I saw a new Scope video pop up in my feed this morning. CCP is taking note of the first major null sec war in the Legion expansion.
The studio obviously has ideas of using the war for marketing purposes but I don't know how long the campaign will last. I checked Dotlan and The Imperium has captured all but 8 systems in the region of Insmother. Not bad considering they had no i-hubs deployed in the region on 2 June.
I know people like to read the news scroll at the bottom of every Scope video. The news today was:
Analysts report rapid sellouts of war-critical hulls and modules in Jita. Demand linked to escalations in the north.
The destruction of the first Sarathiel and Babaroga class ships in active combat confirmed.
Factional Warfare propaganda efforts intensify as Dirt 'n' Glitter release a capsuleer-focused campaign video.
Strategic deployments of dreadnoughts seen shifting from Fountain toward conflict zones; - alliances remain silent on destination.
Pirate-aligned capsuleers reportedly forming independent cells across contested systems; coordination with Deathless elements suspected.
The only question I have now is whether The Imperium will stop and consolidate their gains in Insmother or immediately push into the Dronelands. I have the feeling Asher will not want to overextend his forces and settle for reinforcing his current gains.
Last night I finally completed the cosmic tools grind in Final Fantasy XIV's patch 7.2. With the acquisition of the Cosmic Fishing Pole I have almost completed all the tasks I wanted to accomplish on the moon in the first phase of Cosmic Exploration.
The Cosmic Fishing Pole
I'm not going to lie. By the end of the grind I was ready to do something else. The grind through the crafting tools wasn't too bad. By the end I was mostly pushing buttons to execute macros, although a couple of instances would crop up where I manually crafted items. The worst was the final tool, the Cosmic Fishing Pole. I saved fishing for last due to the activity's heavy reliance on the random number generator. Between Red Alerts and finding a tutorial on how to do some of the Class A missions I managed to muddle through.
The mech is huge
I managed to get the Vacuum Suit from the roulette with twenty Big Bang tickets left to play. For the regular prizes I only have to get the Visage emote, the Micro Rover minion, and a orchestrion roll. I'm not really sure I want to do the grind for the High Mobility Vacuum Suit as I need to score 500,000 in all 11 crafting and gathering classes. I know three more phases are planned before the end of the expansion, but I'm not close to those totals.
My class progress so far. Not even close.
With the grind complete I can go back to trying to do content involving combat. I still need to complete the Recollection trial to complete the MSQ. I might even try to get my white mage phantom weapon although leveling up my Blue Mage job to level 50 probably is a higher priority. But except for the latest allied tribe quests I'm free to do other things for another 6 or 7 weeks.
... a classless, free to play MMORPG set in the fantasy world of Thanabus. With four regions and a combat system based on equipped weapons rather than fixed classes, it offered a mix of PvE and PvP gameplay. The game was supposed to feature a player-driven economy and NFT-based land ownership, built on the Ethereum network.
Players could trade cosmetic items, own land plots, and take part in shaping the game world. At its peak, Ember Sword boasted a large, engaged community and received major backing from high-profile investors, including Twitch co-founder Kevin Lin and YouTuber Dr Disrespect.
In development since 2018, the game conducted a massive land sale in 2021, raising $203 million from 35 thousand applicants. The game did reach an early access launch in December 2024, with critics describing the gameplay as underdeveloped and unengaging. The game announced its closure on 21 May.
Tatsumeeko: Lumina Fates - The game, developed by the Singapore-based Tatsu Works, was described as...
a fantasy MMORPG-lite that combined exploration, farming, combat, and player-driven narratives within the vibrant world of Ielia. It was designed to function natively on Discord, iOS, Android, and web browsers, expanding on the team's experience from their gamified Discord platform, Tatsu.GG.
The game raised $7.5 million in 2022 with plans to use Ethereum and Solana for in-game economies and NFTs. Tatsu announced the closure of the project on 19 May. The company plans to return to its roots as a developer of "lightweight, community-based experiences."
Nyan Heroes - The game had an admittedly unique theme, cats piloting giant mechs. But despite four playtests attracting over 1 million testers, the developers had to close down the project as the most recent build "failed to drive the player numbers" they needed to continue and no buyer could be found to continue development.
