I am of the opinion that CCP should save its advert money for a more polished product. The more people that see this game as it is, opens a potential for future player's that are unwilling to give the game a second chance.

Would like to note that I don't see any dust 514 advertisments on any website on a computer that had its cookies scrubbed and one I havent been to a dust 514 website before.

Not sure what advertising algorithms google uses to advert dust or eve but once I do they become overwhelming majority of the side ads.

Then their advert strategy is even dumber, focusing on people already interested.

The consequences of being launched. The focus moves to marketing over content or balance.

I get the same feeling.

It's a beta, a real beta, but it's being marketed as if it were a released product.

The discontinuity is palpable.

Every time I see another general audience ad or a special sale I have to work harder to remind myself that this isn't a real game yet and it's ok to have all these broken and missing parts.

And I've been here for nine months. The new guys don't have that experience as a counterweight.

NEWS FLASH: ITS NOT A REAL BETA

I have yet to see a single fix or improvement that other game betas were not capable of, the only difference here is CCP is slow to the punch and the beta is in 1+ year of 'development' And by development I mean, they ran out of cash and are now milking the hardcore fanbois for every cent they can get out of them b/c they can't get a releasable version in time.

From what I understand this is more of another gateway into the New Eden Galaxy. So EvE is the money maker and this is just playing around money. As I understand it this game could lose money and they would still be ahead. Eve started out with a very small development team and has grown in members every year. I beleive even WOW can't say this. THey have a small investor base, so they are not pumping money out to them, and (from what I've heard) putting the money back into the company. Also they are in beta and selling products in a free game.

I was also thinking the other day this is a free to play game but you could look at it like a 50 cent a month game. It costs 50 cents for a UVT which I feel most people can justify buying, which will add up. Then you factor in all the people who want this vanity suit or that, this game could be very profitable for CCP. Also there adverts are good to help get mor people in, to then pay more money for a game that isn't even released yet. And as I said it basically has EvE money paying for it.

CCP has invested a lot into this project, but isn't betting the whole farm on it just yet. If the game fails they cut it off like a petulant limb and stick with what they know will work EVE. The slow integration plan and promise from last years fan fest is evidence of that fact. I do not wish for Dust to be severed and left on the operating room floor. The potential it has is to great, although painfully unrealized.

Having said that, what do you consider the last build? Swings of the nerf hammer barely count. For me it feels nothing has significantly changed since September when they removed skirmish 1.0 and added the LAR, that was 5 months ago. Far more has been lost since then, from the removal of the larger variety vehicle modules to active scanners. Its taken a year but my patience has become thread bare. I like the game, the genera, New Eden but this is becoming a let down and getting to the point where even I am having trouble telling myself "its a Beta, it'll get better." Now that i see CCP has started mass advertisement for people to come partake of a truthfully unfinished game, it's causing me to loose patience.

ok
i saw something that really disturbed me

"I really can't believe that anyone on the DEV team would look at the game as it is currently and think it was ready for distribution"

The game is FTP

JESUS
why are people still complaining about the game like ccp said its done and like they know how long it takes to make a game and have a half decent beta test

it's not like there sitting around doing nothing here
they are working and you keep pushing them

do you want there end product to be a crappy half finished piece of junk due to the fact you keep pushing them ?
just drop the case or stop playing until the game has gone through its so called full release at the moment they shouldn't have to make any promises

or meet any demands
you don't have to pay them so you are not necessarily a consumer
but you are supporting them

you will have to wait
and if ccp knows what there doing they will not rush anything for a (quick fix)
without thinking things through

nerfing buffing changing stuff can and most of the time do cause other problems

in one game
(nerf this gun it works to well against this unit type)
the class that uses that game becomes less effective and then the unit type it countered becomes more powerful against a unit type not even considers before hand

a lot of planing and thinking is going into this game give it some time

ok
i saw something that really disturbed me

"I really can't believe that anyone on the DEV team would look at the game as it is currently and think it was ready for distribution"

The game is FTP

JESUS
why are people still complaining about the game like ccp said its done and like they know how long it takes to make a game and have a half decent beta test

it's not like there sitting around doing nothing here
they are working and you keep pushing them

do you want there end product to be a crappy half finished piece of junk due to the fact you keep pushing them ?
just drop the case or stop playing until the game has gone through its so called full release at the moment they shouldn't have to make any promises

or meet any demands
you don't have to pay them so you are not necessarily a consumer
but you are supporting them

you will have to wait
and if ccp knows what there doing they will not rush anything for a (quick fix)
without thinking things through

nerfing buffing changing stuff can and most of the time do cause other problems

in one game
(nerf this gun it works to well against this unit type)
the class that uses that game becomes less effective and then the unit type it countered becomes more powerful against a unit type not even considers before hand

a lot of planing and thinking is going into this game give it some time

ok
i saw something that really disturbed me

"I really can't believe that anyone on the DEV team would look at the game as it is currently and think it was ready for distribution"

