Dust 514

CCP Games has announced that the first batch of beta keys for Dust 514 will be sent out tomorrow, May 18.

The keys are only being sent out to Eve Online players who signed up for the closed beta. CCP has promised a special event this weekend for players of the Free-to-play PSN shooter. An open beta is planned for later this year with more details coming at E3 next month.

There’s been some anger in the Eve community with players claiming that preferential treatment has been given to some players who are already testing the game. CCP has confirmed several times that only Sony’s Elite testing team is currently playing the game.

CCP is taking a big risk with Dust 514, not only have they chosen to go free-to-play right out of the box, but the game will also interact with Eve Online. The last thing you want to do is annoy the players of that particular MMO, they hate anything that changes their game. If it folds in without too many issues then all should be rosy, however if something goes wrong it could bring both games crashing down. We personally feel that it’s a fantastic idea on paper and if it works hopefully more developers will merge their games in similar ways.

Did you sign-up? Do you think the two games will work well together?