Those investing in the project's cryptocurrency and NFT's were hit hard when the news of the closure dropped on 16 May.
After the news broke, the game's $NYAN token lost over 40% of its value. It is now down nearly 99% from its all-time high. The Genesis Cat NFTs were hit just as hard, dropping over 70% in price. The floor value now sits around 0.024 SOL on Magic Eden.
Blast Royale - Blast Royale was a mobile game whose developer announced it was shutting down but making the game open source. The game was described as "a fun, frenetic adrenaline fuelled short session game that is about packing as much fun onto the blockchain as possible."
According to an official Discord announcement by Blast Royale’s core team member Renny, the studio tried exploring “every path and possibility,” and after doing so ended up deciding to ultimately discontinue development of their top-down battle royale.
Essentially, the company ran out of funds and wasn't able to find any investor or avenue through which they could raise more money to extend their runway. They don’t have the financing needed to continue paying their team for their hard work, and as a result need to stop development and ultimately close down entirely. In an earlier Discord announcement on April 25th, Renny did share that they are facing “some serious financial challenges” as the TGE didn’t help out as much as they hoped, and the existing in-game economy isn’t generating enough revenue to cover development costs.
Rumble Kong League - A 3v3 basketball game endorsed by Steph Curry, the game was massively underfunded.
Once known for its flashy marketing and NBA star endorsement (Steph Curry), the project fizzled out. Their $FAME token launched with just 12 ETH of liquidity, according to web3 content creator StarPlatinum. Unsurprisingly, the price tanked. Community mods stopped getting paid, the team announced they were "starting from zero," and the project was reportedly sold to a company in Brazil.
And while five projects closing in seven days is bad, the total for 2025 is up to 17, as two of the closures occurred after the below tweet went out.
Web3 Game Closures | 2025 (so far...)
•Battlebound/Anterris •Blade of God •Blast Royale •Champions Ascension •Derby Race •Goombles •Junglexyz •Krptomon •Loot Legends •Metalcore •Mystery Society •Nyan Heroes •RoboKiden •Rumble Kong League •Valeria Studios
I realize that only two of the five games were MMOs, the timing only two weeks after the latest spate of closures was not exactly good optics for CCP Games. I also think the closures justifies the studio's emphasis on gameplay rather than real world wealth in marketing EVE Frontier. Because the money aspect just isn't sustainable in the long run. Enjoyable gameplay, as people have witnessed over the years, can make a game last for decades.
Over the weekend CCP Games went into a major marketing push for its Massively Multiplayer Moddable Role Playing Game EVE Frontier. Beginning on Wednesday the game leaves closed alpha and all non-disclosure agreements drop. But what does that mean besides the possibility of new Rooks and Kings videos? Let's look at the press release published on Saturday.
REYKJAVÍK, Iceland – June 7, 2025 - Today, CCP Games announced Founder Access: New Era for EVE Frontier, the in-development space survival MMO for PC and Mac, launching Wednesday, 11 June. A major update introducing new gameplay, content and Cycles,it also marks the first public step in creating a visionary sci-fi survivalexperience.
EVE Frontier is set in an enigmatic and hostile galaxy shaped by player-driven activity. Players inhabit Riders, awakened clones flung into the Frontier without purpose or memory of the world around them. As they venture into the dark, they must build shelters, forge Tribes and harvest resources to grow in power and survive the constant threat of annihilation.
Founder Access: New Era opens EVE Frontier to the public, as it emerges from its closed alpha phase. For the first time, players are free to share gameplay footage, impressions, and experiences without any restrictions, ushering in a new, fully public phase of development. To celebrate the announcement, CCP Games unveiled a new trailer, “The Ancient Dark”. Set in the shadow of forgotten ruins and the scars of eons-old wars, it chronicles the cycle of death and rebirth that binds all Riders - each caught in an endless struggle for survival within a cruel and boundless galaxy.
