CCP Games and NetEase Games have announced that a closed alpha will take place this month for their new mobile MMO EVE Echoes.

The EVE Echoes alpha will go live on Monday, August 26th, and run for four weeks ending Friday, September 20th. To participate, players can register on the official EVE Echoes website. Applicants who meet the technical requirements will be notified by email prior to the alpha’s commencement. To mark the announcement, CCP and NetEase have released this cinematic teaser trailer:

EVE Echoes is a tech-pushing mobile MMO based on hallmark EVE Online design principles. In Echoes, players will be able to forge their own path to glory within a massive sandbox environment and form alliances with other players from across the galaxy to shape the game’s persistent universe. It will utilize NetEase Games’ proprietary graphics engine, NeoX, in combination with CCP’s game design to realize EVE’s trademark starry void and futuristic aesthetic.

“EVE Echoes represents the next revolutionary step in mobile MMO gaming, bringing the mind-boggling scale and sophistication of our legendary PC-based virtual world to the palm of your hand,” said Hilmar V. Pétursson, CEO of CCP Games. “We’re thrilled to be partnering with NetEase, one of the world’s leaders in mobile gaming, on bringing an authentic EVE experience designed from the ground up for mobile to new audiences across the globe.”

The EVE Echoes closed alpha will be available August 26th to September 20th for selected Australian, New Zealand, and Nordic iOS users with iPhone 6S or above, or Android users with a Samsung Note8, Note9, S8, S9, Huawei P30, or Google Pixel 2. EVE Online has been evolving into an incredibly massive and ambitious persistent-world MMO since 2003, and this seems like the next logical step for it. Even if I’m not personally interested in playing it, it will be interesting to watch how this experiment unfolds.