Today I woke up to the news that CCP announced the dates for this year's Winter Nexus event. Running from 9 December to 12 January, EVE Online's annual winter event will run for 5 weeks. Like Final Fantasy XIV, EVE's developers will change the yearly seasonal events. This year, I thought I'd bring up some background information.
The events occur in systems containing Volatile Ice Storms as is tradition. The content is a little bit different.
Hunt Yoiul LADs (Logistical Automated Deliveries) and get Cryo Tech that allows access to even more within the storms, and don’t miss the Perseverance ice mining destroyer, currently only available through the Winter Nexus seasonal reward track.
The Yoiul LADs is an allusion to the real world group known as the Yule Lads.
The real Yule Lads
When looking at the arrival and departure dates of the Yule Lads, the event running for 5 weeks seems culturally appropriate, doesn't it?
This year InterBus is aiding the Yule Lads in their troublemaking in New Eden.
This year, InterBus is launching a cautionary campaign for travelers by dispatching Logistical Automated Delivery vessels (LADs) named after the legendary Yoiul Clones.
However, a whistleblower within Verity Enhancements, known only by the codename Yoiul Kattar, claims to have proof that the Yoiul LADs are not what they seem.
I need to interrupt CCP's narrative here because of the reference to Yoiul Kattar, aka the Yule Cat. Known as Jólakötturinn in Icelandic, the Yule Cat goes around the snowy countryside during Christmas time and eats people who have not received any new clothes to wear before Christmas Eve. So the developers better provide us some new clothing as a login reward before then.
Hunting down these automated vessels will give you Verity Cryo Tech that will unlock new challenges and rewards. For enforcers, this means access to more dangerous parts of the storms with stronger forces to fight. In highsec, marauders will need this Cryo Tech (specifically the Cryostorm Clarifier) to access combat sites. No such restrictions apply in lowsec or nullsec, however, depositing Cryo Tech will give access to more challenging and rewarding experiences in all Winter Nexus combat sites.
But the event doesn't just benefit combat pilots explorers and miners get some love as well.
Explorers can use the tech to gain access to relays normally scrambled by storm interference, which can then be hacked.
The tech will give miners additional recipes for mined ice, which will award enhanced salvage packages. Cryo Tech can be deposited in certain structures in and around the sites to unlock these extras.
So as players fly around New Eden this year they should keep their eyes out for trouble in snowy systems. Especially if they see a grump old man in a red suit.
I went to log into EVE Online this morning and noticed a new patch download. Two weeks after the launch of Catalyst came the first patch, concerning controlling access to freelance jobs. The news article describing the patch was pretty short.
The first update to Catalyst is here, bringing Access Control List restrictions to Freelance Jobs.
This allows project creators to decide who can and cannot see the listed job.
Want to blacklist your rival alliance? Done.
Want to make sure only members of a certain corporation see your posting? You got it.
Want to put out a hit on a rival capsuleer or corporation and make sure the target remains unaware? Mum’s the word.
A new Freelancing skill has also been added, allowing capsuleers to accept more than three Freelance Jobs at a time. Explore available Freelance Jobs via the AIR Opportunities interface.
At the same time, the costs associated with Freelance Jobs have been reduced. The duration fee is down by 25%, and the Broadcasting Fee is being cut by a third.
Basically a TL,DR for the patch notes. I was interested in the new skill, Freelancing, so I took a couple of extra minutes to gather some information.
I tried to find out what the market price is with no luck. Of course, I didn't have much time to search. Players can click on the blue "+" button to purchase the book remotely for 1.3 million ISK. I have the feeling that's how the skill will become available as the developers will want to place as few barriers to obtaining Freelancing as possible.
Below I'll include the full patch notes covering the updates to accessing freelance jobs. I have the feeling players interested in the feature will want to dig into the details.
Freelance Job Access Lists (ACLs)
Freelance Jobs now support Access Lists (ACLs), giving corporations and job creators the ability to define exactly who can view and accept the job postings. This update provides better control and privacy and a more tailored collaboration for corporations.
ACLs allow visibility restrictions at three identity levels:
Character – specific characters.
Corporation – all members of selected corporations.
Alliance – all members of corporations within selected alliances.
Creating Jobs with ACL:
You can select which ACL to use during job creation, and once assigned, a job’s ACL cannot be swapped, but the contents of the ACL may be edited at any time.
Changes to ACL affect job visibility and participation but will not remove existing participants.
If an ACL that’s attached to a freelance job is deleted, only the active participants of the job are able to contribute. No other capsuleers can accept the job.
Blocked characters can’t see or access relevant job listings, even with a direct link.
The job creator and corporation project managers always retain full access regardless of restrictions.
New Skill: Freelancing
A new Freelancing skill has been introduced.
Each level increases the number of concurrent Freelance Jobs a character can accept, up to maximum of 11.
Freelance Job Cost Adjusted
To make the job creation more sustainable, two cost reductions have been applied:
Duration fee reduced by 25%.
Broadcasting Fee reduced by 33%.
Freelance Job : Alliance Column in Participant view
A new Alliance column has been added to the Participant view for Freelance Jobs. Project managers will now be able to view and sort participants by alliance membership.
Clicking the Alliance column header sorts the participants alphabetically by alliance name and clicking again reverses the order.
If a participant does not belong to an alliance, a “-” symbol will be shown.
In November 2025 Cloud Imperium Games smashed records for revenue generated by its online cash shop. According to the CCU Game dashboard cash shop sales reached a record $31.9 million, a year-over-year increase of 57.7% over the $20.3 million generated in November 2024. The total was also 33.6% greater than the three-year average of $23.9 million. With one month to go in 2025 the CIG online cash shop has generated $140.4 million.
The $914.5 million displayed on the Roberts Space Industries funding page at the end of October was not a comprehensive accounting for all of CIG's revenue since the project's Kickstarter in October 2012. Overall, the company has recorded $1.039 billion in confirmed revenue (the funding page & the 2023 financial report).
Sales/Pledges: $914.5 million (through 30 November 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 $1.107 billion, or $1.1 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.
Setting records - The $31.9 million in cash shop sales topped the previous single month revenue mark set back in May. The two months, powered by the Invictus and Intergalactic Aerospace Expo, resulted in $60.8 million in sales, or 43.3% of the total so far in 2025.
