EVE On-line, often known as essentially the most sturdy player-driven persistent on-line world in gaming (by individuals who really play it) and “that area sport with all of the spreadsheets” (by individuals who don’t), is getting a brand new software for gamers immediately. Nevertheless it’s not new worlds to discover or rebalanced ship stats, it’s integration with the very actual Microsoft Excel desktop and net program. The spaceships is perhaps faux, however the spreadsheets are actually very actual.

EVE developer CCP Video games introduced the partnership with Microsoft again in January, initially planning to launch Excel integration final month. Nevertheless it’s stay in immediately’s Viridian sport replace, accessible through the official EVE On-line add-in for Excel. Gamers can export information from the sport on to Excel — you don’t even want an Workplace 365 subscription, assuming you solely need the info output.

“By unleashing the complete potential of Excel’s sturdy evaluation and visualization instruments, gamers can acquire deep insights into their in-game actions, monitor their progress, and strategize their subsequent steps,” says the official press launch, with no trace of irony.

We will poke enjoyable all we wish, however EVE On-line is likely one of the most long-running on-line video games in historical past, celebrating its twentieth anniversary final month and boasting tons of of hundreds of lively gamers. They’re drawn to the sport’s deep talent system, advanced economies, and wide-open roleplaying. These let gamers take part in simulated firms, organized crime, and large universe-shaking wars, all completely allowed inside the sport’s techniques.

EVE’s minute-to-minute gameplay doesn’t enchantment to everybody, nevertheless it generates among the most fascinating tales of participant exercise ever, like a Hollywood-style heist of a complete participant corp’s property price hundreds of real-world {dollars}, or a staff of hitmen who spent a yr searching down one of many sport’s strongest gamers for a contract assassination. With gamers so obsessive about the minutia of their in-game characters and property, it’s no surprise that utilizing real-world analytical instruments like Excel would have its personal enchantment.