Flying Solo In EVE: The Vagabond

I took a little break over the Independence Day weekend. Not the entire weekend because I did need to play a little for blogging purposes. Then I started flying my old love, the Rifter. I did finish up in Exordium and maybe got a little carried away, working on another EVE project: making PvE fits for heavy assault cruisers. Eventually I want to make one for each NPC empire. My new thumbnail for EVE posts is a little bit of foreshadowing.

Online activity declining after the launch of CoW

Looking at the charts I wasn't the only one. For the week the average number of accounts logged in dropped again down to 24,000 +/- 500 accounts. So far in 2026 the line has not dropped below 24,000. Will the online numbers continue to drop or were Americans just off celebrating the holiday weekend (and everyone else watching the World Cup)?

A pause in PLEX sales

Over the week the average price of PLEX on the global PLEX market dropped 4.4% as the Omega time sale in the New Eden Store ended on Tuesday. The replacement sale in the cash shop involved skill points and Cerebral Accelerators which didn't impact demand for PLEX. Offering new SKINs for sale in the NES wasn't that enticing. Overall players traded nearly 15,000 months of gametime on the global PLEX market for 34.7 trillion ISK.

Statistics halfway through 2026

Last week was ship nostalgia week as I flew a couple of ships I hadn't in a few years. The first was when I finished up in Exordium on my new character. I forgot how much fun flying a Rifter is. A very low skill ship, the NPCs didn't manage to break my shield tank, a positive on a armor tanked ship. On my new character I am now busy training up to fly a navy destroyer for when I run the last obvious new player content, the Sisters of EVE epic arc The Blood-Stained Stars. Yes, I'm still traumatized by Dagan 17 years later.

The Vagabond is a blitzing beast

I decided I wanted a HAC to blitz level 3 missions to make running through the Daily AIR missions run faster. While my Sacrilege is a long range sniper that shrugs off damage, Gemini gave me a Vagabond fit that relies on speed and a lot of close-in autocannon damage. Yes, my AI experiment with letting Gemini fit ships continues.

My testing with the ship is almost over and I have to do a write-up and post on the experience. Admittedly I'm an afterburner type of pilot and don't like the idea of someone shutting off my microwarpdrive with a scram. But I decided to let Gemini fit the ship and take advantage of the Vagabond's role bonus. The resulting 2400 m/sec speed is really nice flying around mission pockets.

The AI did let me know the Vagabond relies on speed. I was a little slow figuring out the situation once and had to warp out. But once I remembered how to manually pilot by clicking in space the experience was pretty fun. And satisfying. I'm just glad I was doing the level 3 versions of the missions.

I do have to admit I started thinking about the movie Dr. Strangelove and Slim Pickens waving a white hat as he rode a nuclear bomb to a target over the Soviet Union. That image, plus some of the coverage of the World Cup in Texas, inspired the below Vagabond image. Which is one of the reasons some may not like AI: cat ears in EVE.

Not exactly the way the devs imagined riding a Vagabond

Cloud Imperium Games Cash Shop Records $67.7 Million In Sales In Q2 2026

We are only at the halfway point of 2026 and I've already run out of superlatives to describe the revenue performance of Cloud Imperium Game's online cash shop. According to the CCU Game dashboard, in June the company sold $11.8 million in goods, mostly in the form or virtual space ships, an increase of 29.1% over the total in June 2025. 

The year-over-year comparison was even more impressive when looking at the total for the second quarter. The $67.7 million in cash shop revenue for the past three months was a 47.4% increase over that recorded in Q2 2025. For the first half of 2026, the company raked in $95.1 million. Not bad for a video game studio which has yet to commercially launch a game.

Cash shop sales up 52.9% over the average from 2022-2025

The $1024.3 million ($1.02 billion) displayed on the Roberts Space Industries funding page at the end of May was not a comprehensive accounting for all of CIG's revenue since the project's Kickstarter in October 2012. Overall, the company has recorded $1,179.4 million ($1.18 billion) in confirmed revenue (the funding page & the 2024 financial report).

