CCP kicked off EVE Fanfest 2013 last week, which means it must be time for our annual checkup with the vampiric MMO World of Darkness. The company took some time to explain the team's current projects and its development goals for the rest of the year.

Read more: Team of 70 still in pre-production »

EVE Online developer CCP gave the first in-game-ish peek at World of Darkness at its annual EVE Fanfest event in Iceland over the weekend, trickling out a few more details on the MMO adaptation of White Wolf's vampiric RPG too. And, of course, there was bags of new information on EVE and its free-to-play PS3 FPS tie-in Dust 514.

Watch: Tour a city block in the World of Darkness »

It seems as though EVE Online developer CCP bit off a little more than it could chew when it decided to embark on simultaneous development of EVE expansions, the console-crossover EVE tie-in shooter Dust 514, and the new MMO World of Darkness. The company has stated that it has chosen to lay-off twenty-percent of its workforce, due to thinly-stretched resources and a desire to refocus more development attention on EVE.

"We have come to the conclusion that we are attempting too many things for a company our size," the developer admitted.

Read more: World of Darkness 'lives on' »

EVE Online players have nothing to fear from microtransactions, the MMO's player-elected liason body, the Council of Stellar Management, has decided following an emergency meeting with developer CCP Games. The world of Internet spaceships became an unhappy place last month after leaked internal documents fanned upset over microtransaction items, suggesting that CCP planned to sell items giving distinct in-game advantages for EVE and future games.

"We are convinced that CCP has no plans to introduce any game-affecting virtual goods, only pure vanity items such as clothing and ship skins," CSM chair 'The Mittani' has written in a joint statement with CCP. The developer shared its plans with the CSM under non-disclosure agreements, and apparently all's well in Iceland. Read more »

EVE Online developer CCP Games has shed a little dimmed, moody light on World of Darkness, its mysterious MMO adaptation of White Wolf's pen-and-paper RPG setting, at White Wolf's The Grand Masquerade event.

The MMO "will have a focus on player politics and social interaction," Ardulf's Lair reports (via Massively), collecting the titbits of information trickling out of the show. Only vampires will be playable, it's said, though the World of Darkness setting also houses mages, werewolves and other creatures in its dark version of our modern world. Read more »