Pearl Abyss Plans To Sell Off CCP Games

In a not entirely unexpected move South Korean-based Pearl Abyss is looking to sell off its Icelandic subsidiary CCP Games. The South Korean financial & economic news Money Today Network broke the story based on an interview.

Pearl Abyss is putting its subsidiary CCP, which developed 'EVE Online', up for sale on the market. The reason is interpreted as CCP acquiring it for 250 billion won in anticipation of the fan base it secured through 'EVE Online' and expansion of its mobile platform, but it fell short of initial expectations.

According to an interview with Money Today Broadcasting MTN on the 19th, Pearl Abyss and CCP have selected an underwriter for the sale of CCP and are sounding out multiple game companies for their interest in acquiring it.

Pearl Abyss launched an IPO in September 2017 bringing in $165 million. The company used the proceeds primarily to fuel global expansion and invest in new game development. A significant portion went into scaling up operations, including establishing overseas subsidiaries and enhancing marketing efforts for Black Desert Online in international markets. They also channeled funds into developing new titles like Crimson Desert and DokeV, aiming to diversify their portfolio and reduce reliance on a single franchise.

The biggest acquisition occurred in September 2018 with the purchase of CCP Games. The initially announced purchase price of $425 million was reduced down to $225 million as the studio failed to meet certain financial conditions. For example, CCP and its new Chinese partner NetEase were unable to reestablish EVE Online service in China until the first half of 2020. 

The biggest disappointment for Pearl Abyss probably was the failure of CCP to immediately launch a FPS game set in the EVE universe. Despite presenting a playable demo of a game known as Project Nova at EVE Vegas in October 2018, the project was shut down in February 2020. CCP continued to work on an FPS game, with EVE Vanguard currently listed but unavailable on Steam.

As often happens with financial drama involving CCP, a loan is involved.

In October 2023, the Group financed USD 50,000,000 from Pearl Abyss Corp. to repay the existing borrowings from banks and other financial institutions in a single loan agreement arranged by The Korea Development Bank. The interest period is 12 months and the interest rate is fixed at 4.6%. Interests are paid every anniversary but the loan principal is due in October 2026.

Any party purchasing CCP Games will also need to pay back the $50 million loan to Pearl Abyss. Something tells me the South Korean company can't afford to refinance the loan to its subsidiary as I honestly don't think CCP will have the ability to repay the loan on time.

Game revenue since the IPO funded spending spree

But while CCP's financial performance may not have met expectations, those of Pearl Abyss' cash cow in comparison utterly collapsed. One example was the cancellation of Tencent's contract to run Black Desert Mobile in China early. Instead of running through April 2025, service ended on 27 January. Since 2019, Black Desert revenue declined over 55% when converted to U.S. dollars. In comparison, CCP's game revenue increased by almost 25%. 

The same holds true concerning game development. While producing two mobile games with two other games under development six years later is probably not what Pearl Abyss expected, CCP outperformed the South Korean studio. Crimson Desert was supposed to launch in the second half of 2021 and is now expected to launch in the fourth quarter of 2025. Pearl Abyss also had to cancel development of DokeV and Plan 8 until Crimson Desert is complete. In fact, Pearl Abyss' ability to support CCP's development efforts is limited, as was shown by the Icelandic studio's reaching out to outside venture capitalists for funding to develop EVE Frontier.

Now for my hot takes. Who do I think will purchase CCP Games? Cross off the list any Chinese company like Tencent or NetEase. The hottest reason for acquiring CCP is EVE Frontier. The Chinese Communist Party is not a big fan of cryptocurrencies, having banned them in September 2021.

The People’s Bank of China, the country’s central bank, said Friday that cryptocurrency transactions are illegal, saying such currencies “do not have legal tender status” and therefore “cannot be circulated as currency in the market.”

In a statement, the bank said that bitcoin and other virtual currency transactions have disrupted economic and financial order, contributing to a rise in “money laundering, illegal fund-raising, fraud, pyramid schemes, and other illegal and criminal activities.”

Crypto transactions are now considered criminal financial activity in China, the bank said, and the country will “resolutely curb the hype of virtual currency transactions, severely crack down on illegal financial activities and illegal criminal activities related to virtual currencies, protect the safety of the people’s property in accordance with the law, and make every effort to maintain economic and financial order and social stability.”

