EVE Online hits China, breaks record

If there were any remaining doubts that China has the potential to be the king of massively multiplayer online role-playing games, the numbers from EVE Online's open beta should put them to rest.

CCP Games, the game's Icelandic developer, today announced that more than 30,000 users were concurrently playing in a single gameworld, which it claims is a new world record. In the first day, more than 200,000 people registered for the game. The Chinese version of the game is run by Optic Communications and runs independently of the Western edition of EVE Online.

"It was quite amazing to see the population of EVE China exceed the population of Iceland in the second day of open beta testing." said Hilmar Veigar Pétursson, CEO of CCP, referring to the first day's more than 200,000 registered users. "EVE China has been an exciting collaboration project and continues to be so, as we continue to refine the experience to accommodate for the steep growth rate of both our English and Chinese worlds."

EVE Online launched in 2003 and has since seen several expansions, with the next, EVE Online: The Path to Kali, due sometime this year. For more information on the game, check out GameSpot's full review.