Aligning
During my visit to EVE Fanfest 2025, traditionally held in Iceland from May 1st to 3rd, I had the opportunity to do what I’d been hoping for: a CCP Burger interview.
To the world, he’s known as Bergur Finnbogason, Creative Director at CCP Games and one of the key minds shaping the upcoming EVE Online: Legion expansion. I’ve known Bergur for over five years now, and every meeting with him is like an explosion—in the best possible sense.
By the time we sat down, I had already watched the Legion briefing twice—once inside CCP HQ at Gróska, and again the next day on Harpa’s main stage. Just a day before, I had also interviewed CCP Rattati about the expansion. So this time, I decided to sabotage my own meeting schedule and slotted my session right after Bergur’s return from the Legion keynote.
He was like a capacitor—electrified. I almost saw sparks flying off him, charged up by the sheer energy of the crowd. On May 2nd, he stood on stage announcing what’s next for New Eden—but when it came time for the big Legion keynote, he strategically disappeared into the audience, quietly soaking up capsuleer reactions: raw, unfiltered, unprompted.
Want the full story from Reykjavik? My complete Fanfest 2025 recap is now live — photos, chaos, and capsuleers.
Table of Contents
Spoiler: it was absolutely worth it. I got exactly what I came for—a look not just at features, but at the mindset behind them.
Giving Systems a Soul: Freelance Jobs and Player driven Lore
Hmm? What’s up, Bergur?
Before we begin, I have one question for you—do you have a system in EVE that’s special to you?
Well, there are a few I feel attached to—like C-J6MT, H-ADOC, Amamake… but probably the most important is Alentene. A system no one’s probably even heard of. But it’s where I started learning EVE—mining for my first cruiser, running my first agents, and setting up my first HQ.
See? When I first started playing, I used to live in Torrinos. That system means a lot to me. It might mean nothing to you, but I’d love for other players to learn more about it.
So you want capsuleers to fill in the gaps between official lore—like local folklore for solar systems?
Yes! We started asking ourselves: how can we actually give players more opportunities to write their stories—and showcase the awesome ones they’ve already lived? That’s where freelance jobs come in. They give players tools to create missions, narratives, arcs, explorations—like choose-your-own-adventure chains. Every system has its own EVE lore, sure—but players have personal histories there too. In the long term, we want to give them ways to tell those stories.
So on top of official lore, each system could carry someone’s personal history—maybe even tools to promote that system to others?
Exactly. Not just static beacons with flavor text. Players will be able to create interactive narratives that other travelers can engage with.
Or set traps and gank people?
Of course! Otherwise, it wouldn’t be EVE.
You have to add a star rating system for mission creators—like Uber drivers or restaurant reviews.
Heh, nice idea—yeah, thumbs up or down. But you’ll also be broadcasting them on like five systems distance, so yeah—it’s gonna be interesting. People will learn quickly which corps to trust and which to avoid.
But freelance jobs aren’t just a quest generator or a way to lure someone into trouble. They’re also about deepening the lore, celebrating player-owned systems, and documenting personal history.
Did players understand what freelance jobs were about?
This expansion isn’t just cool—it’s a huge leap. Yeah, and I was pleasantly surprised yesterday. There were so many people who just got it. I thought we’d have to really sell freelance jobs. It’s a bit of a complicated concept to wrap your head around. But people just understood it right away. The excitement—it’s real.
Forged for Destruction: Angel Cartel Dreadnought Sarathiel and Triglavian Marauder Babaroga
Alright, let’s talk new toys—ships. What about the dreadnought? Why did you pick that for this expansion?
So we’ve actually been doing a lot of dreadnoughts over the last six expansions. We did the navy dreads, we did the really cool lancer dreads. And it’s just—dreads are super cool. They’re kind of the most agile of the capitals, they deal a lot of damage, and they’re a great chase item. They’re also fantastic content creators. You see a dread in low sec, subcaps freak out. Some run, some swarm it. It’s just a healthy, natural, exciting moment.
Received any feedback on the Sarathiel—the Angel Cartel dreadnought—yet?
It was wild. Even during the expansion keynote today, when they put the stats up—I was sitting in the auditorium—and I could still hear people reacting: “They weren’t lying. It can MJD in siege.” and “Oh, That’s going to break the game.” It’s going to be marvelous!
The excitement meter hit five stars when the dreadnought was revealed, as we expected. And when the micro jump capability in siege mode was confirmed? That pushed it to nine. Hahaha.
And the Triglavian marauder? Getting much attention?
It’s interesting—I asked a bunch of players yesterday which ship they were more excited about: the Angel dread or the Triglavian marauder. And there’s a lot of love for the Triglavian one. The Leshak is very popular. So people are really curious how it’ll perform with Bastion.