Any door the Chinese government leaves open for people to move wealth out of the country tends to lead to a stampede.

According to the Chainalysis Blockchain data platform, more than $50 billion worth of cryptocurrency left East Asian accounts to areas outside the region between 2019 and 2020. As China has an outsized presence in East Asian cryptocurrency exchanges, Chainalysis staff believe that much of this net outflow of cryptocurrency was actually capital flight from China. Although Chainalysis does not have a definitive figure for how much capital fled China between 2019 and 2020, they estimate that it could be as high as $50 billion.

If not one of the giants out of China, then who? My guess is a venture capital firm heavily interested in cryptocurrencies. Andreessen Horowitz led a $40 million round of funding just to be involved in the project. Would another group want to own the whole thing?

I do want to conclude with a final question I haven't seen asked. Is Pearl Abyss preparing itself for sale? In hindsight the sale of CCP's Newcastle office at the end of 2017 was a prelude to selling itself to Pearl Abyss. Selling its VR studio to Sumo Digital cleared away some business Pearl Abyss didn't want to deal with. Would selling off a studio developing a blockchain game clear the way for Tencent to purchase Pearl Abyss?

Impressions Of EVE Frontier From The Tutorial

I spent the last couple of nights logged into CCP Game's Massively Multiplayer Moddable Online Role Playing Game EVE Frontier. I think I've finished the tutorial and just need to gather up enough fuel to survive outside the starter area. I wanted to post my thoughts so far in this cycle in the hopes players, especially old EVE Online vets, will not skip the tutorial.

I've always had the impression the developers wanted to correct some of the flaws in Online but couldn't because players would revolt. A general theme is that the game provides too much information to players. A big feature is the overview. In Online a big grid exists displaying information about the game world, such as the presence of star gates, asteroid belts, and nearby NPCs. The overview is the major reason Online is known as "spreadsheets in space." 

No one will ever call Frontier "spreadsheets in space part 2." The user interface has no grids, at least in the tutorial. Instead, movement between celestials (planets, moons, asteroid belts, etc) is handled through the map. By the end of the tutorial I became comfortable using the map. In contrast, despite maintaining at least one paid subscription since 2009 I have no idea how to really use the EVE Online in-game map.

Another difference is acquiring targets around the ship. In Online, to mine players just look at the overview, lock a rock, and move within range of the mining laser to begin mining. In Frontier the target is acquired visually, meaning players need to move their cameras around to view their surroundings. The tutorial does not have combat so I don't know how that will play out in the current build.

Recording the location of my structures

A major difference is the lack of bookmarks in Frontier. In Online players can bookmark locations to mark places to return to. But players are limited to a set number of bookmarks: 15,000 personal locations and 1,500 shared locations. A lot of locations but too many bookmarks in a system do put some strain on the servers. In Frontier players save their locations in the in-game Notepad and then reference the locations from there. In the tutorial I only managed to save my structures in Notepad. No creating bookmarks halfway between celestials.

Example of Lagrange points (NASA)

Science comes through to help explain the lack of bookmarks in Frontier. Bookmarks are able to work in Online because the game treats the entire universe as static. Not so in Frontier. Gameplay from what I saw was confined to something called Lagrange points.

Lagrange Points are positions in space where the gravitational forces of a two-body system like the Sun and Earth produce enhanced regions of attraction and repulsion. These can be used by spacecraft as "parking spots" in space to remain in a fixed position with minimal fuel consumption.

There are five special points where a small mass can orbit in a constant pattern with two larger masses. The Lagrange Points are positions where the gravitational pull of two large masses precisely equals the centripetal force required for a small object to move with them. This mathematical problem, known as the "General Three-Body Problem" was considered by Italian-French mathematician Joseph-Louis Lagrange in his prize-winning paper (Essai sur le Problème des Trois Corps, 1772).

I had to stop at this point because Frontier itself is based on a three-body problem. The galaxy the game exists in is home to three black holes and the developers went into detail about how they generated the galaxy in a dev blog. 

The law of universal gravitation lies at the heart of EVE Frontier‘s galaxy: to create it, we have been working on simulating the motion of countless particles under the influence of gravity via the n-body simulation. These particles can then be used as points of reference for the matter within Frontier (currently solar systems and clusters of solar systems). As said, we want EVE Frontier to feel as natural as possible by grounding its galaxy to the laws of physics and the Digital Physics which underpin its existence. 

