Header art by Redline XIII.
In a news post released today, CCP Games announced they are to be acquired by Pearl Abyss, the company behind Black Desert Online. The deal will allow CCP to continue to operate independently, with Pearl Abyss bringing its development expertise to the table.
The chairman of CCP, Birgir Már Ragnarsson said in the press release:
“As lead investor in CCP for over 13 years alongside General Catalyst and NEA, we’ve seen CCP go from being a few dozen people strong to employing hundreds all over the world, with an ever-increasing customer base and multiple titles. CEO Hilmar V. Pétursson and his dedicated team have built a company that Novator and its partners are proud to hand over to Pearl Abyss and we wish them the best of luck in their future ventures.”
Hilmar, CEO of CCP had this to say:
“I have been seriously impressed with what Pearl Abyss has achieved ever since I first visited their website for Black Desert Online and subsequently became an avid player of the game. Pearl Abyss is a fast-growing company with lots to offer in terms of technology, capability and vision. I believe our two companies have a lot to learn from each other. We are very excited to join forces with them and achieve great new heights for our companies, our games and – above all – our players.”
The new owners of CCP Games, Pearl Abyss, said that for their part, they were looking forward to working with CCP because “They have done an incredible job of engaging and maintaining their playerbase, which we aim to learn from and hope to integrate natively into Pearl Abyss’ general practices across all our games.”
INN will bring you more information on this as it becomes available.
UPDATE: According to an article on Venturebeat, the acquisition deal is worth $425 million US. “We saw a lot of synergy between our plans and their plans and between our cultures and backgrounds and DNA. It might not be obvious of the synergy between an Iceland private company and a Korean public company, but through our games we found we had a lot in common,” said Hilmar in an interview with GamesBeat, adding “We have always looked to Korea and China, where services and online games are popular. The industry was born in Korea. Another aspect is that Asia’s public markets value gaming companies quite high at multiples versus the West.”
UPDATE 2: Hilmar has addressed the community in a dev blog regarding the acquisition. In it, he announced that there will be an “AMA on the official EVE Online forums with CCP Falcon and CCP Guard, who’ll be on hand to answer questions” on September 7, at 16:30 UTC.
Addendum: A transcript of the previously mentioned interview can be found here. Hilmar noted that the monthly active users count of EVE lies between 200,000 and 300,000 users.
UPDATE 3: Venturebeat have now released an interview with the CEO of Pearl Abyss, Robin Jung.
Super duper
This worries me, as in BDO there is a lot of pay2win.
September 6, 2018 at 9:23 AMMaybe this has changed but i’m really concerned about this development.
Rhivre Super duper
That aspect is something that is concerning quite a few people. We will have to see how it plays out in the long run.
September 6, 2018 at 10:07 AMTsc Admin Rhivre
I honestly can’t think of any possible way EVE could be more fd by another company than CCP fd it with FozzieSov and Space AIDS.
September 6, 2018 at 11:24 AMDelusionist Tsc Admin
I wouldn’t put it past them to set off Summer of Rage 2: Electric Boogaloo.
September 6, 2018 at 1:14 PMTsc Admin Delusionist
With proper organization, that could happen before the new owners even do anything 🙂
September 6, 2018 at 6:54 PMGarreth Vlox Tsc Admin
That’s easy to think of in this context. Imagine if you had to pay for a micro-transaction to take the sov you just ground down using fozzies version of sov warfare.
September 6, 2018 at 6:21 PMTsc Admin Garreth Vlox
Imagine if sov was by auction only :O
Good point. They could also make the game more like WOW 🙁
September 6, 2018 at 6:55 PMLynne Rankin Super duper
HAhahaa sorry, EVE is way more p2w. You can literally buy ISK in the game, and then you can buy skill injectors, and then you can fly anything in the game and buy anything in the game given that you have enough real life money. You can fly a titan day one if you have enough money.
September 6, 2018 at 2:28 PMTsioc Lynne Rankin
You could… but it wouldn’t last long.
September 6, 2018 at 3:59 PMLynne Rankin Tsioc
They still got your money though.
September 6, 2018 at 4:00 PMDave DA Adams Lynne Rankin
But you didn’t win
September 6, 2018 at 5:17 PMLynne Rankin Dave DA Adams
But they did.
September 6, 2018 at 5:35 PMGarreth Vlox Lynne Rankin
You seem to misunderstand the concept of P2W
September 6, 2018 at 6:20 PMTsc Admin Tsioc
Especially if you buy it from [redacted by Garth].
September 6, 2018 at 6:56 PMTsc Admin Lynne Rankin
In my first week I spent a lot of money on my 10 billion isk purple Oracle that I immediately blind-jumped into Old Man Star.
I didn’t win though.
September 6, 2018 at 6:57 PMDickDastardly Tsc Admin
Yes you did.
You won by being able to get it via your real world money and to be able to use it in your first week.
