AMA - CCP Acquisiton by Pearl Abyss! Starts at 16:30 UTC!

Communications Center General Discussion
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  • What benefits do Pearl Abyss bring to the table for CCP and for the future of EVE Online?

There’s a long list, that’s for sure. Knowledge of building virtual worlds, technical knowledge, scalability knowledge… all kinds of things.

There’s a lot of super smart people there, and I’m sure more benefits will come to light in future.

  • What do you think Pearl Abyss can gain by working with CCP?

We’ve got a 20 year history of building virtual words. We’re also a bit crazy, and I’m kinda hoping that rubs off on them :stuck_out_tongue:

I also think we can learn from eachother in a lot of different areas, and I’ve heard that Pearl Abyss are super interested in how we engage with our players and what we do to retain people and disseminate information.

Hopefully we can help eachother in all kinds of areas.

  • EVE Online has long maintained an unwritten(?) policy of cash shop not inflating the ISK & SP supply in the market, and all cash shop items being tradeable on the market for prices decided by players. Is there any intention to move away from this policy?

The “OMG PAY TO WIN” thing got old after about three posts :stuck_out_tongue:

CCP maintains control of how we develop EVE - we’re not going to start ruining the economy we’ve spent 15 years watching you guys build.

  • What guarantee do we have, given Pearl Abyss’ history of failing to uphold their promises (for example cron stones on EU/NA servers), that the same won’t happen with EVE?

I mean, to be fair there’s a few things that CCP have missed the mark with over the years. There’s no guarantees on anything in life, but we’re in a position where we still maintain control over EVE, so we’ll continue to do what we do best.

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Except here, CCP has the moderation power.

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It’s really too early to talk about other future projects - we’re still kind of settling into things first :slight_smile:

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And how about Pay-to-Accomodate :slight_smile:

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More importantly: Will we be getting new material from MC Guard soon?

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Again, that is not a plus to doing the AMA here. That is a vote for censorship and the ability to hide behind the forum.

So you just made my point for me

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Heya @CCP_Falcon, @CCP_Guard! Thanks for spending your Friday afternoon with us. :slight_smile:

I don’t really have a question other than saying that I’m impressed at the demeanor you all have, and while I’d love to hear more about what you don’t know (financials, upgrading servers, roadmaps, etc.), I’m happy that you all are happy.

I want to point out that sometimes things are announced and never released, talked about and the opposite happens for one reason or another, and, while it sucks, you’ve made the best of it.

Congrats again and hopefully I’ll have the funds sometime to come say hi in Iceland someday.

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Or, you know, it means the mods don’t nuke a question they don’t like before CCP sees it. reddit mods are not less likely to be biased, and the mods of /r/EVE have definitely shown that. But this is horribly off-topic at this point.

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Hope you get something, thinking that Hilmar got 3bil Icelandic krona for his 6% shares if I’m not mistaken.
Björgvin and his investor had 46%? Not sure
Hilmar going on a long expensive holiday now I bet.

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Can i still go ahead with my five year plan and be confident that the game will stay on track?

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@CCP_Falcon

That P2W thing may have gotten old, but it ist very relevant and a plausible concern.

Do you have a written statement of PA not ending up tampering with EVE? Cause methinks that’s just sugarcoating.

And no offense or nothing personal, but it is evident that you peeps have no clue just how much of a clusterfuck PA’s one and only game, BDO, is in at the moment. PA is expert at preaching one thing then doing another.

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another question

you say you will have 100% control but in pa interview the guy says this

We also hope to further our market growth with Eve Online, plans for which we’re not yet ready to announce.

so they already have plans outside of your 100% control
does this worry you and do you know what the plans are

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Everybody is free to do what they want obviously but I will say that it doesn’t make sense to me to quit something you like doing and care about because you think maybe something will happen later that you don’t like. But I 100% understand the anxiety about something you love and are protective about, I don’t even like to move my desk at work!
I would just advise people to wait and see and keep doing what they enjoy in the meantime. It’s not like a protest is gonna reverse a completed company sale anyway. If we were facing mass cancellations, which we aren’t, they only have the potential to hurt EVE…which is the possibility people are afraid of to begin with, right?

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CCP is mostly based in Iceland, but we have staff from all around the world and offices elsewhere. But EVE development will stay in Iceland where it’s always been located for the most part.

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Thank you for the AMA and your time to answer all these various questions. I may disagree with you on some topics but that is part of AMA. I very much respect decision of CCP, and wish all the best!!!
After my battery died I write this from my second mobile and leave this AMA for the Friday night.
Cheers,
Yours
Baltic

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  1. How long did the negotiations last?

Can’t really be too specific, but they’ve been going on for a few months at least. Things like this take time :slight_smile:

  1. Were there things you guys had to do in order to finish the deal? As in: were previous layoffs part of the deal?

We can’t really go into specifics like that here, but not that I’m aware of.

  1. Was “Abyssal Deadspace” an insider joke about the upcoming acquisition?

I wish we could claim credit, but it was a total concidence :stuck_out_tongue:

  1. Will we keep having known faces at CCP around or will there be another round of large-scale layoffs?

There’s no plans for any changes in this respect.

  1. Is P.A. more interested in CCP’s IP, expertise and possible secret projects or do they intent to turn EVE Online into a space-themed BDO clone?

The former, not the latter. they’ve been super direct about this. They want CCP to keep being CCP, and to keep running EVE as we have done successsfully for 15 years.

  1. Do you consider this to be a good deal for the further development of EVE Online? If so, can you go into some detail? Specifically: will this mean larger operating capital for the development of EVE?

I think this is an amazing deal for the future development of EVE Online. It’s still early days, but all the signals we’re getting from Pearl Abyss are right, and they feel super good.

I’ve been with EVE for 16 years, as a player then as a dev. I’m not worried AT ALL. In fact, I’m super enthusiastic for the future.

  1. What do you think about player reactions so far?

Personally, I knew it’d be pretty negative - our community is super protective of EVE, which is only right given the sheer investment you guys put into it.

I’ve been a player for 16 years - I know how it goes, and for some people, hearing reassurance from us will help, for some it won’t.

Realistically, time will tell how things go. I’m just looking forward to hopefully looking back on this in a couple of years and being like “lol, you guys.”

  1. Will there be any drastic changes to how the game functions? Alphas still being a thing? Will PVP still be fundamental part? Will EVE continue to be single shard?

No, there’s no plans to change anything. Business as usual.

  1. Finally: what can we expect to happen in the near future, say the next 6 to 12 months?

There’s no plans to change the current roadmap, you’ll hear more at Vegas.

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I’m sorry if this was already asked and answered but, Into the Abyss? Was that a subtle hint?

nevermind. its right above me now.

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Hard for us to answer but those are just two very different business transactions basically. This was deemed the best kind of deal by the parties involved.

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  • What plans are in place for maintaining EVEs Business Model of Subscriptions with Cosmetic only Items in the Nex store?

No planned changes in our roadmap.

  • What does the acquisition mean for Community and customer support services moving forward?

It’s really to early to tell at this stage - we’re only 24 hours in to this being an actual thing :slight_smile:

Pearl Abyss are super interested in how we work with our players though, and how we engage with you guys, so we’ll see.

I’m very optimistic about the future.

  • What does the acquisition mean for our account data, is it going to be shared with the new owners or will CCP be the sole user and owner of our personal data?

Our privacy policies aren’t going to change.

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No, we’re always kicking bot butt.

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