Dropping PCU

I started the game 3 years ago, I was lured in by the captivating effect of a completely player-driven economy and an open-world sandbox MMO-RPG. I remembered consistently, during prime time, 30k+ players (pre-COVID!!!). Now, it’s Friday night and I log in to see 17k, compared to the >22k I used to see. Why is this happening? And why does CCP think the response is to up the PLEX price (make the game less accessible) instead of maybe lowering the price to attract new payers. A $9.99 subscription sounds enticing and a small price to pay after experiencing the game as an alpha, $19.99 ensures that I will never pay with IRL money and only use ISK to omega my account. (THERE IS GLOBAL INFLATION, AND WHEN PEOPLE HAVE TO PAY FOR FOOD TO FEED THEIR FAMILY OR PLEX, (HOPEFULLY) THEY WILL PAY TO FEED THEIR FAMILY). Why doesn’t CCP advertise the things that brought me (and most people) into the game, MMO-RPG, sandbox, choosing your own adventure in a player-driven world? They aren’t focusing on getting new players, only milking their current players. I will play this game through scarcity, high or low PLEX prices, ganks, etc… the day I quit is when the PCU drops so low that the main part of the game that keeps me playing (player-player interaction) is gone.

So:
Why is this happening?
What can CCP do to fix this?

CCP LISTEN TO YOUR PLAYERS, THE ONES PAYING YOU, FOR ONCE!

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It’s almost as if all these grindbears talk to each other, or actually they listened to someone telling them what to do, and pretty much doing a sort of a human DDOS on the forums.

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@ Krimmins How do those numbers from yesterday help you with your next whs visit after you return back there with a new ship?

Your last player kill was 14th March which shows you spend a great deal of your gameplay either generating isk or you just don’t bother logging in unless it suits you.

Which brings up the next question does it really matter to you how other handle their finances and place their family first before buying Plex or adding a subscription to a game before feeding themself?

Who do you think people in this Eve community are?

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I Love a good conspiracy!

Do you think it’s possible a competing game developer may be spreading HATE against New Eden in the hopes of lifting their unfinished game up?

Do you think that CCP just got better at detecting and banning Bots? There is evidence to support this theory.

Do you think that we could be entering the Summer Slump and “some people” just want something to complain about?

Do you think that this particular individual is a @Phantomite CSM Shill out to lift up his campaign platform?

I’ve tilted my tinfoil hat slightly to left and I think I’m receiving signals indicating that there is some truth in at least two of the suggested conspiracy theories! MY TINFOIL HAT IS NEVER WRONG!

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FOR WHAT REASON AM I WOKEN FROM MY SLUMBER

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CCP is owned by Pearl Abyss.
CCP lost $9 million over the last two years.

I believe PA said to CCP: “you are hemorrhaging cash, raise prices NOW.”

Or it might be the break room needed a new espresso machine.

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Its almost like you’re part of a muppet squad that jumps on forums posts all over New Eden with posts like this.

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Could be worse, could be you.

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Now it’s Saturday afternoon and the PCU is 23,632.
I don’t think that number tells us anything.

Why it’s happening is probably because summer’s here. Still, 23k isn’t that bad.

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CCP makes more money that way :stuck_out_tongue:

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Where are you working that out from?

Q1 2020 EVE was bringing in 14.3 billion wong (11mil USD) this was also the lowest quarter in the last 2 years

Q1 2022 EVE is bringing in 18.2 billion wong (14.5mil USD)

Q3 2020 was the peak of the income generated with 21.3 billion wong (17mil USD)

After that first 14.2 billion quarter no other has gone below 17.6 billion wong

So by all accounts over the last 2 years CCP’s income has done nothing but grown in relation to EVE, yes we know PA’s overall profit has dropped but thats not just down to EVE as they operate other products and from looking at their own figures BDO would be the product with the highest drop in revenue going from 118 billion wong in Q1 2020 all the way down to 70.9 billion wong in Q1 2022 with its lowest quarter being 67 billion in Q4 2021

There was also a massive shift in revenue income by platform for them with 54% of their income in Q1 2020 being from mobile games all the way down to 24% in Q1 2022, so yeah PA is losing a boatload of cash but its not related directly to the EVE IP

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Astherothi ran out all the numbers from PA’s last quarterly report. You can find the video on his youtube channel. He covers it in detail.

You are right that income was up, but expenses outpaced that.

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EVE’s expenses aren’t listed separately, those are the expenses company wide so don’t really mean anything, also despite revenues being down they still recorded a profit each quarter the last 2 years, so he might want to re-run his numbers

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That is not the way I understood it, but I could be wrong.

In the end it really doesn’t change my belief that PA pushed the price increase. Bottom line, it was still a bad idea and poorly executed. If just a fraction of the people raging on the forums leave, it will cost them.

I did not explore that angle in my ‘confusion’ post, interesting. It means CCP is totally clueless and I gave them too much credit.

Side note, CCP I’m not paying you, don’t listen to me, do as you like.

I’m here to have fun, one way or another.

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The coming second price hike to 39.95 in august is where people will start going nuts but yes this is being driven by PA

Isn’t the EVE IP making more money than ever?

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They lose 2.5million per month as reported currently operating.

Damn. They’re about to lose a lot more as people unsub alt accounts due to the price hike.

CCP needs to spend some time and find out exactly why players are leaving and try keep them. Its harder to draw new players than to try and understand why people are leaving. I bet they don’t do any analysis on the comments when people cancel their accounts. I have been playing since 2009, recently dropped all 5 subbed accounts and it has nothing to do with the price increase.

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