The game is FTP

JESUS
why are people still complaining about the game like ccp said its done and like they know how long it takes to make a game and have a half decent beta test

it's not like there sitting around doing nothing here
they are working and you keep pushing them

do you want there end product to be a crappy half finished piece of junk due to the fact you keep pushing them ?
just drop the case or stop playing until the game has gone through its so called full release at the moment they shouldn't have to make any promises

or meet any demands
you don't have to pay them so you are not necessarily a consumer
but you are supporting them

you will have to wait
and if ccp knows what there doing they will not rush anything for a (quick fix)
without thinking things through

nerfing buffing changing stuff can and most of the time do cause other problems

in one game
(nerf this gun it works to well against this unit type)
the class that uses that game becomes less effective and then the unit type it countered becomes more powerful against a unit type not even considers before hand

a lot of planing and thinking is going into this game give it some time

NEWS FLASH: ITS NOT A REAL BETA

I have yet to see a single fix or improvement that other game betas were not capable of, the only difference here is CCP is slow to the punch and the beta is in 1+ year of 'development' And by development I mean, they ran out of cash and are now milking the hardcore fanbois for every cent they can get out of them b/c they can't get a releasable version in time.

Just because games like BF3 and CoD want to release their games and do fixes as they are played(with a "finished" product) Doesn't mean that is what CCP wants to focus on. Give them time...yes it has been a year in Beta..but good things come to those who wait....

On an unrealted note what's with the lasted shoots all starting with the letter D lol

Standard progresion

A = Alien Vs Preditor 1999
B = Battlefield - 2002
C = COD - 2003
D = TBC - recently released

Just because the fixes aren't implemented right now, doesn't mean that they aren't working on it.
NEWS FLASH: YOU ARE NOT A PROGRAMMER

Shut up and let them do their job.
When it gets closer to release, they will implement fixes and what not to make the game closer to what they planned. This isn't a real beta? WTF, haven't you read the top of the screen when you brought the game up, IT SAYS IT RIGHT THERE.

Just because games like BF3 and CoD want to release their games and do fixes as they are played(with a "finished" product) Doesn't mean that is what CCP wants to focus on. Give them time...yes it has been a year in Beta..but good things come to those who wait....

Whatever the strategy is it seems to be working.

Most of the recent ramping up of promotions is targeted toward gamers and not the general public. It creates more interest in the game for people already interested in it.

They probably aren't really going to advertise the game full out until it goes to full release and can be reviewed and given those numbers gaming sites hand out.

So if there was nothing on the way, sure building interest would be premature. But building interest in the game just before a content update seems to make sense...

you have got to be brand new here. You'll learn soon(tm) enough that what your promised won't ever come. Or if it does, it so long aways that by the time you do get you've since moved on. Oh the moxy of a new forum warriror. Good luck keeping that attitude up as CCP proves to dissapoint over and over and over and over....

They probably aren't really going to advertise the game full out until it goes to full release and can be reviewed and given those numbers gaming sites hand out.

I will start by saying I am nothing short of a CCP fan boy, however the current marketing practices has me more then a little concerned. Dust is good, its certainly better then 90% of the other games in this market. What separates Dust from every other product in the top 10% of the market is what the Dust DEV's and CCP have said will be. It is not yet at Peter Molyneux levels of exaggeration but not far off. Right now we are plagued by clumsy menus, broken mail system, server lag, video chug, sticky hills, limited and frankly overplayed game modes. The one that saddens me the most, granted the aforementioned are worse, but this is IMO. Only a small fraction of the games projected release content is available for play.

Now on to the reason i titled the thread the way I did, it's because I am seeing more and more dust related adverts. That's fine, I can get behind bringing more people to Dust, but not just yet. Dust is still a BETA, and a rough one at that. The people that have been here since last April know that. New players coming in from a random banner add are not generally so accepting of that idea, and are being enticed on some what a false pretense. I am of the opinion that CCP should save its advert money for a more polished product. The more people that see this game as it is, opens a potential for future player's that are unwilling to give the game a second chance. Not to mention the general community opinion degradation, I want nothing more then Dust to succeed, but it seems like the marketing team is putting the cart before the horse.

