Prediction: Project Nova Will Not See the Light of Day

When DUST 514 was cancelled CCP quickly announced it would replace the First Person Shooter with a new shooter called Project Nova:

Project Nova is the code name for CCP's free-to-play PC first-person shooter that's being shown to the press and fans for the first time at Fanfest in Iceland.
Unlike the recently canceled PlayStation 3 title Dust 514, which tied directly into Eve Online via interactions called orbital bombardment where players in one game could influence the battles in another, there are no direct ties between Eve Online and Project Nova outside of being set in the same universe.

The news since that April 2016 article has been thin on the ground out of CCP. This past April we got some more info:

And the fans in attendance or watching the Twitch livestream got just that during the EVE Fanfest 2017 Keynote from boss man Hilmar Veigar, who says they aren’t ready to show more of the game until they really have something to show, but I managed to get a few more hints from having a long chat with Jean-Charles Gaudechon, Managing Director CCP Shanghai.
“WE’RE STILL VERY MUCH COMMITTED”
Gaudechon joined CCP in 2013 and helped with DUST 514 and then Legion (which became Project Nova). There is no official title decided upon yet for what Project Nova will be called when it releases and it likely won’t be decided upon into the game is near done.

Methinks you protest too much.

Look, you've had a year and you can't show anything new? Or at all? That's a problem. That's a sign that you are not that committed because perhaps you realize that breaking into a market as competitive and filled with quality released is a lot harder than releasing a boundary pushing Virtual Reality space dogfight  game in a fledgling industry.

In fact, I suspect the unexpected and welcomed success of EVE Valkyrie has doomed the FPS division to also ran in CCP's leadership's eyes, and more resources and attention will be diverted to that market and that development division at the expense of Project Nova.

And in the end, that is why I'm predicting we will not see Project Nova on a PC near us ever.

BB 75 - Uniqueness

Blog Banter 75 - What Does Project Nova Need to Be Successful? 

Welcome to the continuing monthly EVE Blog Banters and our 75th edition! For more details about what the blog banters are please visit the Blog Banter page.
What Does Project Nova Need to Be Successful? 

At Fanfest CCP showcased their current iteration of the FPS set in the Eve Universe. Following on from DUST514 and Project Legion, Project Nova is shaping up to be a solid FPS with CCP taking the decision to get the game mechanics right first. However with so many FPS out there what will Nova need in order to stand out from a very large crowd and be successful? What are the opportunities and perhaps more importantly, the dangers for CCP? How can Nova compete against CoD, Battlefront and Titanfall to name a few?

 There are a ton of quick and dirty PvP games out in the First Person Shooter genre, and I've played a few of them, a lot of the Call of Duty franchise and dabbled in Sony's Planetside 2 MMOFPS. I was really looking forward to getting into DUST prior to hearing it was a Playstation only title which meant I was not going to ever play it. I still feel that was a huge misstep for CCP.

Regardless of DUST, in the PC ecosystem there are a lot of FPS to choose from so CCP needs to distinguish themselves early and strongly in the minds of gamers in order to be successful.

First and foremost, Project Nova needs to have solid fundamentals: performs well, looks good, feels good (in terms of controls). Sounds easy but it is rare to find all three in a single game.

Secondly, it needs to have a lot of variety: lots of weapon types and abilities/utilities to choose from that are well balanced, maps with various designs and environments and elevations, and different types game modes (with lots of options to customize them in private matches).

But even with those two things all you have is a good FPS in a market flooded with FPS games. In order to truly be successful CCP needs to capitalize on their biggest strength and the unique tie in only they can bring to the table: tight integration with EVE Online.

That is the big selling point not only to current EVE players but the large FPS community at large. Being able to affect the large universe that is New Eden through their actions in Project Nova in collaboration with capsuleers. A tight integration beyond orbital bombardments and slight impact on Faction War will make the game a mainstay in the long run and not just an also-ran.

I look forward to shooting my opponents in the face on the ground and in space.