Has that excitement started to spill over into the economy already?
Yeah. The corp projects—landed just in time. Most corporations now are raising flags: “Go get the loyalty points. We need the blueprints.”
There’s going to be a major race. I’ve already heard: yesterday, Leshak prices shot through the roof. People are buying up every Leshak in Jita. Yeah, the hype is real.
Paint First, Quests Later: The Unlikely Origins of the Legion Expansion
The hype is real—a kiting dread in siege mode? Wild times. But let’s rewind a bit. Any funny stories from the Legion development?
It’s actually been a really nice development cycle. Freelance jobs are something we’ve been working on for a very long time. And a lot of what we’ve delivered in recent expansions has been stepping stones toward that.
There was a dev blog back in February—I thought it was hilarious. Basically said, “Painting your ship red makes EVE go faster.”
So actually… the fact that we’re painting ships now—SKINR—is a major stepping stone in releasing freelance jobs. One of the most important, actually.
Wait, what’s the connection between ship’s paint and freelance jobs?
Because when you paint your ship, others have to see that skin—and we have to distribute that info to everyone nearby, in real time. Once they’re in your vicinity, they need to see it immediately.
That’s presence. It’s something we couldn’t do efficiently before. So now, we have this idea of proximity-based visibility. “Oh, you’re close to me? Now you can see my colors.”
Um, okay… I’m with you—confused, but with you. Please continue.
That’s exactly how we’re distributing freelance jobs. You seed them from your home station—and then they’re distributed out, up to five jumps from that location. We’re using the same persistence logic.
It’s one of those ideas—“Wouldn’t it be cool if…” And then three years later, we’re like, “We did it. Finally.” It was supposed to be small and easy. But the second you lift the covers, you see all the madness we had to go through.
But was that intentional? Like—“Hey, we’ll use this SKINR system for quests too”?
No, no. Actually, when we were planning SKINR, our technical director stepped in and said, “No, no, no—you have to build it this way, or we’ll never get freelance jobs out before 2028.” So yeah, it turned out to be a really important step on that journey. So yes—it was a well-planned-ahead feature.
Not exactly a funny story—but it does say a lot
Okay, well… that doesn’t sound very funny. I know. But it’s meaningful. And it’s kind of funny that painting your ship became a major step in this epic journey. It really shows how complex EVE actually is.
EVE Online – A Game We Keep Living and Breathing
Let’s talk Sov Hubs. I missed the keynote—can you walk me through what’s coming?
So, in the Legion expansion, we’re introducing a new sov hub upgrade. It’s tied to exploration content.
Just to clarify—that’s for nullsec, right?
Yeah, this is a nullsec-only change. Well, since these sites can spawn up to five jumps away, they can appear in lowsec too. But no—highsec and lowsec exploration systems themselves aren’t touched this time.
So, you install this upgrade into your hub, and an exploration site will spawn—up to five jumps away. So you’ll need to hunt it down and find it; it doesn’t just appear in place. But the twist is, we’re also introducing subhub upgrades that act like system-wide weather effects.
Wait, like Abyssal-style system effects? Really?
Yeah, they can affect things like capacitor regen, shield regen—and one of them even boosts d-scan range. Pretty wild stuff.
Oh—and what did you think of the trailer?
Tears. Always. The EVE trailers are so emotional for me, hits deep. And the Frontier one (we can’t talk about it here—yet) too. I was like, “I want a movie about this!”
Yeah. At the end of the keynote, I mentioned wanting to look deeper into resource gathering—and I loved how they visualized salvaging. Just imagine: after a major battle, you’re in a wreck field with thousands of wrecks.
The collisions are artificial, though, right?
Yeah, sadly. Still, it looks incredible. Something I could imagine doing. I want that. I want to play that game. A wreck field after a massive battle, salvaging the remains—that’s the kind of EVE I dream about.
And that’s it for today. We talked (and dreamed) about the future: a storyline-driven New Eden game made with Larian, James Cameron movies and TV shows set in the EVE Online universe, and other fantastic ideas I carefully edited out of this interview—just so CCP’s PR team wouldn’t have a heart attack. Which brings us to the final words!
Warping Out
While this interview with CCP Burger may not have been packed with patch notes or feature deep-dives, that was never the point. My goal was to glimpse the mindset behind the roadmap—to see how EVE’s creators feel about the universe they’re building.
And once again, Bergur didn’t disappoint.
Whether talking about giving systems a soul, dreaming of salvaging wreck fields, or laughing about how painting ships became a critical tech milestone, he showed exactly what I came looking for: someone who cares deeply about EVE as both a game and a living, breathing world.
EVE is code, sure—but it’s also culture. And some people still write it by heart.
The Legion expansion looks promising—not just because of what it adds, but because of the passionate people behind it.
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