EVE Echoes open beta pre-registration is live on the Google Play Store

What you need to know

• Developed by NetEase Games and CCP Games, EVE Echoes will be a standalone game that captures the full scale and scope of EVE Online.
• The open beta for EVE Echoes will begin in December 2019 in Europe and North America ahead of a global soft launch scheduled for Spring 2020.
• Eve Echoes will deliver a whole galaxy for players to team in an explore and conquer, just like EVE Online, with controls and menus optimized for touchscreen controls.

NetEase Games and CCP Games have announced pre-registration is open for the next round of beta testing for EVE Echoes, a brand new MMORPG being developed by NetEase for both Android and iOS. The game will allow players to pilot and upgrade their own ships and deliver the same scale and scope as EVE Online.

For those unfamiliar with EVE Online, it's an open-ended sci-fi MMORPG for PC with a passionate community that's been the been going strong for 16 years. Unlike most other MMORPG games that offer players quests and scripted narratives, the narrative in EVE Online is created by the players themselves as the game.

The open-ended game design creates a unique experience for gamers that includes a bustling in-game economy and massive player factions, referred to in-game as Corporations, which allow recruited pilots to contribute to their corporation in whichever role they prefer. You can choose to pilot a mining ship and go around collecting resources from asteroids and planetary systems, or jump into a battle cruiser and take part in massive space battles of epic scale. Or you can just cruise around the galaxy as a rogue space pirate causing chaos wherever you go.

One major downside of EVE Online's player-driven narrative is that it can be hard for new pilots to get up to speed with not only the game's tedious and dense menu systems for all the tools made availale to players, but also the backstory behind each Corporation and the different roles available. This is somewhat to be expected for an MMORPG that's close to two decades old, but I think that's why the developers are hoping this new mobile EVE experience will allow players new and old to experience the game universe all over again with a fresh start.

The expectations from the EVE Online playerbase are high, and both NetEase and CCP are hoping that the simplified UI and fresh start for a near identical game universe will draw in both the hardcore EVE Online fans as well as newcomers to the franchise. Speaking as someone who has always been fascinated by the EVE Online community but only from the outside looking in, I'm super interested for the opportunity to getting in on the ground floor for a fully authentic recreation of the EVE universe that I can play on my phone.

If you live in North America or Europe and are interested in checking out the EVE Echoes open beta you can pre-register for the Android beta in the Google Play Store.