Dual Universe Announced, Claims To Be "The First Boundless MMO"

Novaquark—a studio founded by veterans of Aldebaran Robotics, Apple, Sony, and Ubisoft—announced today that it has been developing an MMO called boundless MMO." Dual Universe is a first-person MMO that will allow players to build ships and structures of any size they can manage.

Dual Universe is described as follows.

The concept of Dual Universe is described by Novaquark as a “Boundless MMO”: based on an innovative server technology called CSSC (Continuous Single-Shard Cluster), the game enables everybody to play in the same world, at the same time, without any slicing of the game universe into instances or zones. In addition, for the first time in a single-shard MMO, the world is entirely modifiable and an unlimited number of players will be free to build together, cooperate or compete. The focus has been made on giving the keys back to the MMORPG fans: using the building blocks provided by the game, the in-game community will make the choices and create the content they will play in.

A list of key features was included alongside the description.

Gameplay Features

• Boundless Massively Multiplayer Game: potentially millions of players can share the same universe at     the same time. One world, no boundaries, no zones, no instances.
• Rich emergent gameplay mechanisms enable players to create their own societies.
• Fully editable world: dig, deploy, craft, create and shape almost everything.
• Giant player-made ships and constructions can be inhabited and host large crews.
• Immersive first person view in a futuristic sci-fi universe.
• Realistic in-game economy (based on market orders and financial tools).
• Scriptable constructions (ships, buildings, etc) using LUA: players can build their own piloting, AI or factory automation.

Technological Features

• Continuous Single-Shard Cluster: the technology behind the “Boundless” MMO approach.
• Procedurally generated planets, revealed as players explore further and further.
• 25cm precision voxel technology to modify the environment or construct buildings/ships
• Unlimited LOD (Level Of Detail) technology allows planet-sized construction to be built
• 64bit Planetary Engine: Smooth transitions from planet surfaces, through atmosphere and into space with no limits to how far the player can travel or see.

If all goes according to plan, Novaquark wants to release "an alpha version demonstrating the unique single hard cluster (CSSC) and planetary engine with a preliminary set of gameplay features" in early 2017. From there, the company will continue to develop the game, releasing "regular" updates along the way.

Unfortunately, no videos of the game in action are available as of yet. Instead, I've included the set of screenshots that Novaquark has made available below.