So anyone else curious as to what the hell this thing is?

If I had to take a guess, I'd say it's the Academy.

your mom is so big that she's featured on the ES2 EA picture.

Ooooohhhh 

Joke aside same, I think it's academy too

Yeah I was wondering that too. My first thought was a Vodyani mothership, but it looks like it has a variety of different ship styles coming in and out of it. As mentioned previously I reckon it's the academy as they did say it would be a physical location in the game.

Clearly a kind of central location hub. Possibly the Academy but the sheer amount of ships coming to and from it implies to me more of a trading point than anything else; the marketplace, maybe?

Doesn't the Academy already have artwork of it in game? It looks nothing like this picture so I think it's a spaceport of some sort.

Eh no I don't think they got an artwork of the academy, if yes please show us :) 

UndeadPuppy wrote:

It was in one of the gameplay videos. When someone discovers the Academy hub it displays a message with some artwork.

EDIT:

Nevermind, it's probably a placeholder.

Yes and no actually. The picture you have shown is from the original Academy discovery message. There is actually a second different image you can see if you watch the Angry Joe gameplay interview. But no, I honestly doubt this is the Academy as there wouldn't be all those ships from different factions going to and fro from it. The picture is most likely either a representation of all the factions on a single image, or its the Marketplace.

I don't think it's the marketplace either. In the DDF they said that the first person to research the marketplace tech will own the marketplace on one of their planets. I don't believe it's a spaceport.

I can't say what it is, but to me it looks like this structure is floating over a flat surface made from a very strange substance, maybe a black liquid or a hardened one, not sure. Just look at the shadows cast by the thing and ships coming/departing from it.

I think it might just be pretty art made using existing but untextured 3D models that exists solely for the purpose of announcing Early Access, but that's just my boring theory...

It could be an Endless space station, seeing as how the design doesn't match the theme of any of the revealed factions so far.

Academy or marketplace.

I lean more towards the marketplace because I don't think the Academy will have that much ship travel to and from it. I imagine it as some sort of VIP club.