Founder Access: New Era also kicks off a brand-new seasonal progression system for EVE Frontier called Cycles. The first Cycle, Promised Lands, starts on 11 June. Players will gain Grace for completing in-game missions and activities, rising to the top of each Cycle Leaderboard alongside their Tribe. As Founder Access: New Era continues, Cycles will continue to introduce new missions, objectives and content.
More videos and information will be revealed in the run-up to Founder Access: New Era, including a sneak peek at gameplay during the PC Gaming Show and a deep-dive gameplay stream on Twitch, Sunday 8 June (21:00 UTC / 2:00 PM PDT / 5:00 PM EDT / 10:00 PM BST / 11:00 PM CEST).
But the studio went well beyond just issuing a press release. As part of Frontier's emergence from closed beta were the appearances on the Future Games Show, an appearance by CCP's CEO Hilmar Veigar Pétursson on IGN Live, and the PC Gaming Show. These appearances were designed for those unfamiliar with EVE Online and the EVE universe.
First up, the trailer shown on Saturday on the Future Games Show. The trailer was narrated by Hilmar and emphasized the moddable aspect of Frontier. For those looking for a game to do something revolutionary, the ability to mod server-side in a multi-player game is the selling point.
Later on Saturday came a 15 minute segment on the IGN Live 2025 stream with the host interviewing Hilmar. The interviewer was a bit cringe but I liked Hilmar's performance. He did not go into technological visionary mode as I've often watch him do to on the main stage at Fanfest.
Yes, he did bring up the idea of the game's 100,000+ systems providing content for decades. But the words "EVE Forever" was not uttered once.
For those who just want to watch the game trailer I've included it below.
On Sunday CCP dropped a third trailer that appeared on the PC Gaming Show. While the shortest, I would use this final trailer to introduce players to the game. And no, CCP Jötunn's narration is not the reason.
I did watch the beginning of the final event for the weekend, a gameplay stream featuring CCP Jötunn, CCP Overload and Dark Shines from The Initiative. on Sunday.
I did learn a couple of things before logging off. One, while over one hundred thousand systems are planned, the in-game map cannot handle that amount yet. Another is the game will have Lagrange points. The way the game works Lagrange points will limit the amount of structure spam in space. Also, mining lasers can damage ships as well mine ore from asteroids. The final difference between Online and Frontier mentioned that I saw was heat is a bigger factor. For example, overheating can limit or even remove a ship's ability to use its jump drive. Needless to say, fighting at the sun in Frontier probably is not a wise decision.
One thing I have to point out is CCP did not mention the use of blockchain technology in its mainstream gaming appearances and the beginning of the gameplay stream. A good marketing decision in my opinion. Most Web3/blockchain games I've seen are crap designed to attract cryptobros looking to make a quick buck. CCP instead is looking to make a good game to attract gamers that will last as long as EVE Online, a game currently in its third decade of operation. And while I think CCP's tagline of "EVE Forever" is a bit pie-in-the-sky, the marketing for the game definitely is not trying to attract cryptobros looking for a quick pump-and-dump opportunity. At least not last weekend.
On Wednesday CCP Games published the May monthly economic report (MER) for EVE Online's Tranquility shard. Before taking a look at the Active ISK Delta for last month I'd like to point out the events and trends developers considered most noteworthy in the economy.
Economic Summary
9% Increase in Production, April vs May 2025. Mining and Destruction are stable.
MPI continues to fall, but at a much slower rate than April 2025.
It's likely we are going to remove the Import, Export, and Trade Balance plots from the MER, due to the data-source being deprecated. We are working with the EVE Development Team to get a new data source that will give us more verbose data, enabling us to better calculate Imports, Exports and Trade balance.
With the general MER housekeeping notes out of the way we can proceed to looking at player counts and the money supply. I've written over the last couple of months about the possibility of an unprecedented event: positive values for the Active ISK Delta in consecutive months. When Jester's average concurrent user graph came out over the weekend the possibility became more realistic.
Jester's average concurrent user graph
With the late surge at the launch of Legion plus the Imperium going to war, May's peak ACU exceeded April's. The publication of the May MER showed another positive Active ISK Delta.
