Atari and Icelandic CCP Games have announced that the former will distribute a boxed retail version of the popular space MMO Eve Online. The last few years Eve Online has been self published by CCP Games and digitally distributed, but a traditional model will hopefully attract new players (currently Eve Online sports a player base of 250,000 players).
"Intrepid pioneering is the very foundation upon which EVE Online was built and our digital publishing strategy is an example of how innovation has been a key factor in our success. With Atari, we have found a like-minded partner and a premiere brand that is not only strong globally but also shares our vision in how retail and online services can reinforce each other," said Hilmar Veigar Petursson, CEO of CCP. "This partnership comes at a great time in the history of EVE where, through a series of technical breakthroughs, we are able to support a vast increase in the number of concurrent players in our single shard persistent world."
The Eve Online retail box will include the game client, all nine released expansions, and 60 days of subscription time. And the retail box will become available in shops in March 2009 in Europe and North America.