• Sales/Pledges: $1024.3 million ($1.02 billion) (through 30 June 2026)
• Other cash shop revenue: $2.7 million (through 31 December 2024)
• Subscriptions: $46.8 million (through 31 December 2024)
• All other sources: $105.6 million (through 31 December 2024)

Q2 cash shop sales up 75.5% compared to the previous 3-year average

In addition, the company has received a total of $68.25 million in outside investment. According to the 2023 financial report, $4.8 million of the amount was returned to investors in 2020 and another $3.1 million in 2023-2024. Including the outside investment money, the total amount raised by CIG to create Squadron 42 and Star Citizen is $1,247.6 million ($1.25 billion), or $1.239.8 million ($1.24 billion) when excluding the returned funds. An additional $12.6 million in loans issued in March 2025 and due for repayment on 31 December 2027 are not included in the total.

New account creation still grew by 12.7%

The new user account generation may come as a surprise to those who followed Star Citizen in June. Despite all the complaints about server performance introduced with patch 4.8, new user account generation still increased by 12.7% year-over-year up to 38,060 accounts. Not only is new account creation not related to sales, apparently the statistic is not an indication of game stability either.

The 2024 Financial Report: CIG finally got around to posting the combined financial report for the company's worldwide business on 7 June. With that I was able to update some of the financial categories in the monthly summary of known revenue. In total, an additional $30.3 million in revenue is added to my running monthly tally. The total known revenue collected outside the cash shop comes out to $155.1 million from 2012 to 2024, the same amount the cash shop earned in 2025.

The 2024 financial report also showed spending hit a plateau in 2023-2024. CIG spent $163.1 million in 2023 and $160.9 million in 2024. If the company managed to maintain that spending, then CIG spends approximately $13.5 million per month. If CIG was able to keep spending increases at the level of inflation in the UK, we can expect spending in 2026 to wind up at the $14.5 million per month range.

Flying Solo In EVE: Halfway Through 2026

I have to admit that over the last week or so work has gotten a little hectic and I haven't played a lot of video games, much less EVE Online.  I've also spent what turned into a significant part of my free time going down the AI rabbit hole, mostly related to EVE content. Is my current run of playing EVE steadily, now approaching the end of month 7, slowing down?

Average and peak concurrency - 23-29 June 2026

I'm not the only one slowing down. Last week the average number of accounts logged in at any one time dropped down to 25,000 +/- 500 accounts. An expected decline after the launch of Cradle of War a couple of weeks ago and still at the average number for the first five months of the year. I'm really interested to see if the summer slow down begins in July or somehow is delayed until August.

The Global PLEX Markt

One thing that didn't slow down was Fenris Creations' end of quarter sales. The big one was a New Eden Store sale where Omega game time was marked 25% off until 2359 UTC today. Since time in the NES is sold using PLEX, that created a big demand, pushing the average price of a single PLEX to over 5 million ISK. The demand (and price) settled down but the average price of PLEX on the global PLEX market finished the week up 4.4%.

Finally comes an update on my alts. I've almost run out of multiple character training time on the character I started training at the beginning of April. The training plan I set out to become a max skill Sacrilege pilot completes a little after midnight UTC tomorrow. I probably need to use the rest of the time to learn some of the social skills to enhance my PvE payouts.

After that I can concentrate on my newest character, a Minmatar Vherokior who still needs to finish up in Exordium and then take the shipcaster to Amo to begin the life of a Minmatar citizen. I still have 2 months of multiple character training to use and a lot of PLEX saved up. If MCT goes on sale in the NES I might take advantage and lock myself into playing regularly for the rest of the year. Assuming EVE Frontier doesn't drag me back in, of course.

EVE Online And Gemini: It's All About The Prompts

Since the announcement of the managerial buyout of Fenris Creations from Pearl Abyss I've switched my AI program of choice from Copilot to Gemini and the entire suite of DeepMind applications. After about two months I thought I'd do a little review of how well the products of Fenris' financial and research product perform for me when used on EVE Online. 

My newest and oldest characters having a beer

Before heading straight into Gemini I want to take a quick look at Google Flow. The problem I have is coming up with backgrounds for the characters. That is kind of a given since the stars of the game aren't the players' avatars but the ships they fly. I'll need to see what I can do with ship images.

Output from my global PLEX market scripts

I am not going to dive into the assistance I received in upgrading my EVE Python scripts. For now my scripts focus on analyzing the global PLEX market. I used Gemini to clean up the code from my initial efforts using Copilot plus extending the data base my scripts can use. The API I access every day only holds up to 13 months of data. A couple of weekends ago I used Gemini to write data files locally I can access for historical data. I already had the code written in another script but all I had to do is copy my old code into Gemini and I had new code. Yes, I still had to troubleshoot problems because AI is not perfect, but the process was a lot less painful than what I experienced with Copilot.

