Flying Solo In EVE: Prep For Cradle Of War

The new EVE Online expansion, Cradle of War, launched yesterday. My prep for the expansion wasn't to position myself in the most favorable situation to take advantage of the new EVE content. Instead, I spent last weekend grinding out all of my Cosmic Tools in Final Fantasy XIV to max level so I could spend more time playing EVE. Of course, Cloud Imperium chose Monday to release its months-late accounting for 2024, meaning another night spent blogging instead of flying around New Eden. But I'm caught up now and ready for adventure.

Honestly, I think a lot of players took care of outside business in preparation for CoW. The average number of players logged in for last week fell from 26,000 to 24,000 according to EVE-Offline.net. Since the ACU line is +/- 500 accounts I doubt the decline was a full 2,000 accounts. Still, the decline was noticeable.

Some of the decline in activity was reflected on the global PLEX market. Both the amount of PLEX traded and the amount of ISK spent in those trades declined by 7.7% and 7.5% respectively. The average price rose slightly, from 4,525,000 ISK to 4,558,000 ISK per PLEX.

With the launch of Cradle of War yesterday I spent quite a bit of time preparing the alt character I've been training to fly the Sacrilege, the missile firing Amar heavy assault cruiser. That's my own fault because I forgot deleting a character in EVE Online takes 10 hours. So while I was waiting to create a character to fly into Exordium I spent some ISK in Hek and bought a Sacrilege and all the fittings. I only need to learn one more skill to achieve Mastery V as a Sacrilege pilot. The skill needs another 14 days to learn but the MCT time doesn't end until July 2nd.

Hek seems a good location to base out of in the new world of military campaigns, at least if one is Minmatar. Two systems away is the system of Amo, home to the main War HQ for the Minmatar Republic. And for new players wanting to jump into the action, Amo is also the destination system for the Minmatar shipcaster in Exordium.

I should add that for players interested in Sisters of EVE loyalty points, Amo is four jumps from Lanngisi, the home of a level 4 SoE security agent. Due to the presence of the Sisters in Exordium, Lanngisi may wind up as an attraction for new players.

According to the FAQ for the expansion, these are the shipcaster routes leading out of Exordium.

• Tatrys to Onnamon (Caldari)
• Mondaekus to Intaki (Gallente)
• Dettisolin to Amo (Minmatar)
• Ichorah to Mehatoor (Amarr)

Just remember that after using a shipcaster, one has to fly to Yulai in Genesis to get back into Exordium. The Yulai gate leads to and from Manifest.

For those interested in the shipcasters, they first became available in May 2023 and were designed to get players to the factional warfare zones faster. Having shipcasters send new players to the war headquarters of each empire definitely qualifies as speeding up the process.

Tonight I plan on spending some quality time on a new character in EVE. Something I haven't done in years. I'll take lots of screenshots as people may actually find the new region interesting.

Cloud Imperium Games Posted A $14.3 Million Loss In 2024

Less than a week after announcing having reached $1 billion in community funding, Cloud Imperium Games posted its worldwide accounting report for the year 2024. For the year, the developer of the upcoming games Squadron 42 and Star Citizen recorded $146.6 million in corporate income while spending $160.9 million, including just under $8 million in capital expenses and investments. Overall, CIG recorded a $14.3 million EBITDA loss when including CAPEX costs.

Financial positions from 2012-2024

The 2024 financial accounting finally confirms some things that up until now were just speculation. Poor performance in the form of recording losses of $34.5 million and payments of $3.1 million to minority investors in 2023-2024 is now very likely to explain the leadership shakeup at Cloud Imperium at the end of 2024 and beginning of 2025. The cumulative net position of -$28.2 million is proof that digital ship and vehicle sales were not enough to fund the development of Squadron 42 and Star Citizen alone.

Perhaps more importantly is the information that CIG needs to keep approximately $40-$45 million cash on hand to ensure uninterrupted operation. At the end of 2024 the company was down to only $27.1 million on hand which equaled 2 months of spending in 2024. CIG began the process of restoring its financial position by selling $5 million in shares in January 2025 to Keith Calder's Indus Management Ltd. In March the company borrowed £10 million ($12.6 million) from an existing shareholder, who I believe was Indus Management. In addition to seeking investment from outside sources, the financial issues probably put pressure on the marketing department to sell more virtual goods.

