'EVE Online' and Microsoft Excel pair up for the year's hottest collab

EVE Online has often been derided as a "spreadsheet simulator." Many dedicated players use spreadsheets to keep track of data like profit margins and to calculate fleet damage output at certain ranges. Developer CCP Games is now leaning into the spreadsheet lifestyle even more with official Microsoft Excel support.

The studio revealed at EVE Fanfest that it reached out to Microsoft and the pair are now building an extension that will pull data from the long-running MMO into an Excel spreadsheet. The news went over well with the crowd:

CCP showed an early prototype of the tool in action and said more details would be revealed later this year. This arguably isn't the first time the studio has embraced spreadsheets. EVE Online has a UI-only mode that ditches 3D space battle graphics for pure data with a spreadsheet-style view.

Sure, other details about the future of EVE Online were announced at Fanfest, including a bunch of upcoming narrative arcs, a feature to help newcomers pick their class, visual upgrades and a Spanish-language client. But direct integration with Excel could be the biggest quality of life upgrade for the game's most fervent fans.