A Sacrilege fit created by Gemini

Now for the function I found the most fun: ship fitting and theorycrafting. If players use Gemini (or any AI, really) poorly a lot of nice, shiny, EXPENSIVE kill mails will show up on zKillboard. Until AI gets a lot better, fitting is going to feel a lot like manually figuring out how to fit a ship. As the title of this post says, "It's all about the prompts."

I went through the fitting process with a Sacrilege. Tell Gemini the ship being fitted, the type of content

to engage with (PvE vs PvP), why are you running the content, and the location in New Eden (Minmatar Republic vs Caldari State, for example). Gemini might ask some clarifying questions but eventually will provide a fitting.

This is where the double checking begins. Use the in-game fitting tool to make sure of things like do you have the skills to fly the fit and are all the fitting slots being used. For example, in the image above my fit is intentionally leaving one of the high slots empty.

Then comes what I consider the fun part. Have Gemini explain the fit to me. One of the most important question (or prompts) to ask is why Gemini decided not to take advantage of a ship role or bonus. Sometime doing so improves the fit. Sometimes the reply explains something I didn't consider. In other words, I learn, or at least remember, things about EVE I wouldn't have by fitting the ship unassisted.

The Minmatar Ship Tree

The next two uses are more for some blogging projects I have. One is the actual number of spaceships in EVE Online. Looking at the ships listed in EVE's many ship trees I came up with 374. I then came up with a crazy idea: how many ships has Fenris introduced to EVE while Star Citizen has been in development. Not exactly an easy question to answer since Cloud Imperium has spent close to 14 years developing SC. So I made a spreadsheet with the names of the ships, ship details, but perhaps most importantly, when the ship was released.

Remember the title of this post? My life would have been a lot easier if I had used efficient prompts at the beginning. I wound up using the ship tree to identify the 100+ ships that weren't present in the initial data set. I spent a couple of hours going through finding all the missing ships, duplicates, and misspellings. But I do have the answer to the question of how many ships that are on the ship tree have the developers introduced since Star Citizen was announced: 133.

The last project I used Gemini for was related to my EVE ship spreadsheet. The spreadsheet currently has a column indicating if a ship was introduced before or after the introductory announcement of Star Citizen. But what about the eras of EVE? I wanted to divide the game into eras but I wasn't sure if I wanted to just use "First Decade", "Second Decade" and "Third Decade". 

I came up with a pretty good initial prompt with different options. The three eras I came up with, using Gemini's research to back up the decision, were:

• Era A: The Classical Sandbox & Accumulation (2003 – Summer 2013)
• Era B: Intended Fixes & Unintended Consequences (Late 2013 – Late 2022)
• Era C: Reconciliation, Ecosystem Design, & Independence (Late 2022 – Present)

Something strange happened during this last project. I began thinking of Gemini as a partner and not just an application to use. I know AI programmers try to achieve that goal, but my prompts became a conversation, bouncing ideas off Gemini. My little idea to create eras I can use to think of EVE history became a fairly detailed outline, lining up in-game developments with real world business decisions.

I decided to let Gemini write a brief article on the history of EVE. I then acted as editor to remove all the inaccuracies I could find. The brief history turned into 2500 words and 6 1/2 pages in Google Docs as putting in the corrections I found added an additional 2-3 pages to the story.

For those wondering what a Gemini-assisted story looks like, below is the title and link.

The Three Epochs of New Eden: A Macroeconomic History of EVE Online

I'm not quite sure about some of the null sec political stuff. Yes, I was around but never really played in null sec due to my allergy to bubbles. But as much as I've gone over the Google Doc I think, except for the length, the article is pretty good. While I may not formally publish the piece I am going to use the Google Doc as background information when writing about EVE Online in the future.

I've used Google DeepMind products, particularly Gemini, quite a bit since the MBO of Fenris Creations from Pearl Abyss brought the AI giant into EVE's orbit. One thing I've learned is that AI is not a magical wand one can wave to make things easier. The less work one puts into using the tools, the worse the results. The one thing I've become convinced of is that experience makes the use of AI more effective. One has to have the ability to recognize errors in order to fix them.