Income from the 2024 financial accounting

Having had my say let's hear from Cloud Imperium's Chief Financial Officer Simon Elms about income.

Total income grew by 3% to $147M reflecting the ongoing loyalty and engagement of our community. Pledges and counter income fell slightly by 3% to $116M – reflecting a year of fewer headline releases for much of the year as we concentrated on the significant technical features needed for the future of Star Citizen – the results of which we only delivered in the final quarter of 2024. However, subscriptions rose by 14% to $7.3M and other income (incentives, partnerships and credits) increased by a very significant 34% to $23M. The latter reflects the growing scale and value of our international development operations and the corresponding incentive and partnership income they generate, bolstered further by the third-party income arising from Turbulent’s existing external clients.

The other income category proved critical in 2024, accounting for the entire growth in the company's income in 2024. Turbulent, purchased in 2023, still required $1.2 million in 2024, but more than made up for the cash outflow by bringing in revenue from non-game development sources. 

Turbulent no longer counts as a contractor

Other income grew strongly by $5.9M (35%) to $23.0M. This reflects the maturing of our international development operations, with UK development credits and related incentive income continuing to grow, as well as expanding partnership and hardware/software vendor income. This income line was further bolstered by a full year of Turbulent income including their local incentives and their existing web service business. This other income represents an increasingly important and diversified income stream, for the Group.

One significant fact I need to highlight is the actual reduction in spending by CIG in 2024. From 2020-2023 spending rose by over 100%, from $80.9 million to $163.1 million over the course of 3 years. Let's return to the CFO for an overview on the company's spending.

2024 was the year in which the cost rationalisation implicit in our 2023 strategic decisions began to crystallise. Total trading costs fell by $3.1M (2%) to $152.9M, a modest reduction in absolute terms but one that masks some significant and deliberate shifts in cost composition.

The dominant structural feature of the 2024 cost base is the sharp fall in contracted game development costs, which fell by $7.0M (56%) to $5.5M as the Turbulent team, fully integrated into the group from the second half of 2023, replaced what had previously been externally contracted development services. This was always the intended outcome of the Turbulent acquisition and represents a significant return on that investment.

Salary and overhead costs in the Rest of World segment continued to grow as Manchester consolidated its position as the hub of our development operations, but the rate of growth moderated compared to prior years. US costs across all categories either held flat or reduced, reflecting the ongoing transfer of development activity out of the United States and the consolidation of publishing activities out of Los Angeles and into Austin.

One of the surprising facts is that labor costs increased even while headcount decreased.

Labor costs continue to increase

Total employee headcount fell 5% in 2024, from 1085 down to 1031. Perhaps surprisingly, the number of developers fell by 4% down to 695. But the number of employees in the publishing ops, community events, and marketing departments rose by 24% up to 258. For those unfamiliar with gaming categories, publishing usually includes those tasked with keeping the servers physically running. I should also add that finding and keeping talented server and network techs is a lot more expensive that finding code monkeys. At least at the businesses I've worked at.

I do want to look at two paragraphs at the end of the report that might have some long time observers shaking their heads. Cloud Imperium has not had a great record in containing costs, instead choosing to acquire as much money as possible.

The improvement in the annual loss from ($20.2M) in 2023 to ($14.3M) in 2024 reflects the operational improvements achieved through cost rationalisation, partly offset by continued investment in our Rest of World capability. The pre-capex position improved more dramatically still, from ($13.1M) to ($6.3M), as capex remained broadly stable. The release of Star Citizen Alpha 4.0 in the fourth quarter of 2024 was a watershed moment for the project. The addition of the Pyro system and the initial phase of Server Meshing — technology first demonstrated at CitizenCon 2023 in Los Angeles — delivered on commitments made to our community and demonstrated the tangible return on the significant investment made over preceding years. As the Chairman noted in his 2024 letter, this is not merely the next iterative patch but a fundamental architectural advance: for the first time, the game runs across a mesh of servers covering the entire playable universe, with server boundaries invisible to players.

