Massive Multiplayer Online Games

Big news for CCP Games as their space-themed MMOG has gone live in China with record numbers being set (according to them.. I don't have time to be a proper journalist and confirm this personally. Sorry, but I'm just lazy that way.) Here's a blurb from the big announcement:

Shanghai, China – June 13, 2006 – The first day of EVE Online’s open Beta in China resulted in a new world record for the number of simultaneous users playing in the same game world, as more than 30,000 users logged into the game server just hours after opening. CCP Games, an independent producer of massively multiplayer online games and producer of EVE Online, also announced that over 200,000 players from China registered for the game during the first day of the of the open Beta .

“It was quite amazing to see the population of EVE China exceed the population of Iceland in the second day of open Beta testing.” said Hilmar Veigar Pétursson, CEO of CCP Games. “EVE China has been an exciting collaboration project and continues to be so, as we continue to refine the experience to accommodate for the steep growth rate of both our English and Chinese worlds.”

Cool beans! I like seeing indie studios having success, so I'm biased about stuff like this. EVE has come aLONG way over the years and a breakthrough in a new market is always fantastic news, whatever the company behind it.

There have been other attempts at the "one-world" game design where everyone in the game occupies the same server/game space. 10six was the first truly "massive" world from what I remember, where the numbers were supposed to have been capable to support one million simultaneous players. From what I remember, they never really got anywhere close to that number, so I'm not sure if the technology would have supported it or not.

I'm sure there are others around, but to launch a game in a new market with that many people right off... and to get another 200k signing up... rock on, CCP! That just kicks butt, I'd say. :)

Congrats to CCP and best hopes for continued success! Cheers.