EVE Frontier Cycle 6 Launched 25 June 2026

"You are a baby turtle on a beach... except there is no sea and the gulls have guns. Run."

EVE Frontier Cycle 6 patch notes

I'm a bit behind due to a real life power outage, but EVE Frontier launched its Cycle 6: Sanctuary yesterday. The game is progressing past the point I'll play when the game finally launches. I'll have to see if the game swings back to a point where I think I can play further down the line. Indeed, the way the game is evolving has me hesitant to go beyond the new player experience because I just don't have the time to play.

I still follow development of the game because I think what the team over at Fenris is doing, while very niche, is fascinating. Over the next couple of weeks I want to jump into Frontier and run through the starter system once again. Every time is a new experience.

In keeping with Google DeepMind's investment in Fenris, I plan to keep up with the game by taking the patch notes and dev blog for each cycle and running them through Gemini. But first I want to make a couple of comments about things I like or don't like.

1. The change in the free trial - I think the Frontier team is getting a little more confident in the stability of the game world. The change now means new players can drop in at anytime instead of at designated times.

2. Modular ship building - The initial release of modular ship building is the feature that really has me interested in logging into Cycle 6. Plus, I always wanted a crafting ship in EVE Online.

3. No more logging off to safety - This is the feature that makes me hesitant to log into Cycle 6. My compromise, at least at first, will be to just stay in the starter system.

4. Testing crypto - The fuel-based economy feature is introducing a test version of Frontier's crypto currency. For those who are allergic to crypto.

5. Evolving ecology - One of the things I found intriguing about games like Everquest Next was the idea of NPCs running around doing things even if no players were around. I think we begin to see this implemented in Cycle 6.

6. A more robust starting area - Between the new starter systems in Frontier and the introduction of Exordium in Online I'm beginning to think some development theories are showing up in both games.

Now that I've had my say, here's what Gemini pulled from the patch notes and dev blog:

---

1. Modular Ship Building (Initial Release)

Instead of flying predefined, static ships, the old fitting system has been completely reworked.

• The Concept: You now manage a single modular ship built from a "catalog of modules." Your ship's purpose (industry, combat, exploration, or logistics) depends entirely on which parts you piece together.

• On-Board Crafting: You can now install modules like mini-printers and material processors directly onto your vessel, essentially turning your ship into a mobile, flying manufacturing facility.

• Rebuilt Energy System: Fuel is now the definitive lifeblood of your ship. It flows linearly: Fuel → Generators → Power → Consumers. If you run out of fuel, you sit idle until you are destroyed, though modules now have battery capacities to give you a temporary buffer.

• Thrust-Based Physics: Top speed limits are gone. The game has transitioned to a thrust-and-torque-based model where acceleration and your ship’s structural ability to handle the forces of turning dictate how fast you can go without tearing the vessel apart.

2. A Brutal Survival Loop & "Space Fights Back"

Space is no longer a passive backdrop—it actively tries to kill you. Safety is no longer free.

• Stellar Heat: The system star radiates active environmental heat. The longer you stay in open space, the more your heat rises. You have to actively break line-of-sight by hiding behind wrecks, space rocks, and structures to cool down.

• Feralization: A new threat type called Feral Drones lurk in shadows. If they get close, they apply a "Feralization" status effect that can corrupt and sever the connection to your pilot shell without even needing to blow up your ship.

• No More Safe Log-offs: When you log off, your ship stays floating out in space. Furthermore, NPC station doors are closed—you can no longer dock there for infinite safety. To survive, players must build a Refuge (a dockable shelter) to protect themselves and their gear between sessions.

3. The Fuel-Driven Economy

Sanctuary brings the core economy loop online. Players can exchange LUX for a test version of $EVE to acquire Mining Lenses. You then use these lenses to extract Crude Matter from rifts and refine it into the vital Fuel required to run ships, bases, and infrastructure.

4. Reactive Feral Drones & Combat Rebalance

• Allotrope Clade Drones: New evolutionary feral drones (Mycena and Dermestid) have been introduced. The Mycena scavenges materials and builds a stationary, vulnerable Chrysalis. If left alone, it consumes resources and hatches into a highly dangerous, ranged combatant (the Dermestid). Players have to choose whether to destroy the chrysalis early or let it hatch for potentially rarer loot.