I have heard too many stories of broken promises and missed deadlines over the years. Even more recently I've seen the financial reserves slip to dangerous levels. I think in both 2025 and 2026 we've seen Cloud Imperium lean into the marketing department's ability to attract money from the player base. Then again, even with the spending restraint shown in 2024, Cloud Imperium needs to increase funding as I don't see the company able to actually reduce spending. If those in charge can just hold the line on spending perhaps the financial situation will stabilize.

I'll conclude with Mr. Elms' conclusion the the financial accounting posted on Monday.

Looking to 2025, we expect to maintain the cost discipline established in 2024 while continuing to invest in the capabilities and infrastructure needed to deliver Squadron 42 and advance Star Citizen toward 1.0. The investments made in 2023 and 2024 created the foundation for parallel progress on both titles, while also improving the player experience in Star Citizen. That progress has already contributed to stronger player growth and engagement, helping deliver our best top-line performance to date in 2025. Our next priority is to build on this momentum while working to balance the business through to the release of these two highly anticipated games.

How much of those final words are valid and how much is a fantasy I'll leave up to you.

Cradle of War Patch Notes: Exordium, The New Starter Region

With the Cradle of War expansion Fenris Creations did something CCP Games never did in 23 years: create a starter region where PvP is totally disabled. Those wanting a more hard-core starting experience are invited to go to EVE Frontier where Hilmar, Fenris' CEO, is busy seeing his EVE dreams come to life. I was busy over the weekend trying to finish up a grind in Final Fantasy XIV so I could concentrate on giving the expansion launch more attention that usual. As a reminder to myself I'm creating this post with information from the expansion notes.

Starter Space: Exordium

The previously introduced 53 new systems and their associated region, Exordium, is now fully operational as New Eden’s new starting region, and construction of the Manifest V - AIR Laboratories Trade Center has been completed.

All newly created capsuleers will now begin their journey in this starter region, where they will have access to introductory missions, career agents, exploration opportunities, and cooperative activities designed to introduce EVE's core gameplay systems.

Players can continue their progress within Exordium or opt to venture into the wider cluster through the stargate connecting the Exordium hub system of Manifest with Yulai.

As a reminder, systems within Exordium have a dedicated 1.0 security class designed to prevent all forms of PvP.

What goes around comes around. In the early days all roads led to Yulai and the home of CONCORD. Yulai is also located in Genesis, the first region humanity encountered after emerging through the EVE Gate. Hopefully the change in location will lead more new players to visit the EVE Gate, located in the system of New Eden. 

Just a note about the region. Each of the four major NPC empires controls a 7 system constellation, then another four 6-system constellations exist with other (hopefully) interesting content for new players. The 53rd system, the one in the middle of the region, is the exit point to the rest of the game.

The developers did have to make some changes to the game in order to make a region where new players are safe from experienced players.

Within Exordium:

• Safety settings are permanently locked to green.
• War Declarations and Factional Warfare combat are disabled.
• Duels cannot be initiated.
• Killrights cannot be activated.
• Characters with combat flags such as suspect, criminal, and limited engagements cannot jump into Exordium or undock within the region until their timer expires.
• Players cannot freely attack other capsuleers.
• Upwell Structures cannot be deployed.
• Deployables and anchored containers cannot be placed.

The developers also needed to maintain the "risk vs reward" principle when creating the new starter region. As a result ISK that looks amazing to new players will lead vets to ignore the region in favor of more lucrative activities.

Starter Space Economic Balancing

Exordium is intended as a starting environment for new capsuleers. Economic activities within the region have reduced payouts compared to standard highsec space.

• Mission ISK rewards, LP rewards, and NPC bounties reduced by 20%.
• Additional 5% market fees added to non-instant orders.
• Industry installation fees increased by 5% for manufacturing , material efficiency research, time efficiency research and invention.
• Ores found within Exordium are of a new “Grade 0” type with lower mineral yield than their standard variants.
• Exploration sites within Exordium contain distinct loot tables with lower value loot and items optimized for new players.
• Homefront Operations within Exordium have reduced difficulty, as well as reduced rewards.

