Jetsetter: EVE Online expands its universe with 450,000 players

This week in Jetsetter we head to Iceland, the United Kingdom and India for discussion of MMOs, Windows 8, and the complete end of reality. Just the end of the world again in Digital Trends' look at international gaming.

Welcome once again to Jetsetter, Digital Trends weekly jaunt across the wide world of video games. We cover the video game industry daily here at Digital Trends, but Jetsetter is devoted to looking beyond the biggest video game market on Earth. Weird Korean imports, Turkish MMOs, Indian-developed mobile games released in the Kenyan market, Pakistani pricing of FIFA 13—these topics and more are our bread and butter.

It was a busy week. Czech developer Bohemia Interactive was forced to delay ArmA 3 into 2013, Nintendo of Europe explained that German laws were restricting Wii U eShop sales, and Finnish studio Rovio celebrated three successful years of Angry Birds. Now let’s move onto Iceland, the UK, and India.

* EVE Online grows to 450,000 subscribers.

Iceland’s CCP Games have carved out an impenetrable and fascinating corner of the massively multiplayer online gaming world over the past ten years. Since opening EVE Online in 2003, the game’s never ascended to A-list World of Warcraft success (or even C-list Lord of the Rings Online success), but it hasn’t needed to. The game’s kept both the studio and its cultish, obsessed audience enraptured. The game’s simulated galaxy has a rich, functioning economy that’s more stable than most real world economies, and it still manages to play host to stellar intrigue. CCP Games announced this week that the game now has 450,000 players. That’s a fraction of most MMOs, but most MMOs don’t require players to make spreadsheets. This milestone came two weeks after EVE Online was added to the MoMA’s first collection of video games.

* Microsoft lifts Windows Store ban on 18+ rated games.

Prior to Windows 8’s release in October, Digital Trends reported on how Microsoft was going to have some trouble convincing developers to bring their games to the platform’s store. At the time, the Windows Store blocked the sale of 18+ rated games in the UK, meaning titles like Heavy Rain and Grand Theft Auto with PEGI 18 ratings would be unavailable even to adults. Microsoft has unsurprisingly rolled back the restriction, announcing its commitment to Windows Store gaming on its blog. “In welcoming PEGI 18 games into the Store, we again reinforce two principles—flexibility and confidence—fundamental to the Windows Store,” reads the post, “We recognize that people have come to expect and appreciate rich gaming experiences on Windows and this includes games rated PEGI 18.” Will this mean people will stop using Steam as their primary digital distribution platform on PC? Will it mean that more gamers will use Windows 8 in the UK? No. No it doesn’t.

* Indian games retailer gets into the season’s spirit with End of the World sale.

NextWorld.in, an online video game retailer serving India, is embracing the spirit this December. The spirit of Quetzcoatl and the birth of the fifth sun that is! Rather than a Christmas or other holiday theme, NextWorld is celebrating the end of the world due on Dec. 21 when the Mayan calendar runs out. If you’re a gamer in India and you don’t want to pay an outrageous price on FIFA 13, pick it up now!