• Conservator Rebalance: Existing Conservator drones have had their total health/shields lowered but their damage significantly boosted, making combat encounters much faster and more lethal.

5. New Player Experience & Rebuilt Opening

• The Creche: Everyone now spawns (and respawns upon death) in a starting zone called the Creche until they manage to build a Refuge home. It acts as a baseline area to learn to scavenge, salvage, and craft your first crude survival tool—the Skillshot Cutting Laser (a free-aiming, non-target-locked multi-tool used for mining, salvaging, and basic defense).

• Contextual Tutorials: The game has abandoned linear hand-holding. Tutorial pop-ups will now only contextually surface guide prompts the exact moment you discover a new mechanic or resource out in the sandbox.

6. Accessibility & Features

• Five-Day Free Trial: A new 5-day free trial system is live. Anyone can register, download the launcher, and play for 5 days from character creation before needing Founder Access.

• Visuals: 3D animated character models and Shell sheets are now fully rendered inside the game client.

• Tribes: Players can now form Tribes natively while out in space without needing to dock at a station first.

The Defense Crumbles: Pearl Abyss Stock Falls Another 21%

One of the benefits of owning an independent blog is the ability to go back and update stories I find interesting. The fall of the stock price of Pearl Abyss following the managerial buyout of CCP Games/Fenris Creations is one of those stories. When I last looked on 22 May Pearl Abyss stock had fallen to ₩46,050, the target price set by the analysts at JPMorgan. How has the price moved since then?

The price continued to slide

The price continued to fall. By the close of the KOSDAQ on Friday 5 June the stock had dropped another 12% down to ₩40,500 a share. On the following Monday the price crashed through ₩40,000 a share in afterhours trading over the weekend to open at ₩37,700. On Tuesday Pearl Abyss announced three measures designed to stabilize the stock price.

The first was the establishment of the company's first-ever annual cash dividend policy (the greater of ₩10 billion ($6.5 million) or 10% of net profit). 

Next came the retirement of roughly 1.4 million treasury shares (representing 50% of its holdings) three days later on Friday, June 12. When a company "retires" treasury shares, it permanently deletes them. These shares vanish from the books and Pearl Abyss can never reissue or resell them on the open market. By permanently shrinking the total pool of outstanding stock, Pearl Abyss structurally locked in a higher ownership percentage for every remaining shareholder and theoretically eliminated future dilution risk.

The third measure reinforced the retirement of the treasury shares. The company hired Korea Investment & Securities Co., Ltd to institute a buyback of ₩100 billion ($64.7 million) worth of Pearl Abyss shares. The buyback program is scheduled to last until December 2026.

At first the buyback worked as intended by creating a psychological price floor. The buyback news triggered a short-term rally, lifting the share price back up to ₩41,150 by the end of the trading day on 12 June.

Timeline of the price drop

But Pearl Abyss' plan didn't work as intended. Instead of jumping back in to purchase under-valued stock, institutional investors used the guaranteed buying volume from Korea Investment & Securities as a convenient exit door. They dumped their shares right into the company's own bids. Once the temporary buying window closed, the stock resumed its fall in value. 

And this is coming on today's article in GameRant that after three months user counts on Steam are down 95% from its all-time peak. So despite announcing Crimson Desert had reached 6 million units sold on 12 June, the rice has dropped another 12% over the past 12 calendar days.

The story of the fall of the stock price of Pearl Abyss began with the news of the sell-off of CCP Games (now Fenris Creations) on 29 April. The sales of Crimson Desert, now up to 6 million units, are now baked into the historic revenue calculations. MassivelyOP has noted that any meaningful DLC or major platform expansions for Crimson Desert are mapped out 1 to 2 years away. The next new game in the pipeline, DokeV, is 2-3 years away. Until the new content hits the market, Pearl Abyss needs to depend on the Black Desert franchise for the majority of its revenue for a significant amount of time.

I did get a quote from Gemini I liked about the near-to-mid term future of Pearl Abyss:

By divesting the steady, boring, predictable live-service subscription engine of EVE Online right at this moment, Pearl Abyss successfully turned themselves into a "pure-play" console/premium developer. The problem? The market hates gaps. Investors looked at the 2026–2028 pipeline, saw a multi-year structural drought where Black Desert has to carry the entire corporate overhead alone, and cleared out.

