The Korean gaming studio Pearl Abyss has announced the acquisition of CCP. Thus, the company behind the sandbox MMORPG Black Desert is swallowing the creators of the space MMORPG EVE Online.
What does this mean exactly? Pearl Abyss announces that CCP will remain independent. They will continue to operate their studios in Reykjavik, London, and Shanghai. Pearl Abyss wants to leverage CCP’s experience in publishing and development now additionally for their own projects.
Salubrious words: The parties involved have friendly words for each other. At Pearl Abyss, they are “excited that CCP is joining the team.”
At CCP, they say they are extremely impressed by what Pearl Abyss has accomplished.
Signs of a crisis at EVE Online
What is behind this? The development comes as a surprise now. There were no major leaks beforehand that anything like this was on the table. But upon closer inspection, the acquisition is something that has been on the horizon for a long time. While Pearl Abyss is doing great, CCP has been facing problems for years.
CCP in crisis: For years, rumors have circulated at CCP that things have not been going well:
The projects that CCP pursued alongside EVE Online all flopped quite brutally and cost millions. They had ideas for virtual reality projects or wanted to do something with the “White-Wolf” brand, World of Darkness. However, all that failed: there were some gruesome stories about how millions were lost. The branch in Atlanta, USA, is said to have been a money pit.
EVE Online itself is probably also not getting any younger.
Money from Pearl Abyss is probably coming from mobile games and Asia
Why is Pearl Abyss doing so well? At Pearl Abyss, however, “Black Desert” is doing well. Although the PC MMORPG has somewhat stagnated in Europe and America, they have achieved great success with the mobile version of Black Desert in Asia.
What happens next? The question is, what does Pearl Abyss expect from CCP? The deal will hardly be about EVE Online. Rather, it’s about CCP’s expertise.
The players of EVE Online will certainly have very different questions in the coming days, especially about how their game, in which they have invested so many hours, will continue.
The sci-fi hardcore MMORPG EVE Online is the simulation of a ruthless universe. On a single server, thousands of players go at each other in a constantly changi...
Black Desert Online is a Buy2Play MMORPG from Korea, which has drawn attention in the West with impressive graphics and an action-packed combat system. The deve...