During November CIG also set a single year high, surpassing the $117.6 million generated in 2023. With one month to go, cash shop sales will go well beyond the $140.4 million recorded in the first 11 months of 2025.
A third record concerning a single sales was surpassed in November. This year's IAE so far has generated sales of $28.5 million. The previous IAE high of $24.5 million was set in 2023. This year's Invictus event generated sales of $24.2 million. The current IAE event still has three days to run.
New accounts - In November CIG recorded the second highest amount of new accounts in a single month in the company's history. Last month's 127,366 new accounts only trailed the 175,556 new accounts created in May 2022. So far in 2025 the number of new accounts created is up 42.7% year-over-year to 625,526. The record occurred in 2022 with 871,922 accounts created.
What to watch for - CIG should publish its 2024 financial statement to the corporate site near the end of December. Also, with the final three days of the IAE falling in December plus the upcoming Luminalia event held every year in mid-December should ensure the year's cash shop total should reach $150 million.
I haven't made my move to Final Fantasy XIV as my main MMORPG a secret. I maybe play EVE Online a lot for 2-3 months every year and then use the game to hone my programming skills. Or perhaps my skill at using AI to help program in Python. Yes, that's a thing I need to do at work. But this year's Black Friday sale was so good I wound up subbing another year. Which might not make a lot of sense since I'm now subscribed until November 2027.
A 25% reduction in the subscription price is pretty big. Through downtime on 3 December the effective price of a month of gametime not counting extras is:
1 month: $15/month
3 months: $12/month
6 months: $10.50/month
12 months: $9/month
24 months: $8.25/month
I normally grab my game time one year at a time, so the package I wound up buying also included 1000 PLEX, a $45 value. I don't know how to value the SKINR supply crate. I usually ignore that stuff and have a lot sitting around various hangars around New Eden. One day I might even have to look up how to use the system to make SKINs. But for now looks like I'll stick around another year.
Happy Thanksgiving! While a lot of game companies have had a down year, a couple studios I follow have a lot to be thankful for this U.S. holiday. Perhaps not Square Enix, which is engaged in a global reorganization pulling itself back into Japan. But both CCP Games and Cloud Imperium are witnessing good news over the past 3-4 weeks.
First, let's start with CCP. The month of November started off well with the news that its parent company Pearl Abyss experienced both an operating profit and net profit in the third quarter of 2025. The last time that had happened was the first quarter of 2024. Hopefully the news that Crimson Desert has a solid release date of 19 March 2026 will help squash any rumors of the South Korean game maker needed to sell off CCP Games for cash.
But that's not all. CCP released its winter expansion for EVE Online, Catalyst, on 18 November. If the average concurrent numbers are any indication, the mining and exploration themed expansion was well received.
The first week peaked at over 41,000 accounts logged in
While not precise, Chribba's EVE-Offline.net shows an average of 28,000 logged in at any one time over the past 7 days. The average before was approximately 23,000. The peak number of users logged in occurred on Sunday, with 41,322 accounts online at one time. Combined with the dissolution of Pandemic Horde Sunday saw the highest PCU since 41,562 were logged in on 10 May 2020.
Despite the nice episode of The Scope, I'm not really sure how much of a war the conflict really was. I get the impression the campaign was more chasing Pandemic Horde and shooting their structures more than a proper full-scale war. I did check to see that the bubble-camp of the R-AG7W keepstar occurred before the launch of the expansion because that would definitely have inflated the numbers. Which is a good thing because major null sec conflicts tend to reduce player counts in the long run. I'm not really sure what will happen if a major null sec leader just walks away. Bobby Atlas departing EVE was over a decade ago.
The other game company is Cloud Imperium Games. Depsite what white knights might claim, at this time last year things weren't looking too good. But at the end of 2024 and the beginning of 2025 Chris Roberts instituted a leadership shakeup and a new software release schedule. Combined with an injection of cash from Keith Calder, CIG's second largest shareholder, CIG is once again setting financial records.
From the Roberts Space Industries website
On Tuesday the funding stats page on the RSI website passed the $900 million mark. As of 1800 UTC today the figure was up to $905.4 million. The surge in revenue is due to the Intergalactic Aerospace Expo, an annual event that begins the Thursday before Black Friday and ends the Thursday after perhaps the largest shopping day of the year.
If CIG exceeding the $900 million lifetime amount isn't enough, the company also surpassed its record yearly total with six weeks to go in the year. As of the end of the day Wednesday, the CCU Game dashboard showed $130 million in sales so far in 2025. The previous record for a single year occurred in 2023 with a total of $117.6 million in sales. The company has an excellent chance to end the year with $150 million in online sales.
The other thing going right for CIG is the success of the sales despite dropping patch 4.4 the day before the IAE kicked off. I know, the event has the expected lag when so many people log into the game at once. Server meshing apparently hasn't solved that issue yet. But through day 7 of the 14 day event CIG recorded $18 million in sales. The record, set in 2023, was $24.5 million. With today looking like another day of $2 million in online sales, I really don't think the IAE will average less than $1 million/day during the event's second week.
I'll end this post with the lifetime revenue numbers for Cloud Imperium Games. I usually provide them in my monthly post on CIG's sales but with all the numbers flying around I thought I'd add the ones I've come up with.
Overall, the company has recorded $1.030 billion in confirmed revenue (the funding page & the 2023 financial report).
Sales/Pledges: $905.4 million (through 27 November 2025 @ 1800 UTC)
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, making the total amount raised through all sources for the project as $1.098 billion. I expect to start using the figure $1.1 billion starting tomorrow.
EVE Online's winter expansion, Catalyst, introduced a new class of mining ship, the mining destroyer. Known as the Pioneer, the mining destroyer and its tech 2 and navy variants fill a gap in the progression from mining frigates to mining barges.
In a new way of thinking, the developers decided to introduce the ship and some new mining features with an epic arc. Well, I don't think that a series of three missions qualifies as epic, but the new set of missions, called Fractured Legacy, is found in the Epic Arc section of The Agency. I thought I'd give a short description of the arc.