#1 customisation; no more than CoD.
#2 maps; I don't see 4000+
#3 p2w; 200% boosters, lvl3 Proto gear.
#4 market? Say what? Where? Trading?
#5 Battling over player owned installations? Say what? Where? When?
#6 PvE. There is still naff all info.
#7 Large player count. 24vs24 was promised, and CCP "have tested 64 players in a game".

Sorry, but I loved this game & it's promises a year ago. It's just not turning into the beautiful butterfly it could be.

#1 customisation; no more than CoD.
#2 maps; I don't see 4000+
#3 p2w; 200% boosters, lvl3 Proto gear.
#4 market? Say what? Where? Trading?
#5 Battling over player owned installations? Say what? Where? When?
#6 PvE. There is still naff all info.
#7 Large player count. 24vs24 was promised, and CCP "have tested 64 players in a game".

Sorry, but I loved this game & it's promises a year ago. It's just not turning into the beautiful butterfly it could be.

They did the same exact thing with Incarna and had to issue a massive public apology and fire off a bunch of their staff. Eve players wanted Walking In Stations content and instead they got one room that was melting graphic cards and a cash shop. All because CCP was in a rush towards the prize. Well not a rush, it took them six years to get that far. There is another word I could use to describe it, but I'm not so cruel.

Now Dust isn't in quite as bad of a pickle as Incarna was, but its still very, very reminiscent and I can't help but feel little deja vu.

#1 customisation; no more than CoD.

#3 p2w; 200% boosters, lvl3 Proto gear.

#7 Large player count. 24vs24 was promised, and CCP "have tested 64 players in a game".

So, as with many things, SOONGäó.

Pretty sure I hate the word soon. :(

Pretty sure I hate the word soon. :(

Then stop your employers from maintaining it as a trademark?

Pretty sure I hate the word soon. :(

They have been for the last two weeks...

*looks in MQ*

*still sees "SOONGäó" banners popping up*

Let me guess... SOONGäó?

I am just saying things concerning the 0.8 patch have been stated to be SOON.
This started back when Nova Knife did the pod cast when the developer emphasized 'soon no tm.'

SoonGäó means years.
Soon means months.
"Dev blog this week" means next month or never.

I honestly think we're closer to release than CCP is letting us believe. When a company advertises like that they're leading up to the release of the product. The silence of CCP on the next build and release along with the advertising strategies may in fact be a silent affirmation that the release of Dust514 is coming forthwith.

#1 customisation; no more than CoD.
#2 maps; I don't see 4000+
#3 p2w; 200% boosters, lvl3 Proto gear.
#4 market? Say what? Where? Trading?
#5 Battling over player owned installations? Say what? Where? When?
#6 PvE. There is still naff all info.
#7 Large player count. 24vs24 was promised, and CCP "have tested 64 players in a game".

Sorry, but I loved this game & it's promises a year ago. It's just not turning into the beautiful butterfly it could be.

#2 Its... complicated, they're building some sort of library and how it all works isn't fully understood to folks who poked about it in IRC, it would be an interesting dev blog to ask for.

#3 Just because you got to a suit a month early doesn't mean I can't kill you just the same. In other words most people are paying to lose.

#4 Player to player trading coming in 0.8, full market later but unknown time. Same for corp armories and locationally aware inventories.

#5 Was never a launch feature, ballpark is anywhere from 2013 winter to 2014, it will also be a multiple expansion project so it will be constantly iterated until its almost right.

#6 Was also never a launch feature, ballpark is saying 2013 winter or sooner

#7 32 vs 32 with squads of 6 is scheduled for 0.8

Actually, it really does feel like they are doing nothing. This game has been in development since before 2009. Hell, there was a working demo that had features working that we are missing now (like deployable structures, aerofighters, building interiors, layered objectives, more complete warbarge, etc).

DUST was built for CARBON; which is CCP's own in house game engine. To justify the engine development costs they planned to use CARBON in all three of their titles (EVE Online, DUST 514, World of Darkness). However WoD got severely downsized, EVE Online went back to focusing on Spaceships and DUST 514 had a "sudden" engine change. I have a theory that Sony is the reason behind all this.

My guess is that CARBON, in its current state, is incompatible with the PS4. Here's what I've got:

- CCP decided they wanted to make an MMOFPS (DUST 514). So they built CARBON.

- Once CARBON was completed, several years ago, they began the bulk of DUST 514 development using it. They also bought White Wolf and began building the World of Darkness MMO using CARBON.

