DUST 514 Won't Be Released This Year

The public launch for DUST 514 won't happen this year. Developer CCP Games has confirmed that the closed beta for the PS3-exclusive MMO shooter will be running until 2013 so that all of the game's "rough edges" can be smoothed out.

"You should expect to see some rough edges, some things not working so well," CCP Games' David Reid told Eurogamer "Other recent console betas have tended to be working launch demos. We're doing something unprecedented here, and we want to get everything right before we join those two worlds."

In DUST 514, players take on the role of mercenaries fighting for planets throughout the galaxy. The game will link up with CCP's PC starship MMO EVE Online. DUST players can be hired to take over planets by EVE organizations. EVE players, meanwhile, can tip the scales in DUST battles by bombarding enemies from orbit.

Developing an MMO shooters is uniquely challenging. MMO's tend to be very complex, lending themselves to hardcore play. Shooters have plenty of hardcore players as well but they're also very accessible. You can learn how to play an FPS within minutes. Reid says that they're working to make DUST more user-friendly. For example, they've added video tutorials to ease players into hte experience.

"We want to make it as accessible as Call of Duty and Battlefield. It's about getting people interested, then getting them down that rabbit hole into the EVE universe. Pretty soon they'll be at Fanfest getting a tattoo."

DUST 514 began its closed beta in August. The public launch was initially expected in October.