First, players will need a Venture to run the first mission, The Missing Pilot. Since the mission arc is meant for all levels of players, I won't mention specific modules. I would recommend fitting the following:
2 mining lasers 1 prop module (afterburner or micro-warp drive) 1 medium shield extender 1 Data Analyzer I 1 mining laser upgrade
Also bring an extra mining laser and a nanofiber structure for when you get to fly the Pioneer.
To start the first quest, talk to Elias Peltonnen in the AIR Laboratories station above Kisogo VII. The system is located 3 jumps from Jita so picking up any items is easy if you don't want to fly to the system in a Venture. Elias is a level 1 agent for ORE, so there should not be an issue of accessing the mission series unless you have negative security standings as Kisogo has a security status of 1.0.
From the first mission
The first mission, The Missing Pilot, seems needlessly long. Players go out in a Venture and mine a lot of asteroids. No fair flying ahead and mining the Scordite, the game will not allow locking on the asteroid until all the Veldspar is mined first.
But, the length of the mission does have a purpose. Players are also granted a skillbook, Mining Destroyer, upon accepting the mission. For those who didn't already purchase the book and don't have extra skill points, immediately inject the skillbook and start training. Mining Destroyer I should be ready by the time a player is ready for the second mission. Completing the mission grants a Pioneer.
The second mission
The next mission is Pioneering Spirit, so named because the player has to fly a Pioneer. The player is granted a Basic Mining Survey Chipset to help determine which asteroids to mine. Players need to mine out the asteroids that only hold 2000 units. The ones that hold 3000 units are worthless. After gathering 4000 units of the good ore transfer the ore to an NPC's Odysseus.
The final mission
The final mission is Shattered Catalyst. The mission requires fitting the Data Analyzer I again and navigating through a field of proximity mines. The extra range of the Pioneer comes in handy to mine out asteroids blocking the way between the target structure and the mines. While I avoided the mines, the medium shield extender should help mitigate the damage from a mine if one makes a navigation error. But I didn't actually test the theory.
The final mission provided a nice new feature I hope is added to more items: a user manual.
Players get a 1-run blueprint for the item. Honestly with part of the rationale for the existence of the mission arc is to introduce players to the new mining features in Catalyst, I'm happy with the reward. Whether the reward, if not the arc itself, lasts the test of time really depends on how relevant the Pioneer remains going into the future.
Okay, I didn't begin the new mining epic arc in EVE Online yesterday. In my defense Kisogo is a very long way from where I usually play and when I logged out I was sitting in the agent's station in my Mastodon. So instead of a mining update I thought I'd take a look at PLEX prices on the global PLEX market.
From the start of the market to the launch of Catalyst
For everyone complaining about the price of PLEX being too damn high ... well, it's still high. But since the developers implemented the global PLEX market in early July the average price of PLEX has decreased from 6 million ISK down to 5 million ISK.
For those PLEXing their accounts, that's a savings of 500 million ISK per month. Of course, with the launch of an expansion comes expansion sales. In the case of Catalyst the following sale is occurring for game time in the New Eden Store running from 14-24 November.
1 month - 400 PLEX (down from 500 PLEX)
3 months - 1020 PLEX (down from 1200 PLEX)
6 months - 1890 PLEX (down from 2100 PLEX)
I'll just mention the sale for people with a little bit more money to spend than myself. Also until the 24th the cash shop lowered the price of 20,000 PLEX from $650 down to $458. I think that comes out to be $7.25/month for a little over 5 years if all the PLEX is spent on game time. Utterly insane.
The sales and expansion are having an effect. Up until a week ago the volume of PLEX sold on the market never exceeded 1.8 million PLEX. But over the last 8 days (week before the expansion plus launch day) the volume has exceeded that mark 6 times, with three of those days seeing over 2 million PLEX sold.
From the start of the market to the launch of Catalyst
How does that affect the real world value of ISK? Let's just say the South Korean won is not the only currency that has recently strengthened against the U.S. dollar. When the global PLEX market opened 1 billion ISK was worth $7.49. After the first day of Catalyst, the value had increased to $8.99, an increase of 20%. Of course, with a lot of the sales ongoing players purchasing PLEX today to convert to ISK aren't paying $8.99/billion ISK. But once all the sales end in 5 days I'll be interested to see if the price stays at that level.
I woke up this morning, logged into EVE, and began buying the new skills introduced in the winter expansion, Catalyst. Since I don't think a list exists yet, I decided to put one up with a little information.
First up are the skills that apply to mining. Both the Mining Destroyer and Mining Precision skills cost 100,000 ISK. The follow-up to the Mining Precision skill, Mining Exploitation, costs 20 million ISK. I found all 3 skills at a Republic University station so I am assuming any Empire school station will have these in stock.
Next up are the 3 new skills needed to fly and get the most out of the new Sisters of EVE ship, the Odysseus. The Expedition Command Ships skill is rather pricy at 55 million ISK. The other two skills, Expedition Command and Expedition Command Specialist, focus on command bursts and cost 100,000 ISK and 500,000 ISK respectively. These skills are only found in Sisters of EVE, The Sanctuary, and Food Relief stations.
Finally we get to the skill needed to mine and process the new Prismaticite Ore introduced in Catalyst. I wound up going to an Impetus station to spend 1,250,000 ISK to learn the skill. Hopefully no one saw me because I don't think Impetus has the greatest reputation.
Impetus is the main producer of holo reels in the world of EVE, producing anything from epic historical movies to cheap porn flicks. Impetus has in recent years led the development of instant news arrays, a technology that will revolutionize the news business once complete.
I should also add when I went into the station I didn't see the interior docking bay. I had to check around to see if I was really docked. But I did manage to find the station's inventory and learn the skill.
I probably need to find out more about the mining changes but for now finding out what I needed to learn before work helps when I get to play games this evening. I have two other characters I need to skill up as well so I can use this post to save some time. Hopefully others will find this helpful as well.
I really thought about using a title like "CCP Devs Can't Count" or "Math is Hard" for this post. I was watching the In Focus video for Catalyst and saw players were getting more ships than originally indicated. The segment was so out of the ordinary I embedded the segment below (If the code doesn't work for you, the segment ran from 28:34 to 33:17).
That's right, instead of the two ships indicated at the expansion's announcement on 21 October, the developers are delivering five ships in total: a new Sisters of EVE command ship and four new mining ships designed to fill in the progression gap between mining frigates and mining barges. In the interest of getting some information out, here's the latest lineup of ships players can get their hands on Tuesday.