- CCP completed the majority of DUST features (like deployable structures, aerofighters, building interiors, layered objectives, more complete warbarge, etc) on CARBON in early 2012 and began internal testing.

- CCP planned for DUST (using CARBON) to enter closed Beta stage after E3 2012. They entered into server contracts to setup the battle hubs, began advertising, acquired any needed licenses, etc.

- CCP released CARBON to EVE Online via Walking in Stations.

- Sometime between the above and E3 2012 Sony released to developers that the PS4 would not be backwards compatible with the PS3. This f***ed CARBON as it was built with technology now rendered incompatible. They could either release the game only on PS3 and try desperately to rewrite CARBON in time for PS4 or port to a new engine. Sticking with CARBON would mean that they'd have to have two engines in house and they'd have to sprint to convert CARBON to PS4 before Q4 2013. That's expensive, risky, and could halt development of DUST 514 until after the new engine was made putting them severely behind estimated financials.

- After cursing Sony out extensively they chose to port to Unreal 3. This allowed them to continue DUST development on U3 while updating CARBON for PS4 on the side. It also gave the ability of a PS4 release using Unreal 4 if CARBON was not finished being upgraded.

- Due to CARBON rewrite World of Darkness gets severely downsized and EVE Online "refocuses" on spaceships.

- E3 2012 came around and they showcased the Unreal 3 powered DUST we have today.

- Since they already had signed multiple server contracts for the Battlehubs, had invested advertising, and had other testing resources they released DUST 514 to closed Beta after E3 with a limited Unreal 3 build.

- 3 months ago they went to Open Beta because they needed to test Unreal 3 compatibility with Tranquility. (They already know CARBON works, it runs on EVE now for walking in stations). They stated that they weren't exactly ready for Open Beta at that point, but enforcing the NDA on the EVE side would have been impossible so they had to go Open Beta.

- They are currently in mad sprints to port the remaining features from CARBON to U3 so they can release. In the meantime, to cover these unforeseen development costs they are advertising AUR purchases during BETA. (25 developers = ~$200,000 per month) and (10,000 Merc Packs a month = $200,000). Even if they don't get 10,000 packs a month some of the costs are mitigated.

Summary
I am assuming that they are farther along on things than we can see. Everything is probably working in house on CARBON and they're just doing a mad dash to finish ports of everything to Unreal 3. I'm guessing that the next build will be released around Fanfest and will give a full release date for either Q3 or Q4 2013.

Again, this is all assumptions I have made. I am a software development contractor in the Oil / Gas / Energy Industry so I've seen my fair share of crazy timelines, setbacks, and sprints. The above make sense and is reasonable. CCP uses Agile development, so it fits their release structure thus far. It also makes sense why they seem so out of touch with whats happening in game for us. They're used to CARBON, that's what they've been developing for, and porting from CARBON to U3 is the most critical thing right now. More critical than damage mods, or HMG imbalance, or any of the infinite little issues we're whining about on the forums. Once everything is ported over and working they'll move into balance mode.

Does it suck in the interim, yes, but if my assumption is correct then it isn't really their fault. Other than that they assumed the PS4 would support CARBON in its current form and it doesn't. Though Sony seems to have pissed off many developers with its lack of backwards compatibility - so CCP isn't alone.

Would like to note that I don't see any dust 514 advertisments on any website on a computer that had its cookies scrubbed and one I havent been to a dust 514 website before.

Not sure what advertising algorithms google uses to advert dust or eve but once I do they become overwhelming majority of the side ads.

DUST was built for CARBON; which is CCP's own in house game engine. To justify the engine development costs they planned to use CARBON in all three of their titles (EVE Online, DUST 514, World of Darkness). However WoD got severely downsized, EVE Online went back to focusing on Spaceships and DUST 514 had a "sudden" engine change. I have a theory that Sony is the reason behind all this.

My guess is that CARBON, in its current state, is incompatible with the PS4. Here's what I've got:

- CCP decided they wanted to make an MMOFPS (DUST 514). So they built CARBON.

- Once CARBON was completed, several years ago, they began the bulk of DUST 514 development using it. They also bought White Wolf and began building the World of Darkness MMO using CARBON.

- CCP completed the majority of DUST features (like deployable structures, aerofighters, building interiors, layered objectives, more complete warbarge, etc) on CARBON in early 2012 and began internal testing.

- CCP planned for DUST (using CARBON) to enter closed Beta stage after E3 2012. They entered into server contracts to setup the battle hubs, began advertising, acquired any needed licenses, etc.