I do want to point out something about the mission givers in Exordium. I see no distribution mission agents. As a result botters and RMTers cannot use Exordium as a nice safe region to level up faction standings with hordes of bots flying Badgers.

Agents & Mission Content within Exordium

Exordium includes a broad range of empire-aligned agents designed to introduce new players to mission running, mining, security gameplay, and faction identity.

The following agents are now available for interactions:

• Level 1 and Level 2 Security agents.
• Level 1 and Level 2 Mining agents.
• Sisters of EVE agents.
• Paragon agents.

I do anticipate botters trying to use Exordium to level SoE standings, but those are the dumb ones who deserve the bans they get. Hopefully the GM and security staff have instructions to treat botters in the newbie region a lot more harshly than in the rest of the game. If I may be so bold, I'd argue subjecting new players to illegal activities like botting is a form of new player harassment and should be treated accordingly.

Finally comes the connectivity from the starter region to high security space. I just hope new players get a lot of warnings about leaving the region. After all, I don't think players will really want to travel back to Yulai to get a bunch of stuff.

Shipcasters

The empire shipcaster network within Exordium is now active.

• After completing their initial onboarding experience, new capsuleers can use shipcasters located within the empire embassy constellations to travel directly to their chosen empire's high-security space. These shipcasters provide a faster path into New Eden and are intended to help players begin exploring the wider universe and connect with their preferred faction. The shipcasters provide a one-time use, one-way travel, from Exordium into empire space.

The four shipcasters are:

• State Rookie Shipcaster:
• Tatrys to Onnamon
  
  
• Federation Rookie Shipcaster:
• Mondaekus to Intaki
  
  
• Republic Rookie Shipcaster:
• Dettisolin to Amo
  
  
• Imperial Rookie Shipcaster:
• Ichorah to Mehatoor

Four new stargate pairs have been constructed in order to improve connectivity for new players travelling out of Exordium towards key locations in around highsec. The new stargate connections are:

• Kassigainen <-> Pakhshi
• Kemerk <-> Bania
• Rayeret <-> Jakri
• Mehatoor <-> Akes

All in all I'm hopeful for the new system. I also want to see the changes in activity the new starter system will create. If EVE history teaches one thing, it is that developers playing with transit gates in Yulai will have a greater influence on the universe that originally intended.

Stars Reach Early Access This Summer

I'm really bad about the games I purchased while still in development. Right now I have two: EVE Frontier and Stars Reach. I've played around in Frontier in several cycles and even chatted briefly with some of the game's developers at Fanfest last year. But despite paying $30 for access to Stars Reach back in March 2025 I never entered the game.

I was reminded of my purchase today when reading an article on MassivelyOP asking readers if they are excited about Stars Reach entering early access this summer. I never bothered to set everything up because the testing schedule never fit my playtimes. I'm at the point I can't find the login information, assuming my access wasn't revoked for lack of activity. 

I'm assuming that once Stars Reach launches its early access campaign on Steam the servers will become available for 24/7 play, which means I'll actually be able to enter the game and look around. I've gone ahead and added the game to my Steam wishlist. I don't see prices listed on Steam yet so I'm assuming I'll need to pay $50-$60 for access. But maybe not. I'll just have to keep up-to-date and maybe start reading the emails I receive. I have over a year's worth in my inbox.

Flying Solo In EVE: Going Into A Brief Lull

EVE Online is currently in the calm before the storm. The Capsuleer Day event is over, Warpath is solved, and the story is leading into the Cradle of War expansion next week. Time to take a breather and look back at last week.

ACU/PCU the last week of May 2026

Between the last day of the Memorial Day holiday weekend in the United States and a final surge of players looking to get the new Navy faction destroyers early, EVE-Offline.net continued to show an average of around 26,000 accounts, +/- 500 accounts, logged in at any one time last week. Because the month ended last week I can also show Jester's chart showing the average logged at any one time for the year.

999 over the lockdown numbers

I've kept track of the changes each month to calculate the monthly totals in 2026. The average in May was 25,629, raising the ACU for the year to 25,014 accounts. One of my predictions for the year was Jester's chart would show the highest ACU number since 2014. Through the first five months Tranquility is ahead of the pace.

