Andie Nordgren

EVE ONLINE’s executive producer on going free-to-play and keeping players interested.

After 13 years of requiring a mandatory paid subscription to play, EVE Online has switched to a free-to-play model. Free accounts have some limitations, while players who pay a monthly $10 fee get access to all of the game’s skills and spaceships. We spoke to executive producer Andie Nordgren about how this has impacted the game.

Are you happy with how EVE Online’s transition into a free-to-play model has gone?

Absolutely, in many, many ways. I am very proud of how we have done it. I put a lot of my own personal care into it, and we put our trust with the community on the line. We thought a lot about how to design it, but also how to communicate to people about how it all works. I’m proud of the fact that people who read our information first about the Clone State system understood what it was and didn’t react very badly. They were like, ‘Okay, this is kind of exciting.’

But people who read the press headlines first, where it just says EVE is going free-to-play, they were like, ‘Nooo! Do not want!’ But the more they researched it, the more they realized they don’t have a problem with it. In general, the community reception has been really good. It helped that we told people so early and were able to bring players into the feedback process.

I have to pinch myself sometimes. Did we really pull this off? Did we really do this to EVE Online and have the community go along with it? I think that’s because we did it with so much respect for the players.