I'm taking the ships out of order from the expansion notes because I believe the Odysseus, the newest SoE ship, was originally the highlight ship of the expansion. Here are the stats and descriptions where available.
Catalyst introduces a new exploration command ship from the Sisters of EVE: The Odysseus. It allows you to explore for longer, go further afield, and carry more loot back.
Exploration Redefined
The Odysseus has a number of unique features, including the ability to warp while cloaked, and a ship maintenance bay.
This means that the Odysseus can stay in space by itself for long periods, hidden when needed. It’s perfect for pilots who prefer solo exploration, but is also great at supporting group excursions.
Not only can it let friends refit on longer expeditions, but the unique expedition hold allows everyone in the fleet to store treasures found in relic, data, and gas sites.
Whether by yourself or supporting a larger group, you can therefore stay out for extended periods of time, and carry vast riches back.
Odysseus Skill Bonuses:
Amarr Battlecruiser: (per skill level)
4% bonus to Armor Resistances
Gallente Battlecruiser: (per skill level)
10% bonus to Light, Medium and Heavy Drone damage
Expedition Command Ships: (per skill level)
50% bonus to Data Analyzer and Relic Analyzer optimal range
5% reduction in gas cloud scoop duration
3% bonus to the strength and duration of exploration command bursts
1% bonus to the strength and duration of armor command bursts
Role Bonus:
100% bonus to the duration of Expedition Command Bursts
50% bonus to the range of command burst modules
50% bonus to Medium Energy Turret Optimal Range
50% Reduction in CPU cost of Gas Cloud Scoops
37.5% bonus to Scan Probe Strength
10+ bonus to Relic and Data analyzers
Can fit Covert Ops Cloaking Device
Can fit two command burst modules
Cloaking reactivation delay reduced to 15 seconds
Can fit Zero-Point Mass Entangler
This ship can recieve bonus effects depending on the environment.
Blueprint Copies for the Odysseus can be obtained from the Servant Sisters of EVE faction member corporations for the price of 250,000 LP and 250,000,000 ISK.
This includes The Sanctuary, Food Relief and the Sisters of EVE corporations.
The Pioneer, a new mining destroyer from Outer Ring Excavations, was the second ship originally announced.
Pioneering Industry Greatness
Level up your industry game with the Pioneer, a stepping stone between a mining frigate and mining barges.
The goal is for the cost of the Pioneer to be ten times greater than a Venture, but ten times less than a mining barge. It will therefore provide a good recovery point if a player loses their mining barge and can’t afford to replace it.
Mining For All Levels
Even rookies can obtain this new mining destroyer after only a few hours in New Eden, and fly it as Alphas, who can train the new Mining Destroyer skill to level 2.
There is even more to unlock for Omegas, who can train it up to level 5, so this vessel can scale as you level up your industrial ambitions.
Unparalleled Range and Options
The Pioneer will have the furthest mining range of any vessel, and can accommodate up to three mining lasers, giving it a unique advantage.
Pioneer Skill Bonuses:
Mining Destroyer: (per skill level)
10% bonus to Mining yield
20% bonus to Mining range
5% reduction in Gas Cloud Scoop duration
Role Bonus:
50% bonus to Mining yield
25% reduction in Gas Cloud Scoop duration
Blueprint Originals for the Pioneer can be purchased from Outer Ring Excavations (ORE) stations in Outer Ring.
Alpha Clones are able to train the new Mining Destroyer skill to level 2.
Now we get to what I am calling the 3 bonus ships for the expansion. First up the the tech 2 version of the Pioneer, the Outrider.
The Outrider Tech II variation of the Pioneer will be able to fit a micro jump field generator module, allowing it to reposition itself and nearby mining vessels rapidly. It is the first industrial command ship with this capability.
That doesn’t mean that the Outrider is solely a fleet mining ship. It will also have some solo mining capabilities, making it a great vessel for stealthy mining, with the micro jump drive as a form of escape.
The Outrider will be more affordable than the Porpoise, but without compression access. Furthermore, the Porpoise has stronger bonuses while using the medium industrial core.
Outrider Skill Bonuses:
Mining Destroyer:
15% bonus to Mining yield
10% bonus to Drone hitpoints and damage
6% bonus to all shield resistances
Command Destroyer:
5% reduction in Micro Jump Field Generator spool up time
2% bonus to Shield Command and Mining Foreman Burst effect strength and duration
Role Bonus:
95% reduction in powergrid requirements for Command Bursts
50% reduction in Microwarpdrive signature radius penalty
50% reduction in reactivation delay for Defender Launcher
Can fit Micro Jump Field Generators
Can fit one Command Burst module
75% bonus to tractor beam range
30% bonus to Tractor Beam velocity
Blueprint Copies of the Outrider can be obtained by performing Invention jobs on blueprint copies of the Pioneer.
Finally we get to the final two ships to fill out the ship tree. But instead of having a "Navy Issue", the ships are labeled "Consortium Issue" First is the latest update to the venerable Venture.
ORE Navy Mining Frigate - Venture Consortium Issue
Venture Consortium Issue Skill Bonuses:
Mining Frigate: (per skill level)
5% bonus to Mining yield
5% reduction in Gas Cloud Scoop duration
10% bonus to Shield Booster amount
Role Bonus:
100% bonus to Mining and Gas Cloud Scoop yield
2+ bonus to ship warp core strength
50% reduction in Industrial Cynosural Field Generator liquid ozone consumption
50% bonus to Mining critical hit chance
10+ bonus to Salvage Drone salvage chance
Blueprint Copies for the Venture Consortium Issue can be obtained from Upwell Consortium member corporations LP stores for the price of 10 million ISK and 10,000 Loyalty Points.
This includes Chemal Tech, Ducia Foundry, Eifyr and Co, Freedom Extension, Impetus, Intaki Bank, Mordus Legion, Propel Dynamics, Ytiri and Zoar and Sons corporations.
ORE offers a 60% discount in their LP store, at a price of 4 million ISK and 4,000 Loyalty Points.
Finally we get to the "Navy" version of the new mining destroyer, the Pioneer Consortium Issue.