Falling prices and falling demand last week

The global PLEX market experienced a decline both in price and volume last week as sales promotions declined to just a single mastery pack sale. The amount of ISK traded for PLEX fell 25.1% compared to the previous week. I know the sale was aimed at the expected flood of new players coming in to check out the new PvP-free region, but I think the sale might have been better with the launch of the expansion. I have the feeling the big promotions will come on launch day for CoW as the mastery sales event ends on 8 June.

Selected stats through the end of May

I'm not going to lie, I really didn't play that much last week. Mining didn't really pay off in the Capsuleer Day event so instead of running a second character through the event I just did the minimum to complete the track with one. Well, I did do something else EVE-related. I played with AI to generate my original character I could use for future.

At a dinner party

I don't think the picture turned out too badly, although I don't think formal dinner parties are really his idea of a good time. I picture him overlooking his ship more than anything else. I did go for an anime style, just to see what it would look like. The facial tattoos didn't really come out right.

At the landing pad

Of course, now I have to learn how to import ships into the program so I have real internet spaceships in my shots.

Cosmic Exploration: First Day On Auxesia

Final Fantasy XIV's patch 7.51 dropped yesterday so I put everything aside to go to Cosmic Exploration's fourth and final zone: Auxesia.

Approaching the final zone

In each patch the developers add in some new content. Auxesia introduces us to Tool Mastery missions. The patch notes serve as kind of a spoiler as the mission doesn't even show up until a player levels up a cosmic tool to its final form.

Tool Mastery Missions

Tool mastery missions are special missions that can be undertaken on Auxesia by those who have completed the final stage of a cosmic tool.

Unlike normal stellar missions, the aim is to achieve the highest possible score within an allotted time.

Tool mastery points are granted upon completion of a tool mastery mission, in accordance with the final score.

As a quick aside I haven't qualified to do a tool mastery mission yet. I wonder if they are anything like a couple of the timed encounters from the recent holiday events we've done.

Tool Mastery Points

Tool mastery points are gained in accordance with scores from tool mastery missions and accumulate for each individual class.

Reaching certain milestones with a specific class will grant achievements and, in some cases, titles.

Current points can be checked via the mission selection list, or via an overview found in the tool mastery point section of the Cosmic Class Tracker, accessed from your exotablet.

However, these UI elements don't show up without having a max level cosmic tool. Either that or I found a bug.

Mission Scoring

There are two different score objectives in tool mastery missions.

You may choose to complete the mission at any point after reaching the first objective.

Mission completion will reward you with tool mastery points, a cosmic class score, and contributions to Starward Standings commensurate with your score. Cosmic credits, Auxesia credits, and Auxesia exploration tokens will also be rewarded.

Reaching either score objective will grant the following bonus effects:

• Time limit increase
• Score multiplier increase
• Duty action usage increase
• GP recovery

There are three tool mastery missions available per class, with a high score recorded for each completed mission.

The concept seems interesting but I first need to get my cosmic tools to their final form. I made my life a lot easier my ensuring I had maximized all my research so I could obtain the iLevel 770 version of the tools for all gathering and crafting jobs. I then headed out to do missions on my botanist, since botanist and mining missions to me are the easiest to do. I was able to level up hatchet up to iLevel 775, just one evolution away from qualifying to do tool mastery missions.

A much more normal looking starting place

But I did get distracted. A Red Alert occurred and I had to switch to miner to participate. I wanted the Auxesia credits in order to play the cosmic fortunes game. I didn't have much luck with the wheel, but I have a bit of time to play to try to get the prizes. At least I saw a good selection of prizes that will have me playing the mini-game a lot.

I did use up most of the cosmocredits I earned on Oizys. I managed to buy 3 of the 6 items in the Cosmic Explorer's set. I really only need to buy two more items as the outfit comes with two separate bottoms. I might even switch my gathering glamour to the Cosmic Explorer's set, although I really do like the Clint Eastwood spaghetti-western look I usually wear. With any luck I'll have the last two pieces purchased by the weekend.

Because I wanted to write about my experiences I wound up cutting my activities short in order to look for artifacts. Introduced in Oizys, I'm glad I did. 