Active ISK Delta values since January 2022
Why is the Active ISK Delta important? The Active ISK Delta is the net effect on the money supply of players leaving and returning to the game, including all GM actions. With the elimination of the intellectual property revenue from Pearl Abyss' quarterly earnings calls in the fourth quarter of 2024 determining the financial health of CCP will require diving into the in-game statistics of the studio's games. While sites like EVE-Offline.net do a fine job of providing counts, the Active ISK Delta provides a unique insight into whether players are returning to the game.
Historic changes in the money supply in May due to the Active ISK Delta
Since the beginning of 2018 the month with the most positive Active ISK Delta values is May. Of the 13 times in that time the Active ISK Delta exceeded 0, 4 have occurred in May. Last month's growth of the money supply of 0.2% was below the average of 1.1% from the years 2018 to 2024.
The year's peak concurrent user count occurred in June
Can the Active ISK Delta remain positive for 3 consecutive months? I doubt it but the possibility exists. On Sunday 1 June Tranquility experienced its highest peak concurrent users mark since the 40,165 recorded on 19 November 2023. A more realistic question is whether the Active ISK Delta is positive for the second quarter. Since the beginning of 2018 only three fiscal quarters have seen positive Active ISK Deltas. The last time was Q4 2023 with the launch of the Havoc expansion. I really wish Pearl Abyss still reported game revenue by IP just to see if the player retention and return of veteran players made a big financial impact.
I woke up this morning to check if Jester had updated his average concurrent user graph to cover the month of May. He had.
That rise in the 7-day average concurrent user metric at the end of the month may ensure I finally get to see a positive value for the Average ISK Delta for two consecutive months.
I can point to two events that may account for the rise in players on Tranquility. The first is the launch of the Legion expansion on 27 May. New content (and new promotions like PLEX giveaways) tend to bring players back to take a look. But on top of that The Imperium took the occasion to launch a new war.
The Imperium's leader, Asher Elias, declared the coalition was heading to Insmother to do battle with Gobbins and the PanFam coalition. If I understand the situation correctly Insmother is the last region under PanFam's control outside the Dronelands.
Did the changes made in Legion influence the decision? The rollback of 2020's Surgical Strike changes may help. Beefier ships, especially titans and supercarriers, make pilots more confident of bringing their toys out to play. Add in changes to make combat in sov null more interesting as well as removing enemy skyhooks less painful logistically and I can see why patch day would trigger the movement of a lot of ships.
As of now, the Imperium has set up a keepstar in X2-ZA5 to stage out of for the campaign. Right now it appears someone went around and reinforced all the infrastructure hubs in the UR-HG4 constellation in a typical harassment move hello at the start of a campaign. Hitting the I-Hub in GK5Z-T was probably a more serious move to gain a foothold in the region itself.
I'll come up with better graphics and better maps if PanFam actually fights. I imagine a lot of people interested in EVE Frontier with no EVE experience might want to see what a player war in the EVE universe looks like. Those players are already getting dunked on by Rooks and Kings. Perhaps fighting involving more ordinary players might be a nice change of pace.
In May Cloud Imperium Games, makers of Star Citizen and Squadron 42, recorded its best cash shop sales in the company's 13 year history. The $28.9 million is sales as recorded by the CCU Game dashboard last month was 17.3% higher than last year's $24.6 million in May 2024. For the year sales through the CIG cash shop hit $62.3 million, a 32.2% increase over the first five months of 2024.
The $836.3 million 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 $960.7 million in confirmed revenue (the funding page & the 2023 financial report).
Sales/Pledges: $836.3 million (through 31 May 2025)
Other cash shop revenue: $2.3 million (through 31 December 2023)
Subscriptions: $39.5 million (through 31 December 2023)
All other sources: $82.6 million (through 31 December 2023)
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 $1.9 million in 2023. Including the outside investment money, the total amount raised by CIG to create Squadron 42 and Star Citizen is $1.029 billion, or $1.022 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.