Pioneer Consortium Issue Skill Bonuses:
Mining Destroyer: (per skill level)
10% bonus to Mining yield
20% bonus to Mining range
10% bonus to Shield Booster amount
5% reduction in Gas Cloud Scoop duration
Role Bonus:
50% bonus to Mining yield
50% bonus to Mining critical hit chance
25% reduction in Gas Cloud Scoop duration
10+ bonus to Salvage Drone salvage chance
Blueprint Copies for the Pioneer Consortium Issue can be obtained from Upwell Consortium member corporations LP stores for the price of 30 million ISK and 30,000 Loyalty Points.
This includes Chemal Tech, Ducia Foundry, Eifyr and Co, Freedom Extension, Impetus, Intaki Bank, Mordus Legion, Propel Dynamics, Ytiri and Zoar and Sons corporations.
ORE offers a 60% discount in their LP store, at a price of 12 million ISK and 12,000 Loyalty Points.
The dev blogs I saw didn't have a lot of information about the Consortium Issue ships. Probably because the developers didn't really plan to release them yet.
Honestly, the announcement on 28 October that New World would enter maintenance mode wasn't a big surprise. After all, since the launch of EVE Online's Havoc expansion in November 2023 the Amazon product was unable to achieve the same number of average concurrent users on PC that the 20-year-old Icelandic game did outside of China.
If I had paid attention to news affecting my Amazon Prime account I would have noticed the re-launch of something called Amazon Luna. Polygon covered the story at the beginning of the month.
Amazon's cloud-gaming platform is getting a big "rethink" in 2025, the company announced Wednesday, promising a "completely redesigned and reimagined Amazon Luna that combines innovative social party games with amazing blockbusters." In addition to streaming hits like Hogwarts Legacy, Indiana Jones and the Great Circle, and Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2, the new Luna will include GameNight, a collection of family-friendly social party games.
...a human-built, AI-powered, voice-driven improv courtroom game where players take turns inventing absurd characters, spinning wild stories, and doing anything it takes to defend their testimonies in front of Judge Snoop Dogg.
No, I did not copy this from Copilot. This is not an AI hallucination, although I wish it were. I'll include the launch trailer below.
Perhaps I had good reason not to pay attention to Amazon's video game offerings that come with an Amazon Prime membership. Let me continue on with Amazon's own description of Luna.
Luna (Included with Prime)
Included with Prime are titles like Hogwarts Legacy, Indiana Jones and the Great Circle, Kingdom Come: Deliverance II, and TopSpin 2K25, alongside a growing catalog of recent-release blockbusters, popular classics, indie gems, and more. (Games outside of the GameNight library on Luna do require a controller or mouse and keyboard to play.)
“We know that 95% of Prime households include someone who loves games, but there’s not always a straightforward path for many of them to play,” says Gattis. “Luna is purpose-built to remove the historical barriers to gaming. There’s no need to purchase costly, dedicated PC or console hardware. No downloads or installations required. And best of all, access is included within the same Prime membership enjoyed by more than 200 million paid members today.”
By the way, Amazon also offers a premium version of Luna that costs $9.99 per month. If Amazon really wanted my money, the company should have thought about how the launch was announced. But then again, I don't think I'm the target audience for the service.
In an effort to look at the issue rationally, I cranked Copilot up to eleven and asked about the closing of New World. The AI gave me a 13-page, 3900 word report with 27 references. I don't think I can argue with this explanation of why Amazon is moving away from triple-A games in general and MMORPGs specifically.
The strategic rationale for this pivot is clear: casual and party games can be developed more quickly and cost-effectively than AAA MMOs, align with Amazon’s broader entertainment ecosystem, and leverage the company’s strengths in cloud streaming and AI. By bundling Luna access with Prime, Amazon aims to drive engagement and retention across its core customer base, while differentiating itself from competitors focused on traditional console and PC gaming.
Now for my pie-in-the-sky take. I spend a lot of time on YouTube watching content about video games. Forget about AA games like Expedition 33. Indie games with small development teams like Ball x Pit, Escape from Duckov, Megabonk, and Slots & Daggers look like fun games that would fit in my schedule between sessions of games like Final Fantasy XIV. Below is a video by Veteran Joystick highlighting the types of games I think Amazon Game Studios would like to make.
AGS would clearly like to adopt the template developed by indie and double-A games to become successful. According to Veteran Joystick:
It's the same pattern. Tiny team, weird idea, massive success. So, what do all of these have in common? Innovation, risk, fun first, sales second. A clear vision from people who clearly love games.
I can't even say the formula would not work for AGS. After all, they failed miserably over the past several years trying to develop a successful MMORPG. Escape from Duckov, on the other hand, had a 5-person development team. Bilibili, a Chinese company sometimes referred to as “China’s YouTube for Gen Z” succeeded in making small development teams while being a large company. The internal Team Soda developed the game and Bilibili provided the marketing and publishing power to make the game a success.
Could Amazon build the same type of synergy with its new approach? Possibly. But given history, I can also imagine a continuous stream of slop, whether AI-generated or produced by humans. At least, as an Amazon Prime member, I won't have to spend any extra money to find out.
On Tuesday in South Korea, Pearl Abyss held its earnings call for the third quarter of 2025. The company experienced a quarter-over-quarter increase in revenue of 34.2%, from ₩79.6 billion ($56.8 million) in Q2 2025 to ₩106.8 billion ($77 million) in the third quarter. Year-over-year the company's third quarter revenue increased by 34.3%.
From the Q3 2025 earnings call
Pearl Abyss also recorded both operating and net profits in the same quarter for the first time since the last three months of 2024. On the call the PA C-Suite indicated a large reason for the profits was due to foreign currency exchange effects and tax rebates. Of the ₩106.8 billion in operating revenue, only ₩100.3 billion came from either the Black Desert or EVE intellectual properties. The remaining ₩6.5 billion ($4.7 million) made up 22.4% of the company's net profit.
From the Q3 2025 earnings call
Overall, the revenue from the company's core game IPs rose 26.8% quarter-over-quarter to ₩100.3 billion ($74.3 million). Performance compared to Q3 2024 was even better, improving 34.6% year-over-year.
