At EVE Fanfest 2025, CCP Games pulled back the curtain on one of their newest games, EVE Vanguard. Set in the EVE Online Universe, Vanguard is an MMOFPS—yes, that’s a mouthful—that will bring players to the surface of the planets in New Eden, armed with futuristic weapons, and missions that can affect the universe as a whole.
We first heard about EVE Vanguard at 2023’s Fanfest, only six months into official development. Since then, the game has done what all CCP games do: include the community in its development from the very beginning. At Fanfest, CGM was able to sit down with the Game Director on EVE Vanguard, Scott Davis, AKA CCP Collins, to chat about the newly introduced Bastions, what makes Vanguard special, and how its community has helped shape the MMOFPS we see today.
What do we know about EVE Vanguard that we didn’t know six months ago?
Scott Davis: We’re talking more confidently and backing up the confidence that we’re an MMOFPS. Up until now, we’ve been straddling the line on we’re a sandbox shooter, and the playable experience has been quite limited to a bit more of an extraction shooter. So everyone’s been saying, “Hey, you’ve made an extraction shooter!” We’re like, “No, no, no, no, wait, wait, wait!” But now the feature set that we’re talking about and the experience that we’re going to have as the foundation for early access, we’re far more confidently describing as an MMOFPS.
So what about it is contributing to the MMO portion of the FPS rather than the extraction portion?
Scott Davis: Exactly. It’s the glue and the motivations between the bits on the surface. It’s not just about running around on the surface with a gun in your hand. It’s the reasons why you’re doing that and what you’re contributing towards. What you’re contributing towards is through that Bastions feature that we talked about; there is a cause in the universe, a purpose that you’re working towards.
You’re at a Bastion, working together with other Vanguard to increase its circle of influence. Right? That’s going to get you more exciting rewards, more planets to deploy down to, different enemies, different challenges. And where you are in space, a lot like an MMORPG, if I’m in one town, there are quest givers there that give me certain rewards. There are creatures there that I kill to get certain things, versus being in another town. I think the Bastions feature, for us, is building that strong sense of place in what is a single universe. Everyone’s in it together.
And just for those that don’t know, can you explain what a Bastion is?
Scott Davis: A Bastion is a hub of sorts. There are many Bastions all throughout all of the universe of New Eden, and they’re used as congregation grounds for Vanguard, and they have their own circle of influence within that circle of influence, our planets that you can deploy down to you as a group of Vanguard at your Bastion, will want to increase your circle of influence, because that gets you access to more exciting rewards, objectives, commissions, NPCs, the planet types, resources, you name it. And so activity at that Bastion will then start to grow that circle of influence, and we’ll start to own more of space.
That’s really cool! Do we know how many places there will be to deploy to, or how many Bastions there’ll be or anything like that yet?
Scott Davis: So we’re going to create a handful of Bastions just to start over. When we go into early access, what we call our NPC Bastions, these are ones that we’ve created that represent the different organizations in New Eden. But when we put it to the players through early access, when we give that to the players, they’re creating their own Bastions in pockets of space. It’s up to them how many they build, and if they can maintain them all.
And what research has gone into planning that out, if they can maintain them all? You’re giving them the power to see what they can do.
Scott Davis: We’re going to do what we keep doing, which is we make a very early version of the prototype. We give that to them and we go “Break it!” This is how we’ve been developing the game. There are a lot of features in the game, from mining— instead of us spending eight months building a feature and delivering to them, and they go, “Meh,” and then we spent three weeks, held together by Sellotape, and we just go “What do you think? Is there anything in this?” And they go, “Yeah, I think there’s something in this.” And they give us feedback, and then we build it.
Bastions will be the same. We’ll make a very early prototype held together with Blue TAC, and we’ll go. “What do you think? What needs to change? What do you think is missing?” and they’ll feedback on that. And I think it’s been really refreshing to have that tap to keep turning on for us to just get feedback on the people who are going to play this game. The community that we’re building are telling us along the way what is working, what isn’t.
