DUST 514 may be a PlayStation 3 exclusive for the moment, but CCP has confirmed that the title will offer USB keyboard and mouse control options. CCP Jian broke the news late last night on his Twitter account, though there's no word as of yet on whether using a keyboard/mouse combo will translate to an edge over players who are using a PS3 controller.

DUST is a sci-fi MMOFPS set in CCP's New Eden universe, and it is directly connected to the long-running EVE Online MMORPG. Players take on the role of ground-based mercenaries who fight for territory control and share the universal economy with EVE's capsuleers.

When CCP Games laid off 20% of its worldwide staff back in October of last year, the World of Darkness dev team bore the brunt of the cuts while DUST 514 continued on course for its launch later this year. In an interview over at TenTonHammer today, CCP's new Chief Marketing Officer, David Reid, joined CEO Hilmar Petursson to discuss the development of both games. Hilmar reveals that a team of 60 developers are currently working on WoD, and that DUST 514 will be playable at this year's EVE Online fanfest event in March.

Despite acknowledging that the entire PlayStation Network comprises a total of 60 million users, Reid asserts that DUST will bring "tens of millions of people that play shooters on PSN into the New Eden universe," going on to make the bold statement that "EVE could be the biggest game in the world at the end of 2012" as a result. Reid also claims that "EVE Online is the only game in the West that has shown consecutive growth year after year," a statement that's sure to upset RuneScape developer Jagex and others. The statement also comes with a slightly bitter note as this year EVE may have lost its record of continual subscription growth during the summer drama.

DUST 514 is somewhat revolutionary in that it's attempting to tie together two separate games (on two separate platforms) that take place in the same fictional universe. CCP is also innovating on the backend according to a new article at Develop.

The upcoming EVE Online MMOFPS tie-in will establish universal PlayStation Network microtransaction rules according to CCP CEO Hilmar Petursson. Petursson told Develop that the ongoing CCP/Sony negotiations will ultimately result in the establishment of price tiers for virtual items as well as the revenue split between Sony and third-party devs.

CCP is also exploring retail options for DUST 514, despite early reports that the title would only be available as a digital download. Finally, Petursson tells Develop that the PlayStation Vita version of DUST will "give people access to more asynchronous parts of the game." While he doesn't commit one way or the other, it's possible that the portable version of the game will connect to both the PlayStation 3 and PC versions via EVE's universal ISK currency.

CCP's newest hire is none other than David Reid, formerly of Trion Worlds and NCsoft. Reid steps into the role of chief marketing officer for DUST 514, and Gamasutra reports that he'll also shape the publicity strategy for CCP's upcoming World of Darkness title.

Reid helped launch Trion's RIFT MMO in 2011, and was instrumental in the development of its "we're not in Azeroth anymore" campaign. "We had a great launch with RIFT and I have nothing bad to say about it," Reid explains. "But I have kept my eye on CCP for a very long time."

Following the summer drama that came to be known as monoclegate, the past six months have been challenging for EVE Online's players and developers alike. When players learned that cash-shop clothing was priced higher than its real-life equivalent, the quirky story of the $80 monocle swept across gaming blogs like wildfire. The story's tone soon turned a great deal more sinister with the leak of an internal company newsletter titled Greed is Good, and a second leaked memo from CCP's CEO added more fuel to the flames. Ultimately, players spoke with their wallets; subscriptions fell by at least 8%, and with no financial backup plan, CCP was forced to lay off 20% of its staff worldwide.

The staff members who remained were faced with the task of turning things around, and with the feature-packed Crucible expansion, they did so spectacularly. In just a few short months, hundreds of high-profile features, graphical overhauls, and quality of life improvements breathed new life into a neglected universe. I think most players recognise that this has been a genuine turn-around from within CCP, but some are still skeptical that the company has really reformed. The question on everyone's mind is whether CCP can really keep up this quality of development in the coming year as it delivers two full expansions and integrates EVE with DUST 514.

Perhaps nobody is better qualified to assess that than CSM delegate and former CCP game designer Mark "Seleene" Heard, who recently attended the December CSM summit and witnessed first-hand the aftermath of monoclegate and Crucible's development.

In this week's EVE Evolved, I delve into Mark's CSM Summit report to find out how development at CCP has changed, what we can expect in 2012, and how monocle-gate has affected CEO Hilmar Veigar Pétursson.

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Last week, EVE Online developer CCP Games officially started accepting beta signups for its upcoming MMOFPS DUST 514. This first phase of closed beta tests will be open only to active EVE Online subscribers, giving us an early opportunity to contribute feedback to the game's development ahead of console players. I think that's important because it's our universe that the game will take place in -- literally. DUST 514 players will be connecting to EVE Online's supercluster, so gameplay between the two titles will be intimately linked in realtime.

With the new game's release date set for the summer 2012, EVE players can expect the next big expansion to focus heavily on planetary control and the DUST 514 link. The past month has been flush with new information on DUST's customisable vehicles, drop suits, infantry weapons and more. We've even had a look under the hood at the server architecture that will keep the planet-bound battles fast and furious without lagging out the EVE players smashing each other to bits in orbit.

In this week's EVE Evolved, I gather together all the key information on DUST 514 released this month and discuss what it means for EVE Online players.

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How does a smackdown featuring Game of Thrones vs. Star Wars grab you? This Week in MMO examines the fallout from BioWare's recent disclosure of what Star Wars: The Old Republic might have been, and Gary Gannon and crew have some interesting insights (as well as a clear affinity for a galaxy far, far away).