The big revenue gain came from the Black Desert IP. The ₩79.5 billion ($57.4 million) in revenue last quarter was a 44.8% increase over Q2 2025's sales and 47.2% over the third quarter of 2024. While console revenue in the previous quarter doubled following the release of the console version of BDO in June. However, the actual increase in revenue from ₩2.4 billion to ₩5.0 billion did not account for most of the increase. Instead the most likely reasons were the introduction of a new class, Wukong, and a new end game region, Edania.
In historical terms, Q3 revenue was the most since the beginning of Pearl Abyss self-publishing in 2021. In Q1 2021 the Black Desert IP recorded ₩82.9 billion ($74.4 million) in revenue. However, due to the weakening of the won vs the US dollar, revenue was the greatest since Q2 2022.
EVE IP revenue was pretty much as expected. Revenue fell 14.1% down to ₩20.8 billion ($15.0 million). In an interesting development Pearl Abyss did point out to the analysts on the call the decline was expected as the effect of the Legion expansion, released in May, began to wear off. However, the revenue did meet the guidance that the EVE IP would bring in at least ₩20 billion every quarter issued back on the Q2 2024 earnings call.
Finally, some news about Crimson Desert. The game is on track to release on 20 March 2026 (19 March 2026 in the west). The advertising for the launch will reach its peak beginning in January. The company's advertising spend already increased 29.5% QoQ and 52.7% YoY to ₩13.6 billion ($9.8 million) with the marketing efforts at all the video game shows attended.
In Crimson Desert sales news, the biggest percentage of pre-sales is coming from console sales. Pearl Abyss speculated the reason was that the initial announcement was made on the Playstation Network.
EDIT - 13 November 2025 - For those looking for a transcript of the call, Croda has provided one in his coverage.
A note about currency conversions.
All currency conversions in this blog post were performed using the rates displayed on the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis website using the average quarterly exchange rate.
Sometimes I decide to do something that doesn't make a lot of sense. I took this week off of work and one of my objectives was to get all crafting and gathering classes up to 50,000 cosmic class points. But then a pop-up appeared about a server shutdown from 10:00 p.m. Monday to Nov. 11, 2025 2:00 a.m. (PST) Tuesday to install Dawntrail patch 7.38. If the evaluation period for becoming a Star Contributor was being shortened by 3 hours, why not try to obtain the title?
Standing in front of the hologram of Star Contributors
The benefits of becoming one of the seven current Star Contributors aren't permanent, or even very impactful. According to the wiki:
Star Contributors will be honored for fourteen real-life days in the following ways:
A hologram of the player will be displayed in Phaenna (X:27.9, Y:12.7).
The player's name will be displayed on the starward standings stela on Phaenna (X:28.0, Y:12.6).
A visual effect will be applied to them when they are in a Cosmic Exploration zone. They can click off this buff if they do not want it displayed.
Players who receive Star Contributor will be ineligible to receive it again for 14 days.
In contrast to the limited-time ranking titles in Ishgardian Restoration, Star Contributor is a permanent competitive feature to prevent "fear of missing out". There are no achievements, titles, or item rewards tied to Star Contributor.
So why chase becoming a Star Contributor? Because I could. Also, the evaluation period would end at midnight meaning I wouldn't have to screw up my sleep schedule too much. I'd just need to wake up a few hours early Monday morning.
The only preparation I did was go out and make 60 All i Pebre. The food based on Goldentail eel is a superior version of the Rroneek Steak, which would matter because the crafting classes I intended to play were not specialists and need all the stats I could give them. I went out and fished for 30 minutes and caught 25 Goldentail (pro-tip - use red maggots and double-hook/triple-hook). I wound up only needing 24, but running out of food was something I didn't want to do.
I should add I was also using Squadron Rationing Manuals. As part of the leveling I've done for my personal squadron I run a mission that provides 10 of the manuals. Perhaps I should take up PvP to get them also.
I actually logged in at 3am local, the start of the evaluation time. I was in for the long run so I did a few things and began the crafting grind at 3:20am. The strategy was simple: do sequential missions and abandon missions that don't lead to the three sequential missions that gave 1100-1200 points for crafting four items.
These missions will become available after completing certain stellar missions with a gold star rank. Sequential missions are created from a variety of missions, and completing them with the highest score possible will cause more to appear. Failing or abandoning a sequential mission will require the player to complete the prerequisite mission again for another attempt.
I also wound up making a small macro to do missions during Red Alerts. While I have no evidence besides vague hints, I think missions done for Red Alerts get a bonus when the Star Contributor points.
My first problem occurred shortly before 5am when Steam gave me a message saying my auto-pay didn't work. I figured out I had failed to delete something the last time the issue occurred. Getting everything back to normal took 30 minutes.
But then something happened that should have told me I had Star Contributor in the bag. Despite the payment issue knocking me out of the game, I went from being in the top 30% of players to top 20% of players. Getting up early was paying off.
I went on a roll from 5:30am to 7:15am and got into the top 10%, the highest category. Then I got a headache. A video game grind is not worth pain, so I took some aspirin and laid down for a half-hour until I felt better. I really started feeling good when I checked the math. I was averaging 6100 points per hour and in the top 10%. If I stepped up my efforts I could definitely come close.
But I was still looking to take care of myself. I didn't hesitate to go brew tea or eat lunch when the time came. I also would walk around for a few minutes each hour whether I needed to stretch or not. Over the next 10 hours I averaged 8400 points per hour.
I also learned something about my server. Players didn't start rolling into the zone until 1:30pm my time (11:30am PST). Basically I had an 8 hour head start on any potential competitor. So when I started getting sleepy I felt okay about taking a nap.
After my nap I wound up finishing strong, managing to get all my crafting classes to at least 50,000 class points.
Final class points at the end of the night
Each of the bronze cups in the picture above represents an achievement earned for getting 50,000 points in a class. During the grind I completed the achievements for Alchemist, Armouer, Blacksmith, Carpenter, and Goldsmith. Perhaps more importantly I racked up 155,662 overall class points, running my total up to 602,000 points. For those who want some more metrics, I averaged 7400 points per hour with a maximum of 11, 988 points in an hour after I took the nap. In the two hours after I took my nap I averaged 11,100 points per hour.
