EVE Online producer: "I don't ever want EVE to be nice and fluffy"

EVE Online's Retribution expansion increased accessibility to the spacefaring MMO with its interface adjustments for guiding new players to their untimely death—er, their first few steps.

for guiding new players to their untimely death—er, their first few steps. But speaking to Eurogamer, CCP Executive Producer John Lander stressed the importance of retaining EVE's mystique in the wake of Retribution's release, saying, "I don't ever want Eve to be nice and fluffy."

“I want to try and reduce that barrier of entry to playing Eve," he said. "I think there's a place in the MMO world for a dark and dangerous, really good sci-fi world where you can be the goodie, the baddie, a criminal, or the Good Samaritan. But it's very important we allow as many people as possible to get access to that game.”

Retribution implements a number of major additions to EVE's starry sandbox such as a hard logout, a no-crime toggle, and a bounty system overhaul. Lander hinted at further expansion content in the works to supplement EVE's small mountain of add-ons.

“We will put in some really good big expansive things we've been looking at," he said. "We've done a lot of prototyping over the last year, but also we've got a backlog of things which could probably take us through another 20 years. There are some good things coming. We almost have too much choice, which is a great first-world problem. As soon as we've prioritized what it is we want to do, we'll start communicating that out.”