Whether that analysis is correct remains to be seen. But what is indisputable is that since the news of the departure of Fenris Creations from the Pearl Abyss family the stock price of PA's stock has declined 39.4%.

Flying Solo In EVE: The New Epic Arc For Beginners

I'm still in the fascination phase with EVE Online's summer expansion, Cradle of War. But the honeymoon is beginning to wear off as I feel myself drawn to completing some blogging research tasks. Some of these tasks have taken hours even with the assistance of AI, as I had to QA the output. 

For the week of 15-21 June 2026

I think I'm not the only one who's attention is wondering. EVE-Offline.net showed last week the average number of accounts logged in at any one time remained at 26,000 +/- 500 accounts. But in the middle of the week the line reached 27,000 accounts before returning to 26,000 over the weekend.

Price and sales volume on the global PLEX market

The price of PLEX remained constant, with the average daily price falling less than 1% over the course of the week. The volume of PLEX sold did spike, thanks in part to a big 25% off sale in the EVE Store which is ongoing until 28 June. Expect a lot of activity on the global PLEX market in the next 5-7 days as today Fenris announced a 25% off Omega time sale in the in-game New Eden Store. This means that for the next 5 days, one can spend $93.75 for 3000 PLEX, spend 2700 to get one year of Omega gametime, and have 300 PLEX left over. Plus, I hear the SKINs that come with the sale in the online store look pretty good. EVE for $7.81/month compared to the $20/month standard for one month at a time or $144/year ($12/month) the company usually charges for a year is kind of insane.

Supply of PLEX on sell orders, approximately 1 hour after downtime

A new graph I've been working on shows the effects of the sale already. An hour after downtime yesterday the global PLEX market had 225,559 PLEX in 191 sell orders. This morning, the supply had decreased down to 114,615 PLEX in 63 sell orders. If the developers wanted to decrease the supply of PLEX, they may have done so. We'll have a better idea next week.

Finally, my experience in Exordium continued last week. I completed the 4 career agents I wanted to work with, leaving the Soldier of Fortune career track agent alone. I then went on to the new epic arc designed for new players: Visions of Greatness. The epic arc is designed to introduce new players to some of the base lore for each of the four NPC empires. A good idea. However, I did encounter a problem. Each of the four main faction missions requires flying one of that faction's ships. Actually a good idea, but I encountered a problem. I needed to train into each of the ships, including some of the weaponry.

Like I said, a good idea. If someone completes Visions of Greatness, they will have all the basic skills to sit in an Astero. Then, if they want to continue down the Sisters' ship line they can use the shipcaster in Dettisolin to jump to Amo. Perfect for those choosing Minmatar, and perhaps even Gallente.

The fly in the ointment is learning the skills to fly the ships. I had to pause my progress to learn the skills. I guess if I were an actual new player I could have run Sisters missions while waiting for my skills to finish. Instead I went ahead and worked on my second alt. I managed to finish up 3 personal goals in military campaigns last week. A good use of my time, but would a new player have the ability to do that? No. Perhaps a stronger hint about how to earn skill points might be in order. Just saying.

Squadron 42 Release Announcement In October?

Over the weekend I heard about Cloud Imperium Games sending out invitations to a private event in Manchester on the weekend of 9-11 October. One of the major Star Citizen content creators, BoredGamer, released a video explaining the situation. Since he is going to the event, I'm going to consider that confirmation of the original Reddit post.

According to the Reddit post, a curated guest list of European, US, and Australian content creators, specialized gaming media, and a select handful of long-term original backers received invitations. Instead of showing off stage demos and heavily polished vertical slices, CIG plans to give attendees exclusive, hands on gameplay at the event. CIG also plans to make the core development team available for face-to-face interactions as well as present an unrestricted look at the current state of the single-player campaign.

I have to put in my two cents. I know that people on Reddit were excited because the invitation included "Launches 2026", but unless I hear about CIG obtaining a publisher in the People's Republic of China, I don't see the game launching this year. Especially since Grand Theft Auto VI is still on track to release on 19 November 2026 with pre-orders beginning on Thursday.

