CCP Games, creators of spaceship MMO game EVE Online, in partnership with London-based tech start-up Hadean, as well as PlayFab and Steam, are inviting players to become part of videogame history by shattering the world record for the "most concurrent players simultaneously involved in a single multiplayer PvP videogame battle" at 20:00 UTC on Saturday 23 November at London's O2 Arena, using the EVE Aether Wars Phase III tech demo.

EVE Aether Wars Phase III is available for players to download for free on Steam, with CCP Games and Hadean hoping to get 10,000 players into the tech demo simultaneously in order to break the world record.

The partners have announced that two prizes will be awarded. One prize will be given to the pilot who attains the most in-game currency (ZPC) during the event, and the other will be given to another lucky pilot who will be chosen at random.

The two winners will each receive two tickets to EVE Fanfest 2020 in Reykjavík, Iceland, including paid-for flights and hotels. In addition, the winners will get the opportunity to meet the EVE Online development team face-to-face at the event.

EVE Aether Wars is an ongoing research and development initiative to push the boundaries of large-scale, multiplayer experiences and explore the possibilities of Cloud Gaming. Earlier this year, CCP Games and Hadean unveiled the first EVE Aether Wars technology demo that ran live at GDC19 with 14,274 connected clients in a single-instanced, multi-region game world. At Gamescom 2019, they showcased a gameplay demo that a seven-person team at CCP Games built in just eight weeks, in which 4,369 players from 88 different countries participated.

“We are thrilled to have the continued support of CCP Games with EVE Aether Wars,” said Craig Beddis, Hadean’s CEO. “We wanted to show the world that our Aether Engine technology can perform flawlessly under unprecedented strain while enabling unique and exciting gameplay experiences that can only be delivered by our technology. We’ve done that, but we’re not finished. We have a world-class team of engineers at Hadean working with CCP on the creation of EVE Aether Wars and we can’t wait to demonstrate the next phase!”

“We are continuing to build on the success of our joint efforts with Hadean on EVE Aether Wars and push this technology even further,” said Hilmar V. Pétursson, CEO of CCP Games. “By using it to test the limits of the virtual worlds we want to create, we are opening up new possibilities for developers, the industry and ultimately the players themselves. We’re eager to showcase the next step in this exciting partnership and continue to push the boundaries of what can be achieved in large-scale multiplayer gaming.”

The record for "most concurrent players simultaneously involved in a single multiplayer PvP videogame battle" is currently held by EVE Online players, when a total of 6,142 players took part in an enormous online battle - the Siege of 9-4 - on 23 January 2018. The world record attempt will be streamed live on CCP's Twitch channel from the popular EVE London event, itself the last stop on the epic and successful EVE Invasion World Tour.