I really do like the aesthetic of Auxesia 

By the time I was able to log in the server's crafters and gatherers had already set up the cosmosliner system, or at least the starting sections. Basically the cosmoliner system uses flying surfboards to move people around. And since I earned the mount, I travel around cosmic exploration zones like the second coming of Marty McFly.

I had to do some off-roading. Or, in this case, on-roading as the zone has a highway system that's really overgrown with vegetation. Very nice-looking stuff. But I did have 6 artifacts to find, the proceeds of my efforts leveling up my hatchet to iLevel 775.

Six artifacts is a small sample size, but I hope I continue getting a 2 to 1 ratio of silver artifacts to bronze artifacts. Getting something like 60-70% bronze artifacts on Oizys made searching for artifacts more of a chore than anything else. While it probably helps I don't go out and actively collect minions, finding three I didn't have before did feel good. And just for my personal memory, the three I found were:

• Wind-up Shinryu 
• Wind-up Ravana 
• Wind-up Sadu

After turning in all the artifacts I headed off to sleep. I still have a lot of new content to see in addition to just grinding out my final cosmic tools. And maybe, just maybe, I'll get the final mount before Evercold launches at the beginning of 2027.

Cloud Imperium Games Cash Shop Records $44.6 Million In Sales In May 2026

Cloud Imperium Games' online cash shop for Star Citizen recorded the incredible amount of $44.6 million in sales revenue in the month of May according to the CCU Game Dashboard.

Setting another all-time sales record

Last month's total was 54.6% greater than the total of $28.8 million recorded in May 2025. CIG's online cash shop also broke the all-time single month sales record of $31.9 million set in November 2025.  For the year so far, cash shop sales for the first five months of 2026 reached $83.3 million, a year-over-year increase of 33.8%.

The all-time sales record was shattered in May

The $1012.5 million ($1.01 billion) displayed on the Roberts Space Industries funding page at the end of May was not a comprehensive accounting for all of CIG's revenue since the project's Kickstarter in October 2012. Overall, the company has recorded $1,136.9 million ($1.14 billion) in confirmed revenue (the funding page & the 2023 financial report).

• Sales/Pledges: $1012.5 million ($1.01 billion) (through 31 May 2026)
• 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 $1,205.2 million ($1.21 billion), or $1.198.4 million ($1.20 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.

The number of new accounts created declined YoY

May was another month which showed that new account creation in Star Citizen has no relation to the amount of sales recorded by CIG's online cash shop. While cash shop revenue increased year-over-year by 54.6%, new account creation YoY declined by 5.3%. The record sales was a result of the sale of a $5,000 concept ship to established whales (those who had purchased a minimum of $1000 in the past), not new players picking up the game for the first time.

Below are just some sales records I saw occur in May, mostly taken from the CCU Game Dashboard.

Most sales in a single hour: May 24, 2026, 1600-1700 UTC - $6.6 million.
Most sales in a single day: The top 3 days occurred last month.

• $9.58 million - 24 May
• $3.80 million - 25 May
• $3.56 million - 20 May

Most sales in a single month: $44.6 million
Most sales in a single sales event: DefenceCon 2026 - $34.9 million. The event beat out last year's IAE by $54,000.

Also, May's $44.6 million in sales exceeded the company's annual totals from 2012-2018.

What to watch for: Was the unleashing of the $5,000 Odin concept ship a sign that Squadron 42 will not release in 2026? We'll get a chance to tell this week with the Summer Game Fest on 5 June. Rumors have swirled around the event, so perhaps the public will finally receive an answer, one way or the other. The absence of news makes the delay of Squadron 42 until 2027 a more likely event.

Of course we are still waiting for CIG to publish the financial report for 2024 on its corporate web site. I wonder just how bad the news was for CIG to still not release the report a year-and-a-half later.

Finally, is there any progress on infrastructure improvements? I have to believe that the more people play Star Citizen, the higher the server costs. Unlike an established game like EVE Online where per player costs decrease the more people play, I believe CIG's server costs increase in a linear fashion the more people play. Those increased publishing costs eat away at other cost saving measures the company implemented.