I’ve been really interested in that aspect of the whole CCP process. We’ve got Frontier, which is going to let people do all kinds of things. EVE Online is all community-driven, and we’re going the same route with EVE Vanguard. What do you think about how CCP does that? How does it benefit you? Does it hinder you in any way?
Scott Davis: Obviously, the culture of CCP enabling this is fantastic. But we all had a real internal chat about this when we started working on this project. A lot of us had had trauma working on projects. Like, I came off a project that was four years behind closed doors and got cancelled. It never saw the light of day. Right? We’d all been through that, and we really agreed that we didn’t want to build games like that anymore. We wanted to build this open. We wanted to get the course correction we needed.
It helps to enjoy the game that you’re making, but we’re not making the game for the studio; we’re making the game for a community that we’re going to build. So we, luckily, under the CCP, brand and banner, were able to announce this game in 2023 very early and get a community on board. And they tell us what they think sucks. And they tell us what they think they really like. And it means that we’re not wasting time on the stuff we shouldn’t be wasting time on.
When we first saw EVE Vanguard in 2023, it was the 20th anniversary at Fanfest. How long had EVE Vanguard been in the works before that announcement, and was the community involved in any way before that?
Scott Davis: It’s had quite a story development anyway. Really, you could look back all the way to Dust. There’s always been an FPS project at some point. I joined only six months before that Fanfest, and a lot of what was presented was a lot of the work that we did in those six months. We stripped some things back. There was a project that was being developed before then, which was happening behind closed doors.
And we took a bit of that, and we took a bit of here, and we shaped it into what ended up becoming EVE Vanguard. But there’s really, if you look at it, there’s always been an FPS project through Project Nova, and Legion is a name that comes up as well. There was an undying want for there to be an FPS in the world of New Eden, and it really brings me a lot of joy that this is the most confident they have felt in a project.
And was there any community involved in EVE Vanguard specifically before that moment, or was that the beginning of bringing them in?
Scott Davis: I’m not really sure, but it was a clear, conscious decision we made that year when I joined that. We’re going to send something out at Fanfest and really kick it off from there.
I was there when you announced EVE Vanguard. It was really exciting. I am not quite an EVE player. That’s a little intimidating for me.
Scott Davis: Nor am I.
I feel like EVE Vanguard I can get behind.
Scott Davis: That’s my approach to it. I think you were there when we talked about the EVE-curious?
Yes, absolutely.
Scott Davis: The universe is awesome. The universe is incredible. I can say this confidently because there’s a Guinness World Record on the wall somewhere—it’s the largest conflict happening in video game history, right? It is crazy. There are wars that have been going on in that game because somebody didn’t pay their taxes, and it’s amazing. So being able to build into that is so exciting.
I feel like EVE is somehow its own little universe in the gaming community. And you mentioned you worked on a game for four years and never saw it. I’m a big Elder Scrolls player. I’ve been waiting for Elder Scrolls VI for 74 years.
Scott Davis: You get remakes of all the other ones before you get it.
I’m working on it. I’m tiding myself over. But in doing that, we first heard about EVE Vanguard almost two years ago, and it’s not going into early access for another year or so. So, normally, we wouldn’t even have known about this game by now.
Scott Davis: Oh yeah. No, we would we would be three years in behind closed doors and then going “Hey, we’re in early access.”
From a development perspective, how does that feel for you, switching from one to the other?
Scott Davis: I think there’s obviously some strangeness to it, but you can get a bit tunnel-visioned on your own decisions and what you think is right. I’m a very collaborative person. I don’t like being over-dictatorial. So it’s nice. The conversations aren’t “Here’s what we’re making. Be happy with it.” It’s “Here’s what we’re thinking,” and you even workshop with them. I have a biweekly workshop, and we’ve got a group of VIPs in our community who are all NDA’d.
