Dust 514 now in open beta

PS3 exclusive multiplayer shooter Dust 514 is now officially in open beta, CCP Games has announced.

Billed by the studio as the "next generation of first-person shooter", it operates it the same universe as CCP’s PC space combat simulator Eve Online, allowing players in both games to interact with and influence each other's corporations and conflicts in real time.

Dust 514 pits mercenaries against one another in planet-based battles, but they can call on Eve's space-based players to unleash orbital bombardments on their opponents to swing the tide of battle.

The game's move to open beta means there will be no further character stat resets, allowing mercenaries to begin shaping their careers in earnest, and CCP says it’s committed to continually improving the overall game experience by adding new features and content.

Kristoffer Touborg, lead game designer on Eve, told CVG: “We've never asked people for money for an expansion to Eve, and Sony will let us do that for Dust as well, so we can update as much as we want for free and that's really important to us.”

Principal game designer Kjartan Pierre Emilsson also said: "In the coming years we foresee the gameplay connections between PC and PS3 becoming ever-increasing. For us this is a very long-term vision." That vision includes finding a way for PS3 players to strike back at Eve’s space combatants, although CCP has yet to confirm how this might be put into practice.

For more on the game, check out this Dust 514 video preview, in which we went hands-on with the game’s closed beta late last year.