Production on Project Nova has ceased, according to EVE Online developer CCP Games.
Originally developed in collaboration with Sumo Digital, the spiritual successor to PlayStation 3 free-to-play game Dust 514 was scrapped in order to “take a step back and return to the drawing board”.
This comes just a month after CCP Games shared some news involving Project Nova, which included a teaser trailer, gameplay footage, and registration for an invite-only alpha to be held in November. Because of the cancellation, it’s safe to assume the alpha is no more.
“Over the course of Project Nova’s development we conducted a number of player research sessions with external partners, tirelessly playtested the game internally and brought community stalwarts in to help us evaluate the project,” explains a blog post.
As a result of this aforementioned feedback, CCP says that “the gameplay experience in its current form does not live up to our original vision and would not achieve our ambitious goals for this project,” thus stopping development.
Instead, CCP plans to “take a step back and return to the drawing board, where we will spend more time figuring out how all this hard work can translate into something better and more meaningful for the EVE Universe.”
CCP Games’ entire statement can be read here.