We’re throwing them videos and concepts, and we’re just going like, “What do you think of this? What do you think of that?” And sometimes, even just their excitement from things is just enough. I’m recording videos of them going “Ooooh! Ahhhhhh” to some of the concepts. And then we’re sending that back to the team because they’re at the desk typing away, building something and working hard on stuff, so to know that there is someone getting really excited by the work that they’re doing just makes better work. It makes happier devs.
Constant reassurance.
Scott Davis: Oh my God. It’s like a warm hug and a pat on the back every couple of weeks.
That’s perfect. Do you find that the EVE community ever gets impatient with these new releases?
Scott Davis: Oh, of course. I think any community would be impatient, but especially one that’s been playing a game for 20 years. I think there are some people who get it. We’ve got a lot of people from the community who played Dust 514 back in the day as well. So they’re itching for another shooter in the EVE universe, and they’ve got their own ideas of what they liked in Dust and what they’d like to see as well. So there’s some impatience there as well.
But what I’ve really liked , even from the moment we announced at Fanfest when we said, “Look, we’re going to develop this openly, what you’re seeing here is really early, but we want to build this steadily and carefully over time with you.” I had a fan in 2023 come up to me, and he was dressed in military garb—scary fella.
“New Eden is a universe, and it is somewhat agnostic. EVE Online is in that universe. Vanguard is in that universe. But it is one universe.”
And he came up to me and he goes, “Dude, that is exactly how you should be doing it.” And I go, “Really?” He goes, “It feels like year zero of EVE again. When we were all on the ground floor, building this up together, I hope that we can, in 20 years’ time, look back and go, ‘Oh, remember when we announced the Vanguard?’”
And I think the patience has to start from within. We need to build this in the right order, and I’m actually really surprised by how patient the community has been so far because I’m not so patient as a gamer myself.
I hear that!
Scott Davis: I think your patience on The Elder Scrolls has shown itself.
I already showed my cards. Absolutely. , sorry. So, how does EVE Vanguard play into the overall EVE universe? Because it does affect EVE Online.
Scott Davis: Yeah. Well, the way that we want to think about this is that New Eden is a universe, and it is somewhat agnostic. EVE Online is in that universe. Vanguard is in that universe. But it is one universe. We can’t be in a hidden layer underneath it. We are in the universe, whether we like it or not. Right? And I think that is the thing.
So when we talk about Bastions, they don’t just exist in Vanguard, they exist in New Eden. So there is a way that they have to exist in EVE Online as well, and figuring out the ways—this is about territory. And it can’t just be territory in one game and not another. It has to be territory across the whole universe. How can bastions impact both games?
I’m curious. We talked a little bit about the different weapon designs that are coming. The different Warclones will have different skill sets, if I’m not mistaken.
Scott Davis: So they’ll have different characteristics. Like, we’re trying not to make this class-based, but if you like playing stealthy, there will be choices you make. For me, I might just want to be a pack mule. All of my friends can go away and shoot people. I’m the one hoovering up all the resources, right? So yeah, I might have a suit that allows me to not become overencumbered.
And do you think that there will be a best-in-class or maybe best team based on how you’re describing it? Every squad should have one of these and one of those.
Scott Davis: I think that’s naturally what will generally happen is, everyone will probably want someone who’s there to hold the resources and heal people and get someone back up, or I’m the guy that holds all the ammo or something like that. I always love playing the Battlefield games that are very class-driven, but I always want a medic on my team, right? Because I’ll just go down, I’ll shoot. You’re there with a defibrillator, making sure I get back up. I think there’ll be a natural order.
What’s really exciting, though, is we want to open it up a bit, like how we did the adaptive weaponry. It was so broad that a meta didn’t really suddenly start to evolve. People went down the directions that they liked. People might just want to go as a three-squad attack team, and that works for them. And someone might want to be a bit stealthy. We say “Tools, not rules” quite a lot, which means let’s just develop the features that allow them to customize it in a way that suits them. Let’s not define overly restrictive rules about how they should play the game.