Instead, I see the event as a kickoff to marketing the game to people outside the Star Citizen community. My big prediction is the announcement that CIG will sell the game on Steam and that players can begin pre-ordering Squadron 42 at that time on both Steam and the traditional RSI website. Since I am assuming a Steam launch, CIG would need to follow Steam's policies. These policies include having a "Coming Soon" page up for a minimum of two weeks before buyers can press they buy button. Steam also requires a build review to ensure the game boots up properly and doesn't contain malicious files.

These Steam requirements explicitly details that Valve requires 3-5 business days to review the store page and a separate 5 business days to review the actual game build. I really don't see CIG setting things up ahead of time and stepping on their big announcement. CIG probably will also want to avoid the launch of GTA VI so I imagine a launch window of June or July 2027 would work well in also meeting all of Valve's requirements to list the game on Steam.

Pushing the release back until the summer of 2027 would also give CIG to set up relationships in the People's Republic. CIG is not a company like Fenris Creations. FC set up a physical presence in Shanghai in 2005 and began operating EVE Online in the country during the summer of 2006. Not only does CIG need a Chinese partner to sell the game in China, but an influential one like TenCent or NetEase is almost a must for a billion dollar game like Squadron 42. 

The timeline from obtaining a Chinese publisher to publishing the game could take 6-9 months in a best case scenario. If CIG uses the event in Manchester to secure a Chinese publisher with a feature-complete build, delaying the global launch of Squadron 42 to the summer of 2027 isn't just a move to avoid competing with GTA VI. Those 9-10 months is practically the minimum amount of time legally and operationally required to get a game approved by China's National Press and Publication Administration.

So will CIG release Squadron 42 at the special event in Manchester in October. I highly doubt it. But will the event act as the springboard for the effort to market Cloud Imperium's first game. All signs point to yes.

The EVE Partner Kerfluffle Of Pride Month 2026

Normally I don't discuss the content creator scene surrounding EVE Online. But a couple of members of the EVE Partner program managed to get themselves kicked out. One of them, a YouTuber/Twitch streamer known as Loru, has appeared as part of the official player host panel at both Fanfest 2025 and Fanfest 2026. But still, since I don't qualify for the EVE Partner program because my readership is too small I didn't want to write something that would come across as sour grapes.

FC Swift's statement via Reddit

At this point MassivelyOP picked up the story and FC Swift's statement. I was hit by surprise by the move because work got in the way and had stopped following the situation. After all, nothing was really going to happen, right? Wrong. 

I decided to ask Gemini and received a lot of reasons why Fenris would want to take the actions they took. Oh. I knew that Loru's actions in banning the Pride flag emoji from his chat would not go over well with Fenris. Doubling-down on the action definitely would rub the long-standing culture built over the decades was not a good way to get along with those running the EVE Partner program. But I didn't realize other ramifications are now present since Fenris bought its freedom from Pearl Abyss.

I did ask Gemini to come up with a morale post for the situation but decided to not post it. Instead I used a few prompts to clean up and clarify what Gemini first presented me about the situation. I don't know how much is AI hallucination and how much is reality. Only FC Swift, the community relations team, and perhaps Fenris' general consul would know for sure. Hopefully editing Gemini's post down to 500 words cuts some of the possible slop out of the AI's words. Once I had the final edit I decided it made a whole lot of sense.

Why Removing Loru Was the Only Viable Move for Fenris Creations

The EVE Online community is no stranger to intense drama, but the swift removal of high-profile streamer Loru (Lorumerth) from the EVE Partner program marked a pivotal moment for independent developer Fenris Creations.

The controversy looked like a standard community management flare-up: a creator enforces a rigid "no flags" rule in his Discord during Pride Month, the community calls out a double standard regarding his stream's religious content, things escalate live on Twitch, and the studio steps in.

But looking at the corporate landscape, Fenris Creations didn’t just make a routine community call—they made an essential business decision. Keeping Loru in the partner program would have been a catastrophic misstep for the studio’s long-term interests.

Here is why drawing a hard line was the only viable move.

1. The Clout Paradox: Fanfest Hosting Changes the Rules

Loru wasn't a background streamer; he was fresh off the stage at EVE Fanfest 2026, where he served as an official host on the developer streams and won Video Creator of the Year.