- CCP released CARBON to EVE Online via Walking in Stations.

- Sometime between the above and E3 2012 Sony released to developers that the PS4 would not be backwards compatible with the PS3. This f***ed CARBON as it was built with technology now rendered incompatible. They could either release the game only on PS3 and try desperately to rewrite CARBON in time for PS4 or port to a new engine. Sticking with CARBON would mean that they'd have to have two engines in house and they'd have to sprint to convert CARBON to PS4 before Q4 2013. That's expensive, risky, and could halt development of DUST 514 until after the new engine was made putting them severely behind estimated financials.

- After cursing Sony out extensively they chose to port to Unreal 3. This allowed them to continue DUST development on U3 while updating CARBON for PS4 on the side. It also gave the ability of a PS4 release using Unreal 4 if CARBON was not finished being upgraded.

- Due to CARBON rewrite World of Darkness gets severely downsized and EVE Online "refocuses" on spaceships.

- E3 2012 came around and they showcased the Unreal 3 powered DUST we have today.

- Since they already had signed multiple server contracts for the Battlehubs, had invested advertising, and had other testing resources they released DUST 514 to closed Beta after E3 with a limited Unreal 3 build.

- 3 months ago they went to Open Beta because they needed to test Unreal 3 compatibility with Tranquility. (They already know CARBON works, it runs on EVE now for walking in stations). They stated that they weren't exactly ready for Open Beta at that point, but enforcing the NDA on the EVE side would have been impossible so they had to go Open Beta.

- They are currently in mad sprints to port the remaining features from CARBON to U3 so they can release. In the meantime, to cover these unforeseen development costs they are advertising AUR purchases during BETA. (25 developers = ~$200,000 per month) and (10,000 Merc Packs a month = $200,000). Even if they don't get 10,000 packs a month some of the costs are mitigated.

Summary
I am assuming that they are farther along on things than we can see. Everything is probably working in house on CARBON and they're just doing a mad dash to finish ports of everything to Unreal 3. I'm guessing that the next build will be released around Fanfest and will give a full release date for either Q3 or Q4 2013.

Again, this is all assumptions I have made. I am a software development contractor in the Oil / Gas / Energy Industry so I've seen my fair share of crazy timelines, setbacks, and sprints. The above make sense and is reasonable. CCP uses Agile development, so it fits their release structure thus far. It also makes sense why they seem so out of touch with whats happening in game for us. They're used to CARBON, that's what they've been developing for, and porting from CARBON to U3 is the most critical thing right now. More critical than damage mods, or HMG imbalance, or any of the infinite little issues we're whining about on the forums. Once everything is ported over and working they'll move into balance mode.

Does it suck in the interim, yes, but if my assumption is correct then it isn't really their fault. Other than that they assumed the PS4 would support CARBON in its current form and it doesn't. Though Sony seems to have pissed off many developers with its lack of backwards compatibility - so CCP isn't alone.

Sooo this. Blame Google, not CCP.

/thread

Firefox, and adblock+

Ads dont even show before online videos hahahahahaha

You are trying so hard but unfortunately you are wrong. The PS4 is an x86_64 architecture. That means Trinity2 would work natively with no change in code. Furthermore, UE3 is dead simple to port stuff into. Now granted, there is a HUGE amount of work going into working with the CELL architecture and network code, but at the end of the day, that doesn't explain the lack of content, since engine optimization and netcode are independent teams.

If the game was sitting on a hard drive somewhere then my opinion drops even further. They missed their deadline, they missed the joint marketing campaign, and they showed an exceptionally poor build off to the PS+ members. If the game is significantly more complete then we have seen, they are shooting themselves in the foot epicly. DUST has lost it's core vision and is very much in danger of never being successful.

Seems basskwards to me. If you are about to release new content, why would you sully the new impressions of the masses with this lack luster game we have currently? The same hype could have been had if they just waited 2 months to talk to the escapist,ign,etc.

That's the thing that scares me the most. This notion or concept of a "full release" doesn't seem to be one that CCP feels comfortable with applying to their gaming properties. If you listen to all the hardcore EVE veterans, they will ALL tell you that even EVE online is NOT fully released, but rather it's still in beta.

Will CCP apply this same development precedent to DUST 514, so that 3 or 4 years from now the game will still be considered as being in open beta, just like EVE?

They surely don't feel comfortable with giving out proper dates like other companies do when releasing their own new games. When someone like Rockstar, Ubisoft or any of the other major publishers/developers releases a game they provide their customers and fans with an ACTUAL date for release. Why can't CCP do this? Why are they sooo special?

