High-end gear in Dust 514 costs 24 cents in real money

CCP Vice President Morgan Godat has revealed the real-world cost of a high-end set of gear in the upcoming EVE Online companion, Dust 514, and it might be cheaper than you expect: About 24 cents. If you were to equip a character in the game with some of the highest-level gear out there and send them out into battle with equipment all purchased directly with real money, it would really only cost you a cent less than a quarter.

But that figure is a little misleading, unfortunately, on both ends. On the one hand, that's the cost to equip a character once. When you die (which you'll do a lot in the match-based first-person shooter), you'll have to rebuy all of that gear, so players will probably buy their guns and armor by the hundreds or even thousands, not just one set at a time.

And just like EVE Online, most of the gear in the game will be purchasable with in-game cash, called Isk, not just real-money purchased gold, called Aurum. EVE Online players will even be able to buy gear for Dust 514 players, so if you're a great shooter some ship jockey might fund your gear bill once the two games are finally connected. Dust 514 is currently heading into a series of betas (so these costs are still in flux anyway), and readying itself for a launch later this year.