When a studio elevates a creator to that degree, the dynamic shifts. An on-stage Fanfest host is an extension of the corporate brand. When the controversy erupted, critics argued Loru used the massive validation he received from the studio to mock and ban viewers who questioned his policy. By stepping in decisively, Fenris Creations proved that a creator's marketing utility does not buy them immunity from basic standards of conduct.

2. The Absolute Reality of Icelandic Law

Operating out of Reykjavík, Fenris Creations is bound by Icelandic law. Under Article 233(a) of the Icelandic Penal Code, public denigration or hate speech targeting individuals based on sexual orientation or gender identity carries criminal weight.

Maintaining an official, incentivized marketing partnership with a creator actively targeting a protected class creates a massive legal and public relations liability. Aligning the partner program with domestic legal realities is basic corporate governance.

3. Protecting the Google DeepMind Partnership

Following its transition to independence, Fenris Creations secured a strategic partnership with Google DeepMind to explore advanced AI integrations.

Massive tech conglomerates operate under rigid brand-safety guidelines and Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) standards. They do not want their brand associated with toxic internet shouting matches over LGBTQ+ inclusion. Protecting the brand safety of multi-million-dollar relationships is paramount for investor confidence.

4. Guarding the "New Player" Horizon

EVE Online relies entirely on replacing aging veterans with new blood. If a new player visits Twitch, clicks on the studio's "Video Creator of the Year," and witnesses a toxic chat war resulting in viewers being banned over a rainbow emoji, that player uninstalls. Cultivating an inclusive baseline is an ecosystem preservation strategy.

The Takeaway

Fenris Creations left Loru a bridge to return, allowing him to reapply in three months. But by acting swiftly, the studio sent a vital message: Nobody is bigger than the health of the capsuleer community.

Flying Solo In EVE: First Week In Cradle Of War

Last Tuesday the Cradle of War expansion for EVE Online dropped onto the main Tranquility shard. I think the expansion is a success so far, but we are still in the early days when things like Omega time sales and givaways may still influence the data. Anecdotally I can only add my time in Final Fantasy XIV has decreased as I've explored the new content om EVE.

Last week the average number of concurrent users logged in jumped back up to 26,000 +/- 500 accounts after a pause in activity the week before the expansion. Perhaps a more important data point was the peak concurrent user mark for the week reaching over 38,000 for the first time in two months. The peak for the year so far occurred in the first full week of the year at 38,860. Perhaps CoW can exceed that if word of month reviews are good enough.

As far as the global PLEX market goes I wonder if over the past year Fenris as removed most of the slack out of the market. During an expansion launch week the amount of PLEX traded week-over-week only increased 2.2%, with only a 1.8% increase in ISK spent on those exchanges. While the last couple of sales concentrated on selling Omega time and skills packages, PLEX was included as a sweetener in both offers.

Speaking of offers, I created a new character to gain the starting experience in the new region of Exordium. So far I've completed the tutorial and gotten a little more than half-way through the career agents. I'm kind of glad I've taken the situation slowly because I see the developers making a lot of tweaks to the new epic arc mission Visions of Greatness. I've also just sat back and trained just in case the new epic arc was tweaked to have a difficult final boss ala the original level 1 Sisters' epic arc. So far I've had no problems purchasing the skill books needed to get through the initial recommended skill training plans.

I do want to point out something that was sorely needed introduced in today's patch. A new Grade-0 variant of Pyroxeres with 50% of the mineral yield of standard Pyroxeres was added. The ore was needed for new players to complete some of the achievements, like the basic resource harvesting one that requires mining 16,000 units of pyroxeres. Let the new players get the basics out of the way in Exordium.

I should also mention I've dipped my toes into military campaigns. I'm glad to see the devs address some of the issues finding agents and turn-in points located in space in today's patch.

Military Campaigns:

Added a new beacon outside of the navy anchorage stations on top of the item trader locations for Crystalline Raspite, Crystalline Polycrase, Crystalline Moissanite, and Crystalline Kangite, so it’s easier to locate them.

The Item Traders will also now show up on your overview anywhere in the system if you have ‘Large Collidable Objects’ added.

Right now I'm just taking one character and having her fill up the ore hold of a Skiff since the ship has an ore hold of 18,500 m³ and I get 200 LP for every 18,000 m³ of Kagan I mine. I do need to move my top mining character to Amo to save some ISK when refining the ore. I'll get into the benefits of doing so next week.