Incarna scheduled for summer 2011 release
EVE Online is often said to be a game that's not for everyone. One of the biggest points of contention a lot of new players have with the game is the lack of any real avatar. The faces we customise on character creation are little more than passport photos, sitting next to names in chat channels and posts on the official game forum. Without a full body avatar to interact with the world, a lot of new players find it difficult to relate to their EVE characters the way they would in other MMOs. Originally named Walking in Stations, the Incarna expansion is intended to rectify this problem by giving players the ability to walk around and socialise inside the space stations of New Eden.
Until now, it wasn't known for sure when the expansion would be released. It's been in development since as early as 2008 but has been pushed back several times since then as the enormity of the project began to fully unfold. Earlier today, Eurogamer reported that a release schedule for Incarna has finally been revealed. The first step in the feature's release will come with the Incursion expansion this winter, in which we'll get access to the new character creation and customisation process. After that, CCP's goal is to release the first iteration of Incarna, complete with the ability to walk around station environments, with the next summer expansion. Barring any major setbacks, it's reasonably safe to say that Incarna is on track for a summer 2011 release.
