Back when PWI acquired Cryptic, which produces Star Trek Online, Champions Online, and Neverwinter, there was a huge amount of bemoaning they would take those games to a largely P2W cash shop. Surprisingly, they didn’t do it. You can still play all three games without spending a dime. But the blingy stuff, it’s locked behind your wallet. Or a massive grind of ingame currency. You can still do that.
Who knows, maybe PA will change very little of EVE Online. If they do kill the game, there are plenty of games out there to occupy both our time, and our wallets. I hope it doesn’t come to that though.
Seriously, do a run of BDO for a month, do just the grind gameplay. If it makes you happy, it’ll be fine. If it doesn’t, then keep in mind that it is still progressing down the same road.
Problem is, that things will change with time, i agree nothing major is going to happen immediately, but given time they will start to see what they can afford to get away with so in time hilmar may not be able to keep that promise indefinitely, especially seeing as pearl will own CCP and they can do whatever they want with the game regardless of what hilmar may want
If such a “partnership” was so beneficial then why wait 20 years to do it?
Then why sell specifically to a company which is as similar as possible in culture and vision to CCP?
Financial ownership isn’t arbitrary at all and neither is it irrelevant.
Some backers remain hands-off while others are more hands-on, but regardless, ownership confers the ability to choose how to run the company. Consequently, when you give up ownership you give up control. There is always a cost associated with such a deal because the new owners want something in return for their purchase. If the company is doing well they may be content to just reap the profits but if things get worse they may change their minds…
The way to ensure a synergistic approach is to find someone who will treat your company as you would, but the truth is, nobody will., hence it’s effectively an exercise in compromise and damage limitation, forced by necessity.
When you’ve built a company up from scratch over decades and guided it through ups and downs there are few reasons that would make you consider selling it.
This remains to be seen. While there may be some short term share price speculation (CCP were privately owned but BDO are a publicly listed company) there is no reason to expect investors will invest more in these companies simply because they merge or one buys the other. What matters is the products they have on offer.
When you have a game as long standing and well known as EvE Online, what investors are looking for is the potential for continued revenue generation from the existing brand. However, a new owner may believe they can “run” things better, which means changes.
