Earlier this week, EVE Online developer CCP Games in partnership with NetEase announced that the upcoming mobile adaptation of the popular MMORPG EVE Online has entered its closed alpha testing phase. The alpha test will commence on August 26 for players living in Australia, New Zealand, and the Nordic regions of Europe. If you're one of the lucky EVE Online fans that lives in these regions, you can sign up for the closed alpha through the official EVE Echoes website linked here.
The closed alpha test will run from August 26 to September 20, giving participants just little under a month to experience what EVE Echoes has in-store for them so far. However, apart from the geographic requirements of the closed alpha (only those living in Australia, New Zealand, and the Nordic Regions of Europe will be given access), participants must also ensure that their devices meet the minimum requirements specified. While definitely more lightweight than EVE Online on PC, EVE Echoes is still a hardware-intensive mobile game and requires a decently-specced mobile device to run. As long as your device has the equivalent technical specifications of at least a Samsung Galaxy Note8, Note9, Samsung Galaxy S8, S9, Huawei P30, or Google Pixel 2, you should be good.
EVE Echoes is an upcoming deep-space MMORPG that will more or less feel and play like its PC counterpart, EVE Online. The mobile adaptation, of course, will feature more streamlined gameplay, mechanics, and controls that are better suited for mobile devices, but the developers ensure that the game will stay true to the EVE Online experience. That means the game will focus heavily on deep space exploration and exploitation, interstellar combat, economic manipulation, trade, manufacturing, and forming alliances in a massive open-world sandbox set in outer space. EVE Echoes will be available on iOS and Android devices, most likely before the end of 2019, although no official release date has been confirmed.
While it's being done with the blessing and support of EVE Online's CCP Games, it has been a cause for concern for some that most of the development is being handled by NetEase. A giant of the mobile gaming industry, NetEase owns and operates dozens of hugely-successful and widely-popular online games, but has also been accused of implementing pay-to-win mechanics in many of its titles.