It's almost as if they use the ambiguous "beta status" as a crutch or a shield to hide behind in order to deflect from criticism concerning missing and broken features.

CCP Nullarbor just told us this is the first weekend in a long time he's had off. So that should give somewhat of a hint to the pace of things and where they are now.

Pretty sure I hate the word soon. :(

Yeah... realized this after submitting my post. Was looking for PS3 to PS4 incompatibility reasons and realized its due to PS3 being CELL and PS4 being x86_64. They could have an internal CARBON build that's waiting on the PS4 release and are using UE3 in the interim. I don't know.

Either way, I just find it very odd that they suddenly switched from CARBON to UE3. Even being dead simple to port to the licensing on UE3 alone is immense. UE2 is ~ $750,000 and cost estimates for UE3 are pretty hard to come by. Why would they suddenly switch? Why license an engine when you have one in house? Perhaps Sony's developer estimate for PS4 release was pushed back a year from 2012 to 2013? Maybe CCP banked everything on XBOX 360 support for x86_64 and was screwed when Microsoft didn't play nicely and had to turn to Sony?

Something just doesn't add up. You don't just swap engines right before release unless something catastrophic happened. And since everything is NDA we can only guess at what caused the switch. There are only two players, CCP and Sony, one of them is to blame. And I have more faith in CCP than Sony.

Yeah... realized this after submitting my post. Was looking for PS3 to PS4 incompatibility reasons and realized its due to PS3 being CELL and PS4 being x86_64. They could have an internal CARBON build that's waiting on the PS4 release and are using UE3 in the interim. I don't know.

Either way, I just find it very odd that they suddenly switched from CARBON to UE3. Even being dead simple to port to the licensing on UE3 alone is immense. UE2 is ~ $750,000 and cost estimates for UE3 are pretty hard to come by. Why would they suddenly switch? Why license an engine when you have one in house? Perhaps Sony's developer estimate for PS4 release was pushed back a year from 2012 to 2013? Maybe CCP banked everything on XBOX 360 support for x86_64 and was screwed when Microsoft didn't play nicely and had to turn to Sony?

Something just doesn't add up. You don't just swap engines right before release unless something catastrophic happened. And since everything is NDA we can only guess at what caused the switch. There are only two players, CCP and Sony, one of them is to blame. And I have more faith in CCP than Sony.

you have got to be brand new here. You'll learn soon(tm) enough that what your promised won't ever come. Or if it does, it so long aways that by the time you do get you've since moved on. Oh the moxy of a new forum warriror. Good luck keeping that attitude up as CCP proves to dissapoint over and over and over and over....

There is no big conspiracy.

CARBON is only a virtual environment medium. CCPs network engine is called Jessica or something. UE3 is easier to run on PS3 because of the huge amount of external support, proven stabily on a console, and experience. CCP can draw on console talent to help make the game quickly rather than retrain people on thier in house middlewear. Also CARBON is designed for PC usage, it would probably melt a console (it almost melted SOA PCs when incarna was released)

As for the dust client. All the intresting stuff is handled server side. The GUI and the platform its running on are irrelevant, they could literally make a client using the minecraft source code and it would still work. CCP clients are literally a console, not a gaming console, but a user interface for communicating with the server/network.

I no nothing about computer science and this is obvious to me.

The PS4 is not a "sky is falling" scenario.

CCP is apparently commited to dust. Just enjoy it.

Yeah... realized this after submitting my post. Was looking for PS3 to PS4 incompatibility reasons and realized its due to PS3 being CELL and PS4 being x86_64. They could have an internal CARBON build that's waiting on the PS4 release and are using UE3 in the interim. I don't know.

Either way, I just find it very odd that they suddenly switched from CARBON to UE3. Even being dead simple to port to the licensing on UE3 alone is immense. UE2 is ~ $750,000 and cost estimates for UE3 are pretty hard to come by. Why would they suddenly switch? Why license an engine when you have one in house? Perhaps Sony's developer estimate for PS4 release was pushed back a year from 2012 to 2013? Maybe CCP banked everything on XBOX 360 support for x86_64 and was screwed when Microsoft didn't play nicely and had to turn to Sony?

Something just doesn't add up. You don't just swap engines right before release unless something catastrophic happened. And since everything is NDA we can only guess at what caused the switch. There are only two players, CCP and Sony, one of them is to blame. And I have more faith in CCP than Sony.