If you were rich/stupid enough you could do it with 20 accounts and multi-box a fleet of them in.
Or just do it with Catas or Talos and ‘win’ every time you blew a freighter on the way to Jita up.
Eve’s not p2w though.
September 6, 2018 at 11:38 PMGeneral Thade Lynne Rankin
Yes, but its not pay to learn. With games like that no matter how bad you are at the game, you still win.
September 6, 2018 at 7:42 PMLynne Rankin General Thade
Doesn’t matter to their wallets. They got your money.
September 6, 2018 at 7:59 PMSquinty McBlindy Lynne Rankin
That’s not p2w.
September 6, 2018 at 9:37 PMThat’s “pay to generate hilarious lossmail we all get to laugh at”.
Pew Pew
“Pearl Abyss is a fast-growing company with lots to offer in terms of money [–technology, capability and vision.–]”
ftfy
September 6, 2018 at 10:50 AManaisanais501
> We saw a lot of synergy between our plans and their plans
In non-bollocks speak, they were willing to give us $425m and we wanted $425m.
September 6, 2018 at 11:22 AMArkady Vachon
Everyone roll Achura to appease our new Korean overlords. Why not launch EVE in Korea then.
September 6, 2018 at 12:29 PMIcarus
To all the doomsayers from the last 10 years, the possibility of EVE actually dying is now VERY real. I, for one, will not go quietly into that good night.
September 6, 2018 at 2:48 PMGarreth Vlox Icarus
everybody sharpen your pitch forks and get extra torches
September 6, 2018 at 6:19 PMporky75
So here is what I predict:
1) Pearl will leave CCP alone for a while
2) Pearl will put pressure on CCP to generate more soft revenue (additional income from players beyond subscriptions)
3) CCP will attempt to persuade Pearl to be carefeull since it hit a brick wall before.
4) Koreans point to the wall where a chart shows shows who is in-charge
5) CCP implements more in-game purchase in items (some more expensive ones give advantage)
6) CCP will try to pass these off as balanced by pointing out that these things are no gurantee.
7) Players revolt in-game, in media, hacking, DDOS, etc…
8) Pearl makes formal statement explaining that maybe they didn’t understand the community
9) Pearl starts to see CCP as a liability.
10) In the meantime, Pearl takes best staff to work on new projects.
11) Pearl sees Eve as “mature” and scales back development of Eve.
Let me know in 2 years if I was right.
September 6, 2018 at 8:18 PMGarreth Vlox porky75
I don’t think it will take 2 years. I expect step 5 by the 6 month mark, Pearl will scale back eve the second they realize the player base would rather burn the game to the ground than see it ruined.
September 6, 2018 at 8:27 PMhatunzoth Garreth Vlox
How we could burn the game?
October 2, 2018 at 12:58 AMGarreth Vlox hatunzoth
I guess you weren’t here for the jita riots, you should read about them. In short player shooting an object in space with rainbow fit guns and launchers combined with spamming contract and market searches, and people activating smart bombs on the jita 4-4 undock every so often lagged the system so badly it became unplayable for anyone trying to actually use the market or contract system.
October 6, 2018 at 7:12 PMhatunzoth Garreth Vlox
Nice, but still lame.
October 7, 2018 at 12:21 AMIts like those DDOS attacks.
Childlish, and very few chances of reaction.
I would suggest a MASSIVE CAMPAIGN to STOP BUYING PLEX with real currency, even from whales and similars.
What a better way to hurt or kill companies that strike the heart, their wallets.
Garreth Vlox
““I have been seriously impressed with what Pearl Abyss has achieved ever since I first visited their website for Black Desert Online and subsequently became an avid player of the game.” Well at least we know where he will spend his millions.
September 6, 2018 at 8:25 PMPEND. Total Newbie
Change is good. Time will tell whether or not this is what a very stagnant Eve needed or not.
September 6, 2018 at 9:02 PMdigitalebola
Space retirement isn’t that bad, you will adjust easier than you think. :toot:
September 6, 2018 at 11:27 PMGarreth Vlox
“with an ever-increasing customer base and multiple titles.” These quotes are pure gold, its almost like they were made up on the spot.
September 7, 2018 at 12:31 AMAL
If EVE is about to truly die, then let us give it its viking funeral – let the fire of our spite and vengeance consume PA and make them pay dearly for their transgressions.
You all know what to do…
September 7, 2018 at 10:24 AMhatunzoth AL
Agree.
October 2, 2018 at 12:56 AMWe must SEND OUR REGARDS or SING THE RAINS OF CASTAMERE to Pearl Abyss
Alot
Welp… glad the world of darkness rights didn’t fall into the abyss. Enjoy the gilded age.
September 7, 2018 at 12:53 PMGanthrithor
I guess now we know why they named this expansion the way they did? v0v
September 8, 2018 at 8:31 AM