

CCP has announced the creation of a new UK studio from the ashes of Midway Newcastle. The team will be known as CCP Newcastle and is led by developers that were formerly employed by Midway until its bankruptcy. Most Midway properties were bought by Warner Brothers, but the Northern UK team was left out of the deal. CCP Newcastle will focus on console games, their only project for the moment being Dust 514.

Richard Smith, the newly formed studio's technical director, said in the press release that accompanied the announcement, “The North East has a distinguished heritage of game development, an experienced console-development talent pool and local universities producing exceptional graduates. We have been able to assemble a world-class team of console developers with unparalleled Unreal Engine expertise and integrate them with CCP’s global organization.”

Dust 514 is an online first person shooter developed by CCP Newcastle in collaboration with CCP Asia using the Unreal Engine 3.0. The UK developers have a lot of experience with the engine, as Midway has been using Epic's development tools since before 2005. Furthermore, CCP is also bringing in the talent of Geomerics, a Cambridge-based company that has developed a full dynamic lighting technology that is compatible with Epic's well-known graphics engine.

The game is another ambitious project by EVE Online's developer and is meant to bring another layer of depth to the world CCP has created. Dust 514 will take place in the same universe as EVE Online. The events in one title will have a bearing on the event in the other, according to CCP. Battles won in Dust 514 may be decisive in getting a hold of planets for EVE players and Dust 514 troopers can be hired as mercenaries by those who play the MMO. No details regarding the release date of the shooter are known for the moment, but it is clear CCP intends to launch it for the Xbox 360 and the PlayStation 3.