Hilmar Pétursson: Making CCP tech open source will enable Eve Online to live forever

gamesindustry.biz:

CCP Games, the Icelandic developer behind long-running MMO Eve Online, is gearing up to share the keys to its universe.

As announced earlier this year, the company is planning to make its proprietary Carbon Development Platform – which encompasses the studio's Carbon Engine and other technology – an open source property, giving other developers their chance to get to grips with the same tools behind CCP's flagship title.

As with any instance of a company sharing its technology, our first question when we catch up with CCP CEO Hilmar Veigar Pétursson is why. For Pétursson, it comes down to legacy.

"Companies generally don't live very long," he explains. "CCP is already quite an old company by gaming standards. We're not Nintendo, we haven't been here for 200 years, but we're 27 – that’s already quite long because game companies are just not very likely to live for a long time."

Part of the way a games company can live on is through the titles and technology it creates, but for those to last, they need to be shared.

"If you look at the macro trends in software, generally code that is open and shared has a higher chance to be robust over a period of time," he says. "Linux is a great example; [that] has basically taken over the operating system business because when it's open, anyone can contribute, extend, fix, and enhance, and the longevity probabilities are much higher.

"You can also see [this with] Unreal Engine, which is a pretty big deal in the industry. The source for Unreal is readily available to everyone – it’s not an open source project, but the source code is there. It’s immensely helpful."

He adds that the availability of the code makes it easier for developers to seek support because they can be more specific when reporting their problems.

"We want Eve Online to go on forever. Open sourcing the platform that powers it in my view is greatly increasing the odds of that happening."

At the heart of the Carbon Development Platform is the Carbon Engine, which powers Eve