Set tens of thousands of years in the future, EVE Online is a breathtaking journey to the stars, to an immersive experience filled with adventure, riches, danger and glory. With nearly a quarter of a million subscribers worldwide inhabiting the same virtual universe, EVE features a vast player-run economy where your greatest asset is the starship, designed to accommodate your specific needs, skills and ambitions. EVE offers professions ranging from commodities trader to mercenary, industrial entrepreneur to pirate, mining engineer to battle fleet commander or any combination of these and much more. From brokering business deals to waging war, you will have access to a diverse array of sophisticated tools and interfaces to forge your own destiny in EVE.

EVE: The Burning Life will be published in November 2009 via partnerships with Tor Books and Orion Books ($14.99).

'The Burning Life' is the first effort of novelist Hjalti Dan�elsson who has worked in different capacities on EVE Online since its 2003 release and currently serves as CCP's main creative writer for the harsh universe of New Eden, the setting for EVE Online. He is the author of more than seventy short stories and some plays set in the EVE Online universe. A visceral writer whose aggressive prose and grand operatic scope is reminiscent of Iain M. Banks and Joe Haldeman, Dan�elsson's storytelling talent and familiarity with the EVE universe make him the ideal candidate for a full-length novelization for fans and newcomers alike.

"EVE is a phenomenal SF offering," said Eric Raab, Tor Editor. "The game is beyond awe-inspiring, and its intricacies deserve stories. Hjalti's storytelling skills shine in-game and in his short fiction. We at Tor are truly excited for his first foray into the novel form."

"Though the player-driven drama unfolding daily in EVE Online is the essence of our virtual world, CCP firmly believes that EVE can transcend the boundaries of a single medium to offer new ways of experiencing its richness" said Thor Gunnarsson, VP of Business Development at CCP. "We are thrilled to collaborate with the incredibly talented teams at Tor Books and Orion, two recognized giants in the science fiction world, to bring a taste of the EVE universe to sci-fi readers around the world."

A hybrid of space opera and military science fiction, EVE: The Burning Life stands on its own for science fiction readers looking for a new universe to explore. It also appeases fans by complementing the vast EVE backstory and providing a personal narrative to their enjoyment of the game similar to that given by last year's EVE: The Empyrean Age novel by Tony Gonzales.

The establishment of a retail distribution channel for EVE Online comes at a time of rapid subscriber growth and technical advancements. The game has attracted over 300,000 loyal, active subscribers. Its single shard universe has evolved technically to support massive battles of 1,000+ players with minimal lag, due to CCP’s StacklessIO and EVE64 initiatives. In addition, CCP will enhance gameplay within EVE Online by rolling out a series of content rich free expansions in 2009.

While working on a larger witner expansion, CCP will release a content update mid-August if all goes well, refered to as Apocrypha 1.5.

Small, Medium and Large rigs

Ever wanted to build the ultimate speed kite frigate but couldn‘t afford the rigs? Tank your cruiser to the max? Mod your little hauler? Now you can!

We are adding small and medium sized rigs ( existing rigs will be considered large rigs ), which will be cheaper to buy and make. With this we are hoping that more people may get introduced to the joys of rigging and the sorrow of losing your specially fitted beautifully rigged ship. CCP Chronitis will explain further in an upcoming blog.

Level 4 epic arcs in Apocrypha 1.5

Apocrypha 1.5 will be rich with content. We have several new epic mission arcs, which unlike the level 1 epic arc we introduced in Apocrypha are all level 4, meaning they will be more challenging, but also more rewarding. With each themed around a specific race, these captivating stories deal with moral ambiguity, intrigue, honor and some people's lack of it. This should come as no surprise to those who know EVE and what we are about. As before with the epic arc that was released in Apocrypha, they provide a deep, interesting story, where your choices influence the outcome.

Specialized Cargo holds - Fuel bays on black ops

CCP is introducing a system that allows them to author specialized cargo holds on ships. We will start by adding fuel bays on black ops and possibly other ships. This means we‘re adding more space for your fuel, without the ships becoming horribly unbalanced haulers of death. The technology behind this opens up doors to making other types of bays, just for ammo, just for livestock or whatever. Those options will be explored in future expansions.

Factional Warfare improvements - LP for kills

We have been closely monitoring reports on lag in Factional Warfare, analyzing the network behaviour, player behaviour and scrutinizing code. The reported lag does not always occur and is elusive to track down and resolve. We currently have engineers allocated to the resolution of the problem, working tightly with the quality assurance department and our bughunters.

Meanwhile, in an effort to make Factional Warfare more fun, we are looking at introducing Loyalty Point rewards for kills and captures, with special LP stores for each militia, offering unique goodies for hard working militamen and women. More details to follow in an upcoming blog by CCP Ytterbium.

50% features versus 50% maintenance

A recurring question I get from players is "How much time is spent on new features versus fixing and improving existing stuff?". The answer is simple. We allocate 50% of our developer time to new feature development and the rest to polishing and iterating existing systems and resolving defects. We feel this is a healthy balance between moving forward and maintaining what we have already built. EVE is over 650.000 lines of source code today, compared to 280.000 lines when it was first released, so there's a lot to maintain and refactor. Apocrypha 1.5 will have a considerable amount of fixes and polish coming out from this work.

The Winter Expansion

CCP We will be reporting on the winter expansion as it draws closer, it is focused on sovereignty and you will not be able to walk in it.

As always, CCP encourages you to bring your friends, family and even enemies to New Eden by visiting the official website and downloading a free trial or by heading to your local retailer and purchasing a copy of EVE Online, which includes 60 days of game time.

The boxed version of EVE Online includes the game client, 60 days of subscription time and exclusive extras. It will also include all nine previously released EVE Online expansions. All new expansions will be free of charge to all subscribers, continuing CCP’s release policies.

EVE Online is currently available woldwide as digital download or at retail.