One billion dollars in funding - With the release of the 2023 financial report the amount of money confirmed received by Cloud Imperium rose by $25.8 million. Even without trying to estimate the money still not reported by CIG, adding in known outside investment pushes the total money raised to develop and run Star Citizen and Squadron 42 has exceeded $1 billion. In the future I'll report the total amount raised to the nearest million instead of one hundred thousand dollars as I have in the past.
A record Invictus event - The annual Invictus sales event brought in a record $24.2 million between 15-27 May.
This year's event beat the 2024 event's sales by 25.3%, or $4.9 million. The biggest reason for the increase was the sale of the Idris, which is now in Star Citizen. The big year-over-year increase on day 2 of the event was due to CIG giving in to player pressure and selling more of the new multi-crew ship than planned.
To put this year's Invictus event in perspective, the $24.2 million sold was only $1.3 million behind the $25.5 million raised during the entire first quarter of 2025.
A monthly sales record - Not only did the Invictus event set a record. May 2025 set a single-month sales record as well.
The previous record was set in November 2023 with $28.4 million.
A new revenue type - I've added a new category to the known revenue total. In the 2023 financial report published on 2 May CIG revealed that the Sales/Pledges counter does not account for all cash shop revenue. I first noticed a difference in the 2022 financial report. Over the years 2022 & 2023 the total came to $2.3 million.
New user accounts - I often point out that sales revenue does not correlate to new account creation. This held true in May. While YoY monthly revenue increased by 17.3% last month, new account creation decreased by 4.0%.
The same held true for the event as well. In 2024, the Invictus event attracted the creation of 75,320 accounts. A year later, despite a 25% increase in sales, YoY account creation dropped 7% down to 70,157.
For the year, 232,221 accounts were created so far in 2025, a 3.6% decrease from the first five months of 2024.
What to watch for - With the release of the 2023 financial report the public learned that CIG spent an average of $13.6 million a month. Assuming that CIG continues to receive $2.2 million per month in subscriptions and other revenue as it did in 2023, the company will need an average of $11.4 million in cash shop sales in 2025 too keep from losing money. That is, if spending remains constant and does not follow its historic trend of rising 20% per year.
So far cash shop sales are ahead of that pace, totaling an average of $12.6 million per month through the first five months of 2025. But the summer months, especially the third quarter, are CIG's slowest months. Can the new leadership team keep revenue up enough before the lucrative fourth quarter arrives?
On Tuesday Square Enix dropped patch 7.25 for Final Fantasy XIV's current expansion Dawntrail. While I see a lot of content creators focusing on new combat content like The Occult Crescent, I am still grinding away at earning all the Cosmic Tools up on the moon. But the patch did drop something for me too: The Mamool Ja Society.
The starting area
The second of the three Allied societies planned for Dawntrail, the Mamool Ja focuses on gathering. To start talk to Gotall Ja in Yak T'el at (X:35.6, Y:32.0) to accept the Cultivating Hope quest. If playing a level 90 or above botanist or miner and the quest is not available, then play through the quest lines that begin with Aiming High and Lost and Powerless.
Going from Friendly to Bloodsworn status will take 27 days doing the maximum 3 quests per day. When I get off work today I'll achieve Trusted status. I didn't wake up early to get the extra day's worth of questing which is why some content creators are already showing off some of the new items available from the new store.
The quests are very quick to do which means I don't have to take much time away from the Cosmic tools grind. While we are about 8 weeks away from the launch of patch 7.3 I am currently working on my fourth tool. The 100% bonus I wrote about last week for having three Cosmic tools is really shortening the grind. I'm hoping to knock out the final two levels on the Cosmic Needle tonight as well.
I know I'm supposed to care heavily about getting relic weapons and running The Occult Crescent. But I have things I want to accomplish and unless they involve crafting and gathering or levelling my Blue Mage job I really don't have time. I typically only have an hour or two a night to play so I have to prioritize my gameplay to what's most important. And for now the top two priorities are improving my standings with the Mamool Ja and building a base on the moon.
EVE Online's Legion expansion, set to launch on 27 May 2025, is the game's sixth full expansion since the return of the content format in November 2022. As usual at this point I intend to go through the patch notes and bring in some context from other sources. The thirteenth and final group of subjects addressed are art and audio updates.
