Variety just interviewed Hilmar about the PA acquisition and… oh well. He’s Hilmar. His reality may vary comapred to everybody else’s.
Juicy bits:
- the October deal is for 225 million upfront and 200 in performance payouts
- Hilmar plans to rewrite the basic engine of EVE Online to update it and ready for the Third Decade (capitals are his)
- Hilmar states that VR is not in a condition that makes good business to do business with it
- Hilmar think that S. Korea is a sign of things to come to the West in 3-5 years -i.e. hardcore portable games will be a thing in the West
- Hilmar thinks that the acquisition will immprove the odds of a EVE Online audiovisual production -a TV series or a film
- CCP would be working on a new IP for a PC multiplayer game, plus the already known projects Nova, Aurora and Galaxy (apparently Variety mistakes one of the projects for a PC MMO)
Since rewriting the base engine for EVE tantamounts to developing EVE 2, the obvious question is with what new employees hired with what money he plans to do that. Else the development of the thing people actually pay for (the game) will slow down… and that’s something EVE can’t afford in no way.
Also as for S. Korea being a sign of the future… well… shall we consider how “slightly” different is SK about the P2W and lootbox matters? What in heavens makes Hilmar think that SK trends point the future of Western trends when they disagree on the essential matter of paying for the games? And how did the fact that SK players are known to be maniac about gaming escape his attention?
Oh and by the way, Hilmar is contractually bound to stick with the company. Guess he’s done a cash out, rather than a bail out.