Cool. And have you had to think about if there’s going to be a certain weapon or a certain Warclone that is more OP than the others, or a certain set of them together, that might be way overpowered?
Scott Davis: I think the balance is a bit like how we talked earlier. We kind of put it out there, we say break it, and we kind of balanced that way. I think you can get a bit too bogged down in the weeds if you’re trying to overbalance something and make everything perfect. Sometimes you need a little bit of chaos.
You need a little bit of that to spice things up. So we’re not trying to overbalance so much. It’s kind of, “Here’s a vast toolset. Go and break it.” And if we have to, it’s a really good line from Hilmar about the role of CCP and EVE Online is that they are janitors. They come in and they sweep up every now and then, but it’s their [the players’] playground. I really like that philosophy.
That’s awesome. And what do you think EVE Vanguard is going to add to the “EVE forever” motto?
Scott Davis: I think it’s going to bring in a whole swathe of people who see the universe and are excited by the universe. The me and you’s, the EVE-curious that love the idea of the universe, love the stories of espionage and jailbreaks and these colossal wars. But I don’t really like the spaceship game, but stick me in that universe with a gun in my hand. Something I’m more familiar with. I think it’s going to bring a whole lot of new people to it.
And I think it’s going to bring a whole dimension to how people organize in EVE Online as well, like the social structures in EVE Online are obviously very storied. And the inter-corporation warfare is in lore in of itself. The corporations in EVE Online that start organizing in Vanguard as well as EVE Online, that’s when they’re going to start having the edge, and that’s going to start changing the makeup, I think.
“…we’re making weapons that are worthy of a game 21,000 years in the future.”
What are you personally most excited about with EVE Vanguard, and then what do you think the community is going to be the most excited about? Because it’s never the same thing!
Scott Davis: No. So, for me, I’m a big meta guy, okay? Like, I used to play a lot of FIFA Ultimate Team, but not to kick balls around on a football pitch. I just loved the management aspect; I loved collecting players.
You could get Football Manager then!
Scott Davis: I don’t know, there was something just missing. It still had the competitive edge, but I liked just building my team and organizing and finding new players and training them up and trying to find the right chemistries. So, the Bastions thing for me is very meta. I want to own my own bastion somewhere, and I want to have my own people that I’m like, “Right, I need you to go over here and defend these assets. I need you to go here. A new planet has just opened up because our influence has grown. I don’t know what’s there. I need someone to go down and find out.” I want to be that mastermind.
I think for everyone else, it’s going to be weapons. We’ve had one weapon in the game for a year and a half, which an FPS does not make. But it’s allowed us to flesh out the systems around our weapons and the depth that we want to take there. But, yeah, people have been crying out for new weapons for quite a while now, so I’m really excited. Even in the early forms, I’ve been getting some good feedback.
Do you think there’s anything specifically like in the keynote that we’re going to hear, or in the EVE Vanguard deep dive, that will get them like this weekend? That’s going to make them go nuts.
Scott Davis: I think when we tell them that the inspiration for the weapons are late 90s, early 2000 shooters—Quake, Halo, Unreal Tournament—we’re going to get a big a big cheer because I think, it’s not a bad thing, but every shooter these days feels very militaristic. And I want something that feels more sci-fi. I think everyone’s crying out for something like that.
So when they’re going to see a shotgun that looks like the flak cannon, they’re going to see a pistol that looks like the plasma pistol from Halo, and they’re going to see a rifle that is a plasma beam rifle that can click heads from quite far away. I think it’s in that moment they realized we’re not just, “Hey, we’ve added a pistol, a nine millimetre,” or “Hey, we’ve added a submachine gun.” They’re realizing that we’re making weapons that are worthy of a game 21,000 years in the future.
EVE Vanguard is hosting a Nemesis event on September 16, 2025, which you can join by signing up here. EVE Vanguard is heading into early access in the summer of 2025, on Steam and the EVE Launcher.