And perhaps that's the point. Long play sessions grinding out cosmic exploration content isn't the optimum use of a player's time. Shorter sessions spread out over a longer time is a more efficient way of doing things. Based on yesterday I'm going to try to spend two hours a day grinding out class points. Because while the point total sounds impressive, my 600,000 overall class points means I'm only 11% of the way to getting the High Mobility Vacuum Suit.
Yesterday IGN broke the news of layoffs occurring at Square Enix' overseas offices and studios, primarily in the United States and United Kingdom.
Square Enix is undergoing mass layoffs today, potentially impacting over 100 individuals, alongside a broader effort to consolidate its publishing organization and focus its development work in Japan.
Via public posts from former employees as well as confirmation from internal sources, IGN has learned that employees in the UK and US are being informed of the layoffs today, with an unknown number of US employees being dismissed by the end of the week, and a possible 137 jobs at risk in the UK. Under UK law, Square Enix must undergo redundancy consultations to see if any jobs can potentially be saved, so the final number in the UK could be smaller. It is not yet clear which teams were impacted by this, or to what extent.
Internally, a slide presentation now publicly available was also shared with employees earlier today, offered a progress report on Square Enix's ongoing "reorganization of overseas organizations", of which this restructuring seems to be a part. Per Square Enix, the strategy has already involved "clos[ing] overseas development studios and shift[ing] toward consolidating development functions in Japan."
I downloaded the document and, since the leadership over at Square Enix loves AI so much, I let Copilot provide a TL,DR of the presentation.
## 🎮 Strategic Vision: “Square Enix Reboots and Awakens”
A 3-year transformation plan focused on long-term growth through four core strategies:
1. 🏗️ Enhance Productivity in Digital Entertainment (DE)
- Shift from quantity to quality in game development.
- Consolidation of overseas studios; focus development in Japan.
- Launch of major titles like *Octopath Traveler 0*, *Dragon Quest VII Reimagined*, and *Killer Inn*.
- Introduction of off-app payment methods to improve profitability.
- QA automation via generative AI (joint research with University of Tokyo).
2. 💰 Diversify Earnings by Strengthening Customer Contact
- Multi-platform strategy for key IPs (e.g., Final Fantasy, Dragon Quest).
- Expansion of catalog title sales and merchandising.
- Global growth of publishing IPs and overseas franchise stores.
- Group collaboration with TAITO for IP exposure in amusement facilities.
3. 🧱 Build Foundational Stability
- Structural reforms in overseas publishing: reduced divisions, leaner teams.
- Integration of global marketing and data functions under CMO.
- Annual cost savings of over ¥3 billion expected from reorganization.
4. 📊 Capital Allocation: Growth vs. Shareholder Returns
- Strategic investments in AI, data marketing, and M&A.
- Planned dividend payout of ¥15.5 billion in FY2026/3.
- Stock split (3-for-1) implemented in October 2025.
- Shareholder return ratio projected at 91.7%.
One big issue brought up in the various reactions was the plan to move up to 70% of quality assurance work from humans to artificial intelligence. But that was only a small part of the presentation, although worthy of its own slide.
From the presentation
We heard of a reorganization in Japan in which SE moved from Created Business Units to Creative Studios. The below slide fleshes out the progress on the effort.
An organizational chart
The price savings of consolidating 11 divisions down to 4 is expected to be ¥3 billion in the next year, which comes out to be $US19.6 million at today's exchange rate.
Another organizational chart
At the risk of offending some folks in the gaming press, stories about layoffs, especially if AI is involved, are sexy. But the other side of cutting costs is bringing in more revenue. After all, if a good game comes along gamers will concentrate on the next interesting trailer.
The Square Enix game pipeline
I'm not going to lie. I'm used to covering game companies like Pearl Abyss and Cloud Imperium. Those companies are not famous for their ability to release finished games. The graphic above points to 5 new games. That's more than I'm used to seeing in the roadmaps of the games I play.
Square Enix games - 2026
I'm also glad to see that the Japanese game maker realizes it needs to focus on quality games. And yes, I'm aware that for some, the road to quality is to make sequels. The urge for security and financial success is often the path most trodden. That thinking is as true in the video game industry as it is in Hollywood.
Dividend history
But in the end, entertainment is still a business. Unlike the game companies I usually cover, Square Enix actually issues dividend payments. While the latest story is about more layoffs, the entire story is about Square Enix trying to turn its finances around after a few not-so-good bordering on terrible years.
With patch 7.4 due to drop in less than 6 weeks, I've spent my time trying to tidy up the place and finish tasks before the next story arc begins. I don't think I'm like most players as I haven't touched major content like The Occult Crescent, Pilgrim's Traverse, the FFXIV x Monster Hunter Wilds crossover event, or any savage or Unreal dungeons. Except for the crossover event none of the major content really interests me, especially with my lack of combat skill. So how have I spent my time in the game?
Cosmic exploration receives some oversight
The first event was working on Cosmic Exploration content. My home server finished the last bit of construction on Monday and I ran through the end quests last night. Looking at the special site I see that as of now three of the four logical data centers in North America have completed Cosmic Exploration. No world in the game is slower than level 20, meaning everyone will complete the Phaenna content before patch 7.41.
Also, as far as I know the Phaenna end quests revealed a very important lore fact. Y'shtola has eleven sisters. Well, her entry in the Final Fantasy wiki tells the story, but I think this was the first time mentioned in the reborn game. The big question is whether players will accept Y'shtola not appearing in a future expansion if one of her sisters plays a major part.
Pleasing the spirits
Next up was reaching bloodsworn with the Yok Huy. On Monday I also finished up Dawntrail's third and final allied society questline. The Yok Huy is the 20th allied society I've reached max reputation with. I'm now ready for the final set of intersocietal quests that should come out in patch 7.5x.
I so want this glamour
I also finished the current installment of the Inconceivably Further Hildibrand Adventures. Personally I think I like the Dawntrail Hildibrand story the best so far. I've never used New Game Plus, but I'm tempted to go back and do the entire set of Hildibrand adventures sometime in the future.
My chocobo companion
The last task finished was 6 years in the making. I finally leveled my chocobo companion to level 20. I'm not saying that's a long time but my neighbor who also plays FFXIV was a bit surprised I hadn't done so yet. Leveling a companion from level 10 to 20 takes a Thavnairian Onion for each level. Back when I began the price, at over 1 million gil each, was a bit too rich for my pouch. But I now have over 160 million gil and the price has dropped to around 100-200 thousand gil so I finally got the task out of the way.
