The Icelandic developers behind EVE Online, CCP, were bought by the Korean studio Pearl Abyss 5 years ago. Since then, there have been some strange occurrences in Reykjavik. Now the studio announced a new AAA game with “Project Awakening,” which is supposed to utilize controversial blockchain technology. The community wants nothing to do with it and is firing up the propaganda machine.
What is the somewhat strange financial situation at EVE Online?
- The Icelandic company has been operating the SF MMORPG “EVE Online” since 2003: A kind of gigantic social experiment in a sci-fi universe with a fanatical player base, which has been waging years-long wars over virtual star systems. All other games that CCP wanted to develop over the yearsturned out to be money pits – nothing ever came of it.
- The Korean developer Pearl Abyss, on the other hand, has been developing the MMORPG Black Desert since 2014 and has brought the game to consoles, Europe, and mobile devices. The visually stunning and grind-heavy action MMORPG earns a lot of money through microtransactions (many call it pay-to-win).
- In 2018, Pearl Abyss bought CCP with the large profits from Black Desert. People still wonder what exactly the plan was behind it.
In any case, CCP has been trying for years to develop more games alongside the 20-year-old EVE Online to somehow expand the company, as EVE Online is now aging and the studio is rather shrinking.
CCP announces AAA game with blockchain
This is the announcement now: Yesterday, CCP announced an AAA game set in the universe of EVE Online that will be developed using blockchain technology. For the project, they received an investment of $40 million from an investor.
CCP only provided a few details on what the game would be like. They mentioned that the 25 years of design experience combined with blockchain would surely result in something great. Players would thus be “empowered” and would “own things themselves.” This all has a lot of potential.
EVE players fire up propaganda machine
How did the community react? It’s important to know that the players in EVE are skilled at setting up massive smear campaigns within hours to expose or discredit political enemies in the game.
Even themost formidable space tyrants of EVE Online have been brought to their knees by constant criticism.
The players of EVE are masters of propaganda, as in the game it’s about motivating their own soldiers and demotivating opponents when going into war.
So, just a few hours after the announcement of the new AAA game, there were already some nasty posts directed at CCP’s CEO, Hilmar Veigar Petursson. He’s accused of making the same mistake over and over. Now he’s trying to catch a trend that is generally regarded as “dead”:
Meanwhile, the EVE Online reddit forum is full of memes and posts mocking developer CCP:
- The CEO is compared to Iraqi politician Mohameed Saeed al-Sahhaf, known as “Baghdad Bob” or “Comical Ali,” for spreading bizarre propaganda messages and obvious lies during the Iraq War
- The criticism here is that the CEO of CCP translated “NFT” as “Not for [the main server] Tranquility,” effectively excluding blockchain for EVE
- Additionally, they show piles of money that have been burned for the many spin-off games in EVE
Overall, the sentiment is: Instead of burning $40 million on a game that nobody wants, it would be better to invest the money in EVE.
NFTs are a red flag for many gamers. They see it as pure money-making without benefiting players. Additionally, there are some very strange statements from “NFT experts”:
