CCP has announced the launch of EVE Online: Quantum Rise, the ninth expansion for the MMORPG. The free expansion, which will be available for download sometime in winter, will contain various updates.

Corporations will be able to set their products apart through customizable storefronts; the massive capitalist industrial ship Orca has been added to the fleet, and all industrial ships have been rebalanced and optimized; and certificates and medals will allow pilots to be honored for their hard work.

Further features include weapon linking, continuations of the massive Trinity graphics update, and changes to autopilot routes and avoidance techniques. Keep reading after the jump for more information and the full press release.

According to CCP, technological breakthroughs such as StacklessIO and Eve64, which have been discussed at length in the developer blogs, have greatly reduced lag between server and client. Therefore, "The reality of thousands of ships simultaneously engaged in adrenaline-charged combat is at hand." This will help to provide a more energetic PvP experience.

Here's the full press release. Keep checking Allakhazam and the EVE Online official site for more information as it is released.

Reykjavik, Iceland, October 15, 2008 - CCP, one of the world's leading independent game developers, today announced the launch of the ninth free expansion for EVE Online, its popular science fiction massively multi-player online game (MMOG). EVE Online: Quantum Rise offers limitless opportunity to the talented starship pilots of New Eden as the roots of conflict spread deep for their lifeblood.

Players have great things to look forward to in EVE Online: Quantum Rise . Corporations will be able to set their products apart from the rest by building trust in their goods through customizable storefronts. The backbone of EVE's vibrant economy, industrial ships are being rebalanced and optimized to better suit the needs of haulers and industrialists, including the latest edition to the fleet, a massive capital industrial ship dubbed the Orca. A new certificate system will give a quick and verifiable means to discern a pilot’s skill level in trading, gunnery or countless other professions, providing plenty of bragging rights. Meanwhile, the introduction of a medal system allows corporations to distinguish their most valued pilots and honor them for their achievements.

The staged delivery of EVE Online: Quantum Rise began with the recent implementation of technological breakthroughs such as StacklessIO and EVE64 which upgraded the server hardware and streamlined communication between server and client to severely reduce lag. The reality of thousands of ships simultaneously engaged in adrenaline-charged combat is at hand and several fleet battles have already been fought using this new technology. Emboldened by the significant effects these improvements bring to high-level gameplay, CCP will push forward with a myriad of hardware and server improvements to bring the most massive player vs player experience available, expanding a boundless universe into a limitless one.

"We are very proud to be delivering this expansion, both in terms of features and the sheer performance increases made possible by deep refactoring of selected portions of our network and server code, complimented with the finest hardware we could find," says Torfi Frans Ólafsson, Senior Producer of EVE Online. "I can't imagine a better game where you can engage hundreds of people simultaneously in highly immersive tactical combat or simply sit back and make millions off of the conflict via research, manufacturing or logistics. You choose your destiny; that's the beauty of it."

Further features also include:

A full list of features will be available soon at www.eveonline.com.

Availability:
EVE Online: Quantum Rise will be available for subscribers as a free download at www.eveonline.com/download/. Non-subscribers should visit the EVE website to sign up for a free 14-day trial account.