I do have two more tasks I hope to complete by the end of the month involving dungeon runs. The first is finally getting all my Trust characters up to level 100. I currently have 7 of the 8 active NPC avatars in Dawntral to max level. I am currently running through Vanguard with Urianger, who will reach level 98 after the next dungeon completion.
My squadron roster
The next is finishing up some very old content. I never did max out my squadron. Once I made Captain in The Order of the Twin Adder I didn't see any reason for continuing to play an abandoned game system. Fast forward a few years and the completionist in me was screaming to finish the job. Between squadron missions and running a group through The Vault once a night I figure I can check this off my todo list before Thanksgiving. The squadron version of The Vault requires a minimum of level 57 and last night I reached that with my lowest ranked squadron member.
With the next patch so close I won't have to worry about things to do. When all else fails I still have the class point grind in Cosmic Exploration to work on. I would really like to get the hardest to get mount from the content. the High Mobility Vacuum Suit. But I won't earn that for a few months yet. In the meantime I'll pick through things and try to do some catching up on content.
While Final Fantasy XIV is rolling into the future with a lot of upcoming content, Creative Studio III is experiencing some technical hurdles. The game's Producer and Director Naoki Yoshida gave a technical explanation of why the developers are not turning FFXIV's housing into Tardis in patch 7.4 and possibly not adding more glamour plates in patch 7.5 during the Producer's Live Letter 89. Because the presentation was in Japanese, we didn't have the explanation ... until now.
As much as I talk negatively about the EVE Online sub-Reddit, the FFXIV sub-Reddit is much better. Especially useful is the sub-Reddit's Discord server which provides unofficial translations of the live letters into English. One of the translators, iluna minori, made the mistake of offering to volunteer to translate the technical explanation. So I figure I might as well post the translation here so the work gets a slightly wider audience.
Before I begin, apparently Square Enix has advanced infrastructure technology. No mention of server hamsters. But as far as I can tell, the honorific "-kun" is usually used informally to refer to males. Hopefully this doesn't get Yoshi-P into trouble.
Yoshida: Right now I'm seeing everyone from Housing side feeling jealous here, but we are currently entering the final stage of the optimization push to increase the placement limit for for the addition of slots for outdoor furnishings and indoor furniture....I'm so sorry that it ended up taking that much time, and I'm very sure we can get it done by Patch 7.5. I'm confident that we are able to increase the outdoor furnishing/indoor furnishing placement amount by around 1.5x, and we're currently entering the final stage of optimizations. Currently we're focusing on the speeding up the servers, and that's what we are doing right now.
Foxclon: So if you could provide us detailed explanation on the matter...
Yoshida: For this...umm, well, you see...basically the so-called number of objects that can be placed — meaning where the players place these objects — are information we obviously have to manage entirely via our servers. Of course this is a given when the players log out of the game, I mean, they have to log out, right? So this means when the amount becomes 1.5 times higher than the total volume, our beloved CPU-kun has to keep track of it all, and you can imagine our CPU-kun goes “Gyaaaah!” and “Aaaah!” with that kind of work load.
Under normal operations, we can manage it somehow, sure; but let's say when maintenance happens and we have to restart the server (for example), if we turn off CPU-kun's power, you can imagine CPU-kun would just go blank face at you. Now, imagine me go "Now, CPU-kun, rise from your slumber so that you can welcome our lord players into the gaaaaame!". When that happens, CPU-kun will have to go through the process to memorize everything all over again, and when the volume is now 1.5 times more, the CPU-kun will just hold its head and go “WAAAAAAAAAAH!!!”, which cause the time it takes to open the server getting higher...
Yep, that's exactly it. In other words, and to simply put, we're optimizing them so that the server memorizes them quicker than what they're doing currently. And then you see, since we have so many worlds, if we get into cases where we need to perform emergency maintenance for whatever reason that comes up, like taking it down for a second and fixing it right away, it will end up taking three times as long... or something like that.
Plus, this was mentioned in the past but I mentioned something about how you can get your housing interior to be glamoured into L size regardless of your current house size (Size L, Size M, Size S), right? Well the system is almost complete, actually, it's finished — but here's the thing: assuming everyone switches to L size, this will also cause the number of furniture slot placement to increase, right? In this case, CPU-kun would...well, imagine if the CPU-kun have to perform two of these tasks simultaneously...
Foxclon: This means CPU-kun would already...
Yoshida: Yep, imagine that CPU-kun's eyes would go bloodshot and wring my neck because of all the sufferring...so for now, we are going to work on the final stage of optimizing the numbers where players can place and manage, and then increase these numbers. That way, we can then increase the amount of placement number for S-size house owners, same goes for M-size house owners, and finally the L-size house owners as well. So we really need to get this part done properly first. Once this is done, we can finally work on allowing players to be able to change their interior size while ignoring that house size...we're aiming to deliver not only for indoor furnishings but also outdoor furnishings simultaneously, so we're definitely in the final push for the optimization. So it would be greatly appreciated if players could just wait a little more...We're working and determined to make it happen without players having to get this update on the next expansion, and once we're done with this, we can then FINALLY move into the glamour plates....and so on...!
Foxclon: One by one, in order...
Yoshida: The plates are the same as well! You can imagine the servers go "ARRGHGHGHGHGH" over this. Of course, being able to swap them instantly means it will involve some form of server communication and other factors. (Some parts omitted) Well, beyond that, we also want to add more content...especially as a future challenge, where we want to add more things we can do in public fields※. You are aware that we can only display current buffs up to 30 in a screen now, yes? We really want to optimize that and do something about it, making it possible to develop more ways to play...Well this would involve future content and I might getting ahead of myself here, but we plan to optimize things in order, step-by-step like this, making everyone's experience a lot more comfortable. For now, glamour is going to go through huge changes, and we are now working on the final phases of optimization on housing here, so I'd appreciate everyone's support on the matter.
※ Public field likely refers to the zones that are not cities. You know, the place where you do your FATE / Sightseeing log / taking Gposes
And this is why the added housing slots won't show up until patch 7.5.