Mike B. and Mike Schaffnit join Gannon for his weekly dive into the MMO news headlines, and in addition to the SWTOR monster, the trio also talks up DUST 514 and its chances of success as a PlayStation 3 exclusive. PlanetSide 2's new trailer also gets a mention, as does EverQuest II's nifty new dungeon maker toolset. Head to Gamebreaker.TV for the complete episode.

What's happening, shooter fans? Hopefully everyone's getting ready for a long holiday weekend filled with family, food, and gaming (of course). Several interesting online shooter nuggets came across my desk this week, including a deeper look at World of Warplanes, a Firefall beta clarification, and some sexy new DUST 514 details.

Also, would you believe a real-life -- and real, live -- online FPS featuring actual locations?

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CCP's Tony Gonzales is set to unveil his latest EVE Online novel, titled EVE: Templar One, this January 3rd. But for Gonzales, it is a bittersweet moment, as it marks his final contribution to the game world: "EVE: Templar One is a labor of love that began in 2009. For now, it is my last contribution to EVE's fiction as I was amongst the casualties of the recent difficult times CCP endured."

EVE: Templar One should prove of particular interest to DUST 514 followers, as the novel reveals the backstory of the immortal soldiers who will make up the game. Gonzales also says that it will follow up on the events of his previous book, EVE: The Empyrean Age. Readers who want to beef up on the lore of both games will appreciate the explanations of how the immortals work and some of the many mysteries that have popped up in the EVE universe.

Gonzales concludes the announcement of the novel's impending release with heartfelt appreciation to fans: "Your support over the years has been overwhelming, and I'll never forget it. From the bottom of my heart, thank you for everything."

Currently the novel is available for pre-order through Amazon.com.

The time has come! CCP has announced earlier today that sign-ups are now open for DUST 514's closed beta.

Dubbed Mordu's Private Trials, this closed beta test is currently only open to active EVE Online subscribers, and is only available on the Playstation 3, as the game will be exclusive to that platform.

If you're an active EVE Online subscriber and you'd like to sign up, head on over to the sign-up page for your chance.

CCP returns with its weekly DUST 514 announcement via the PlayStation blog. This time around, the company gives us a sneak peek at some of the dropsuits available in its upcoming EVE Online MMOFPS sidequel.

What's a dropsuit?

Well, aside from the latest in sexy sci-fi outerwear, it's also standard equipment for New Eden infantry types and it comes "in a variety of shapes and sizes, each with a unique slot configuration, powergrid, and CPU that inform [customization decisions]." Slot types include light, heavy, sidearm, high, low, equipment, and grenade, and CCP mentions that dropsuits will define your role on DUST's battlefields (as will your choices for the aforementioned slots). Head to the official PlayStation blog for a bit more info as well as a selection of Caldari and Amarr dropsuit images.

Hullo shooter fans, and welcome back to Massively's weekly dose of pew pew news and views. The past seven days were quiet ones for three of the The Firing Line's "big four" MMO shooters, as newsmakers on the PlanetSide 2, Global Agenda, and Firefall dev teams were all silent.

Thankfully there were a couple of cool DUST 514 tidbits to chew on, but before we get to those, I'd like to call your attention to some interesting Tribes: Ascend, APB: Reloaded, and CrimeCraft news that you may have missed.

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First-person shooters are nothing without guns -- lots of 'em -- and CCP's upcoming DUST 514 is no exception. Today the company has released a new PlayStation blog update that zeroes in on a handful of infantry weapons in the far-future sci-fi opus.

Said weapons are broken down into light, heavy, and sidearm classes, with one example of each detailed. Light weapons are the most common, and they fulfill multiple roles for short- and medium-range applications. They also come in four variants, each of which allows gamers to select a playstyle that features a number of trade-offs (lower fire rates for increased accuracy, etc.).

Heavy weapons are more specialized, and are only available to players skilled enough to use heavy dropsuits. Sidearms are generally used as backup weapons, but they're still deadly in the right hands. Finally, today's entry continues the DUST tradition of showing off factional equipment variants, so head to the PlayStation blog to get a glimpse of some Amarr, Gallente, and Caldari weaponry.

If you haven't managed to snag a spot in the DUST 514 beta, you'll want to have a look at a fan site known as DUST 514 Base. The site posted a detailed look at the game's vehicle fitting interface over the weekend, and it gives a good rundown on many of the options in store for the planet-based mercenaries of New Eden.

If you're an EVE Online veteran, the fitting screens will seem somewhat familiar. If not, at least you can get a leg up on what is likely to be one of the more complex console FPS UIs in the business.

The blog entry contains a fair bit of speculation in terms of the numbers presented on the UI, and there are also plenty of high-quality images augmenting the text. Hit the links below for more info.

While I'm on board the Star Wars: The Old Republic train (at least until SOE's Star Wars: The New Republic comes out in 2014 and forces SWTOR to shut down), I can certainly sympathize with the frustration that non-fans are feeling right about now. There are few things more annoying than not being into the latest craze -- or hating it outright -- and yet being unable to escape it.

So I'm here to say to you today that, like World of Warcraft, SWTOR isn't the be-all, end-all of the MMO field. It's a part of it, but just one part, and there are many, many others in the works as we speak. Mama always told me never to put all your eggs in one basket anyway, so I'm spreading my eggcitement across many cyber-nests.

This is the bone I'm throwing to all of you this week: a list of 10 Midichlorian-free MMOs that have me -- and should have you -- extremely buzzed about their development. In putting together this list, I realized that there are so many promising prospects that I divided them into two groups. This week I'm presenting the strongest contenders that should make it to launch with a solid product, while next time I'll list promising prospects that may be more of a long shot. I'm 47% confident that I will not forget your most-anticipated title.

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