To say that Retribution lured a lot of players to log in is an understatement. In November of last year the weekly average concurrent user count (average number of players logged on every hour for a week) was only 27,000 - 28,000. That jumped up to 32,012 the week of the expansion's launch and except during the Christmas holidays hasn't dipped below that mark.
The high water mark for Retribution was 3 March when the peak concurrent user (PCU) hit 60,476, the fourth highest total in Eve Online history. But the good times ended on 6 March as Team Security began scanning the Eve client's memory space for illicit software, catching Red Guard users flat-footed. The scans eventually included Questor and bots powered by the Inner Space extension ISXEVE. From a peak of 35,752 the week of 21 February, the weekly ACU fell 8.2% down to 32,810 the week of 14 March. Unlike other ban waves, those caught were permanently banned due to the use of code injection that CCP could actually prove. Because, well, client manipulation is against the Terms of Service.
As of last week the ACU was still 32,400, meaning that Eve players still see the same levels of activity on Tranquility as seen at the launch of Retribution. So four months into the expansion Retribution has maintained that 14.4% initial increase in activity, despite a major escalation in the War on Bots. At this rate Retribution will have built a solid increase and become known as one of the most popular expansions.
Justifiedly so. Retribution was solid.
ReplyDeleteThe new bounty mechanics alone were a LOOOOOONG missing/botched feature.
There is a fundamental problem with concurrent user count: CCP sells subscriptions and not online hours. Aupercapital training pilot who is online for 2 minutes a week pays exactly as much to CCP as someone who camps a gate 10 hours a day.
ReplyDeleteWhile generally players being more involved is a good thing, I'm not sure if it can be translated to business success for CCP.
Bots are probably the largest reason of this problem as bots spend lot of hours online.
The PCU numbers include DUST players.
ReplyDeletedon't be stxxxx
DeleteCCP had said it didn't
The concurrency numbers do not include DUST. That has been confirmed by CCP.
DeleteSo, we ask ourselves what is it about retribution that people like? Loads of new content? Bunch of new ships introduced? Nope. Bounty system that works quite well? Not really. Fixes to the inventory? Maybe a bit. New system makes life more difficult for gankers? Yep! Hmmmm.
ReplyDeleteso CCP moves all the dust514 beta players to tranquility with the retribution update, the logged on avg # of players goest up by an avg 5000 players per day and CCP attributes it all to 5000 new people suddenly playing EVE. And that AFK cloaky isnt there to gank u either he's just enjoying the color of the star in your system!
ReplyDelete