This week sees not only the release of a major new expansion to the space trading MMO, but also news of the game's first proper retail release. In a box. And everything.

Atari will be giving CCP a hand with the distribution, rolling out boxed copies in North America, Europe and Asia in early 2009. The boxed edition of the game will include the latest client software, 60 days of game time and all 9 expansions released online since the game's inception in 2003.

UPDATE: As one or two readers have kindly pointed out, EVE did get a boxed release when it was first released in 2003. Please stop emailing now - Gmail is nearly full.

CCP and Atari announce retail box distribution of EVE Online[EVE Online]

At times it’s staggeringly beautiful. You’ll forgive the time it takes to travel between space stations as you watch the glowing nebulae glint off your ship’s hull. It’s impossibly slick.

Eve’s interface isn’t slick at all. It’s like falling down a waterfall of endless menus. Boxes of stuff will clutter up the screen as you play, and nothing is ever as simple as it should be. You’ll buy something in a space station, but buying it doesn’t actually give you the item, you have to open cargo hold, and then open your inventory and drag the item you’ve just bought into your ship. This is something we constantly forgot to do, which meant , once we had eventually figured out what was happening, that we had left a trail of forgotten ship upgrades in storage hangars in various space stations scattered across the galaxy. Much time was spent retrieving them. We upgraded our weapons to take on some tough space pirates, after much peering at tiny stat values trying to figure out what the difference was between a Laser Cannon and a Railgun, and whether or not our characters had the skill to use them or the money to buy them, we rolled into battle to find ourselves confused and really quite embarrassed when none of our weapons worked. My Laser Cannon had packed in because the energy grid on my ship couldn’t handle the new hardware, and Dante hadn’t bought any rockets for his rocket launcher. We warped the hell out of there to spend some more time menu-gazing at the nearest space station. All in all, it was a constantly frustrating experience with a near vertical difficulty curve.

The four-part series includes an entry for each game, plus a concluding section; go forth and conquer.

MMO Showdown [Man vs. Horse via Rock, Paper, Shotgun]

"EVE Online has always been testing the boundaries of online gaming with its massive online universe, so it was a natural progression that such a dynamic and active virtual world had its own TV station." said Magnus Bergsson, CMO of CCP Games.

EVE TV LAUNCHES

The world's first Virtual World Television Station Dedicated to an MMO Goes Live

London, England and Reykjavik, Iceland - June 25th, 2007 - MMM Publishing Ltd, the producers of E-ON the official magazine for EVE Online, and CCP, one of the world's largest independent game developers and creators of EVE Online, have launched EVE TV. EVE TV is a weekly on-demand Internet TV broadcast dedicated to the virtual universe of EVE Online (http://eve-online.tv).

EVE TV is dedicated to reporting on EVE Online's ever-growing virtual society, the very latest in-depth news, in-game skirmishes, market trends, human interest stories, exclusive interviews and game-related features in a professional and entertaining weekly production. SpiralJunkie, EVE TV's lead anchor, is a veteran of the EVE Online scene and is ably assisted by the infectious enthusiasm of StevieSG. The dynamic duo are backed up by a first-rate reporting team, FortunaFive, Fangtooth Kasumi and Beefy Fiddler, not to mention a widespread crew of in-game correspondents, all providing the latest in EVE Online news - both in and out of the game - in real time. More information on EVE TV's presenters can be found at http://eveonline.tv/aboutus.aspx.

EVE TV was originally formed to broadcast from the EVE Online Alliance PVP Tournament in 2006, during which more than 10,000 EVE fans tuned in to the live, double-weekend broadcasts. EVE TV has been transformed into a weekly news-style broadcast of life in EVE Online's ever-changing virtual world. The service is hosted through Jalipo, the first online marketplace for TV and video.

"EVE TV is the next level in ground-breaking virtual media," commented Oliver Skelding, MMM Publishing's Managing Director. "It's a world first, providing communication to a community on a scale never before seen, giving players a platform to communicate with each other beyond mere web forums and podcasting. EVE TV is focused on player-led news and events and provides unparalleled access to behind the scenes information about the game. EVE TV is designed by the players, about the players, for the players."

"EVE Online has always been testing the boundaries of online gaming with its massive online universe, so it was a natural progression that such a dynamic and active virtual world had its own TV station." said Magnus Bergsson, CMO of CCP Games. "EVE Online is a universe run by its inhabitants and as such produces epic and diverse events that need to be reported in the same way they are in real life. EVE TV is the ideal medium for such reporting as it offers independent and timely information to the players and CCP itself."

Eve Online is a game I desperately want to love: an MMOG that doesn't involve playing a bearded midget dressed only in his Underoos. I gave the two week trial a shot: I loved the imagination behind the universe and my Shodan-like ship A.I. But after the initial novelty wore off, I realized that most of my time was playing Eve Online was actually spent in another room entirely, reading a book. I guess that's swell for multitaskers, but I like games that actually require me to be around to play them.

Still, a lot of Eve Online fans should be interested by this Firing Squad interview with senior producer Nathan Richardson. One of the subjects touched upon are details about the upcoming expansion for Eve, including a slew of graphics improvements, better management of corporations, more organization tools for combat and better situational awareness. A lot of spreadsheet stuff, in other words. There's also going to be a Direct X 10 Version of Eve, called Eve Vista... you know. Eventually. Florian Eckhardt

EVE Online Interview [Firing Squad]