UPDATE: A new announcement from CCP Games and Hadean has indicated both companies are now working together for the record attempt. The new event will be called EVE: Aether Wars. Original article follows.
Aether Wars, an in-house technology showcase being run by London technology firm Hadean, is going to attempt to make gaming history. The firm will be attempting to host a 10,000 player battle on PC, with sign-ups for the battle live and available on the technology’s website.
Aether Wars is meant to be a stress-test for the company’s Aether Engine technology. The Aether Engine is a distributed gaming engine meant to allow developers to create games of “enormous scale and fidelity” with a level of accessibility and ease that has never existed in the industry up until this point. The engineering team behind the engine is slated to discuss the technology at length at the Game Developer’s Conference 2019 proceedings, where senior staff will deliver a talk on new technology driving the future of multiplayer gaming.
Aether Wars is set to be run sometime in the near future, although it’s unclear if the showcase will manage to hit its intended 10,000 player mark. The previous record for the largest multiplayer battle ever hosted in video gaming is 6,142 players, which was set by CCP Games’ EVE Online during what was erroneously referred to as a million dollar battle but nevertheless featured stakes that very few games have ever achieved. Aether Wars won’t have years’ worth of money or pride on the line, but it will have the reputation of a company at stake - a failure of the engine to deliver on its promise would be devastating for Hadean, whereas thriving in the spotlight could launch the technology as one of the engines of the future of gaming.
Aether Wars does take a fair bit of inspiration from EVE Online, however, in more than just player count. The technological showcase is also based in outer space, with prospective pilots using spacecraft to fire upon each other in a massive battle in the stars. Hadean released a trailer video that reveals what Aether Wars will look like when it attempted to garner participation interest in the event early in February. As of now, the video sits at just shy of 4,000 views - well under the amount needed to set the world record, although not a strong indicator that the attempt will succeed or fail, given how much is still in flux regarding the technological display.
Aether Wars will be free to download and play, and is notably devoid of any microtransactions or loot boxes, something that Hadean was proud enough to put on the technology’s website. The company is also refreshingly transparent about the nature of Aether Wars, a “game” that will really serve a bigger purpose in showcasing the firm’s Aether Engine technology. Anyone who is interested in being directly involved in setting a world record should head over to the Aether Wars page for more information.
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Source: Aether Wars Official Website