You may have heard of the three-body problem, which aims to predict the trajectories of three-point masses. Although the two-body problem was solved hundreds of years ago, additional bodies make the system too chaotic and unpredictable. We are working on a simulation that solves this problem as closely as possible. 

But enough of the side journeys. The Lagrange points are shown on the in-game map. Here's the explanation for where the points show up.

Of the five Lagrange points, three are unstable and two are stable. The unstable Lagrange points – labeled L1, L2, and L3 – lie along the line connecting the two large masses. The stable Lagrange points – labeled L4 and L5 – form the apex of two equilateral triangles that have the large masses at their vertices. L4 leads the orbit of earth and L5 follows.

With a limited number of Lagrange points in a system I believe the locations will serve as focal points for both commerce and conflict in the game. I'm reminded of the old POS-based sovereignty mechanics in the beginning of Online's history.

Pulling all the way out of the rabbit hole, another interesting development are the starter systems themselves. A criticism of Online is that veteran players can return to the starter systems anytime they want, sometimes causing grief for new players. Frontier solves the problem by making the goal of the tutorial escaping the starter area without the ability to return. While the systems can hold more than one new player, arming the new players with only mining lasers helps reduce violence to new players even further.

Building structures in an asteroid belt

Something I really like the idea of is performing industry functions in asteroid belts. In Online the only small structure a player can use is the mobile depot. All other structures like the Athanor and Tatara are group-based objects. In Frontier players have the ability to build structures like portable refineries and storage units in belts. When I left the starter system I took with me 100 common ore in order to create a portable refinery and portable storage unit wherever I land. If I find a source of water ice to make fuel I want to be ready.

Available destinations from my starting system

Another difference involving the game is the lack of jump gates. In Online players are funneled into a limited amount of paths from starting systems to regular play areas. In Frontier the choice of next system is determined by the distance a ship can jump. Unlike in Online ships can jump to a system without a destination cynosural field to jump to. So I had a choice of 16 systems to explore. Kind of a scary proposition. Chose wrong and I may become trapped in a system without fuel. Finding a system attached to a jump gate network would do much to ease my mind.

Up until now I have not mentioned the blockchain. In my six hours playing and fiddling around in the tutorial I found I didn't need to attach myself to the game's blockchain software. A good choice in my opinion. By not requiring blockchain access potential players can just play the tutorial to see if the game is something they would like to spend more time with. Just like Online. 

One last observation. I purchased my pre-launch access for $19.99 during an introductory deal. The current access packages are a little more expensive.

Prices as of 15 June 2025

Would I spend $40 on the game right now? Maybe if I wanted to write about the game. I figure the game still has at least 18-24 months of development ahead of it. I probably would recommend waiting on a free access weekend before spending money. Unlike a game like Star Citizen the game will receive a complete wipe before launching live. And if the game doesn't receive a complete wipe, especially concerning cryptocurrencies, that's a red flag I'll call out loudly.

PanFam Didn't Want That Region Anyway - June 2025 Edition

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.

Cosmic Tools Completed

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 Rash Of Web3 Game Project Closures

Last weekend was an inauspicious time for CCP Games to announce EVE Frontier's exit from its closed alpha. Recently five Web3/blockchain gaming projects announced they were closing. I call them projects because as far as I can tell they never reached a commercial launch ready state. The games were:

Ember Sword - The game was advertised as ...

... 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

Who's… pic.twitter.com/iB0rydhXyX

— Tr3vor (@tr3vorx) May 17, 2025

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.

EVE Frontier - Founder's Access: New Era Coming 11 June 2025

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).

To learn more or to purchase Founder Access, visit www.evefrontier.com/founderaccess. For more information about EVE Frontier, visit www.evefrontier.com. A FAQ can be found at www.evefrontier.com/faq. Assets for EVE Frontier can be found in the press kit.

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.

A Look At The Active ISK Delta For May 2025

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.

The Imperium Is On The March In Legion

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.

Cloud Imperium Records Record $28.9 Million In Sales In May 2025

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?

Patch 7.25 - Still Doing Non-Combat Content

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.