Hilmar Pétursson believes that by making CCP's technology open source, Eve Online could achieve enduring longevity

CCP Games, the Icelandic studio famous for the enduring MMO Eve Online, is preparing to give other developers access to its technology. Earlier this year, the company disclosed plans to open source its proprietary Carbon Development Platform, which includes the Carbon Engine powering Eve Online.

The rationale behind this move, according to CCP CEO Hilmar Veigar Pétursson, is to ensure the long-term survival and relevance of their technology. "Companies generally don't live very long," Pétursson said. "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."

For Pétursson, sharing technology can help it endure. "Code that is open and shared has a higher chance to be robust over time," he explains, pointing to Linux as an example of a shared codebase that has thrived. Pétursson believes open sourcing the Carbon Development Platform will increase Eve Online's longevity.

Enabling other developers to use the Carbon Engine could lead to unexpected innovations. "You shouldn't curb the emergent potential by having too specific an idea of what is going to happen," Pétursson observes.

CCP’s decision comes as some game studios are transitioning to more extensively used engines. CD Projekt Red has chosen Unreal Engine 5 for its next Witcher game, while Crystal Dynamics is utilizing the same for the next Tomb Raider.

Pétursson also mentioned that using Unreal Engine for Eve Vanguard, a first-person shooter within the Eve universe, was necessary due to the specific requirements of that genre. "When you're making a shooter, you have to have an extremely good reason not to use Unreal, and our Carbon platform is not [built] to make shooters. It's really made for making spaceships at serious scale."

Opening the Carbon platform also means it will no longer be proprietary, "Once we open source it, it belongs to the world," Pétursson says. He is confident that this will lead to its technology thriving more than it would if kept private.

The inclusion of blockchain technology in the Carbon Development Platform is optional, Pétursson notes. He stresses that the engine is modular, allowing users to incorporate only the components they need.

Reflecting on Eve Online's design philosophy, Pétursson emphasized the importance of creating resilient player communities. "Real friendships are about people investing in each other's destiny," he says, attributing part of Eve's success to its design that makes in-game death consequential.

"When you give tools to people in a community, they will make awesome things... and they will outdo your creativity"

Discussing his upcoming talk at Develop:Brighton, Pétursson shared insights into how Eve Online has fostered real-world friendships and even marriages. He believes the role of the developer is to tune the game's experience and facilitate meaningful interactions among players.

"Are you making a playground? Are you making a theme park? Every MMO is a mixture of both, but what are the ratios?" Pétursson concludes, indicating the delicate balance developers must strike.