Yes, the Legion in Focus dev blog did make reference to the art updates.
Visual upgrades also extend to the ships themselves. Five Tech I cruisers and many of their variants – 13 ships in total – have been redesigned and polished. With some of them also seeing improved geometry, texture fidelity, bespoke animation states, refined weapon platforms, and updated VFX. The accompanying balance pass ensures they don’t just look new – they fly new!
Art
Redesigned Cruisers:
Five T1 cruisers and their eleven variants have been graphically redesigned.
List of the redesigned cruisers:
Amarr Maller and the T2 variants, Sacrilege and Devoter.
Amarr Omen and the faction & T2 variants, Omen Navy Issue and Zealot
Gallente Thorax, the pirate faction, special edition & T2 variants, Vigilant, Cybele, Deimos and Phobos.
Gallente Celestis and the T2 variants, Arazu and Lachesis.
Minmatar Scythe and the T2 variant Scimitar.
Audio
Updated audio for ship effects
Improved audio for the following ship modules:
Armor Repairer & Remote Armor Repairer.
Hull Repairer & Remote Hull Repairer (new effect added).
Shield Booster & Remote Shield Booster.
Armor Hardener.
Shield Hardener.
Module sounds now play, loop, and stop correctly based on usage.
Fixed issues with sfx attenuation during camera zoom.
Remote module system improved to accommodate better audio integration.
EVE Online's Legion expansion, set to launch on 27 May 2025, is the game's sixth full expansion since the return of the content format in November 2022. As usual at this point I intend to go through the patch notes and bring in some context from other sources. The twelfth subject addressed the titan and supercarrier balance changes.
According to the Legion in Focus dev blog the titan and supercarrier balance changes are part of a larger change to the planned meta.
The capital meta is also evolving. Fighter salvos from bombers and heavy bombers are being extended by 50%, increasing their field time before reloading. Meanwhile, Space Superiority Fighters are seeing a decrease in damage to subcapitals – reinforcing their role as anti-fighter specialists, rather than general-purpose damage dealers. These adjustments aim to consolidate their identity and carve out more space for subcapital fleets.
Survivability is also going up. The rollback of the penalty to shield and armor extenders from the Surgical Strike update has been completed, now scaling up to 400% for supercarriers and 500% for titans. This is part of a broader effort to elevate supercapitals back into a more viable role, keeping pace with the rising power of faction and lancer dreadnoughts.
Directed doomsday weapons get a 20% damage bump, and the new Advanced Doomsday Operations skill book increases damage by a further 7.5% per level. This applies across the board, including bosonic weapons – but not to lancer dreads.
The patch notes gave additional insight into the developers' thinking.
Titan Doomsday weapons have not kept up with the metagame and have therefore been given a significant buff. The survivability of Titans and Supercarriers has also been increased with stronger Armor Plate and Shield Extender bonuses. Combined, there should be more opportunities for the game’s largest ships to take the field and make a difference.
Fighters will now be more sustainable during engagements, decreasing the time they spend being recalled and rearmed. Space Superiority fighters were applying too well to sub-capital ships and have therefor had their damage to these ships decreased without impacting their anti-fighter role.
Titans and Supercarriers
Increased the damage of single target Titan Doomday weapons to 2,400,000 (from 2,000,000).
Added a new skillbook, Advanced Doomsday Operation, which increases the damage of Titan super weapons by 7.5% per skill level. Note: This increases damage of single target DD, lance, reaper & boson, but does not increase Lancer dread lance damage.
Increased the Titan Armor Plate and Shield Extender role bonus to 500% (from 300%).
Increased the Supercarrier Armor Plate and Shield Extender role bonus to 400% (from 200%).
Increased the number of salvos a fighter has as follows:
T1 and T2 Light Fighters: from 12 to 18.
Faction Light Fighters: from 15 to 20.
T1 and T2 Heavy Fighters: from 6 to 9.
T1 Long Range Fighters: from 2 to 3.
T2 Long Range Fighters: from 3 to 5.
Reduced the damage applied by Space Superiority fighters attacking non-drones and non-fighters to 95% (from 80%).