Star Citizen's Odin: When Is Enough Enough?

Cloud Imperium Games is experiencing record-setting cash shop revenue this month based on the sale of a concept ship, the Odin-class battlecruiser. Huge ships like the Odin are ideal content for when the Star Citizen developers finally put in base building and player-owned space stations. One of the things promised to players at CitizenCon a couple of years ago was the ability to build the big powerful ships that only exist in the lore. But did the current sale go too far into spawning this one class of ships into the game?

Based on the first day of sales, I thought CIG had sold 3,000 Odins combined between fresh money and store credits. BoredGamer, a YouTuber who has covered Star Citizen for a decade, thinks the final number is more around 6,000 ships. That's an awful lot of ships, especially since they won't be available for another 2-3 years.

The question I have is: did CIG sell so many ships that players will have little to no need to build their own? The ship has a crew requirement of 33-65 players to fly well. Will Star Citizen have enough players to crew all the ships without feeling the need to build their own?

As a comparison, EVE Online reached its historical peak concurrent usage on 5 May 2013 with 65,303 accounts logged in. If everyone logged into the game at that time were to magically transfer to Star Citizen and crew Odins, they could only crew between 1004 and 1978 ships. A player on BoredGamer's Discord server took the comparison an extra step. He compared the staffing requirements of the Odin to the United States Navy. According to Wikipedia, the Navy has 344,600 active and 57,500 reserve members. To crew the fleet of Odins sold over the last few days the US would need to dip into the reserves as to fully crew 6000 Odins requires 390,000 players.

Even if one assumes between 1 in 4 and 1 in 6 active players is logged in at any one time, Star Citizen has probably reached the limit of Odins the game can support. I imagine recruiting Odin owners instead of building them will become the preferred way of organizations obtaining the powerful ships. Good for those rich enough in real life to afford an Odin, but probably not so good for those just entering the game.

In the meantime those Odin owners will fly around the 'verse in their loaner ships, the Idris-P. But I really think CIG jumped the shark by spawning so many of the powerful ships, especially since the only way they can be removed from the game is the owner to stop playing and logging in.

Flying Solo In EVE: The Bonus Track For Capsuleer Day

The summer season is almost upon us. The developers working on EVE Online are busy trying to encourage as much engagement as possible in an effort to keep the annual summer slump as short as possible. So far the annual Capsuleer Day celebration has helped with the average number of accounts logged into the game at any one time appears to hover about 2000 higher than May 2025.

The snapshot was taken a little late this week

I'm not quite sure if players are just grinding longer on the current event or if a lot of people in the U.S. stayed at home over the Memorial Day weekend. Or perhaps Fanfest hyped up the upcoming expansion enough to get people coming back for the excitement. I suspect the answer is "Yes".

The sales all ended on Sunday

The PLEX market was powered by the Fanfest-related sales both in the cash shop and in the New Eden Store. Over the previous two weeks players exchanged 92.8 trillion ISK on the global PLEX market, enough PLEX to fund 39,995 months, or almost 3,333 years, of game time. I anticipate a pause in the sales until the summer expansion launches on 9 June.

I couldn't wait to start

Yesterday the expanded track opened up for the last week of the Capsuleer Day event. The prize at the end is used to purchase the new faction destroyers coming in Cradle of War in a couple of weeks. Content is also expanding into high security space.

The distribution of challenge sites is about to be expanded as well. The Warpath: Capital Mayday titan support site, which was previously only available in lowsec, is now appearing in highsec as well. It is a rare opportunity for capsuleers to witness a titan firing its doomsday weapon in highsec! The same goes for Warpath: War Grid combat sites for Tech II battleships and below, as well as the Warpath: Strategic Infiltration exploration sites, which have spread from lowsec to highsec.

A new seasonal challenge chain has also been introduced for tackling the Capital Mayday site, so lend your support to defending an empire titan and get rewarded with ISK and seasonal points when your titan fires its doomsday.

Between running content in space and buying things from the event vendors I should finish up the event on one character and get the BPC for a faction Talwar tonight. Like I've written before, these events are starting to burn me out. Good thing I have a new patch in Final Fantasy XIV coming this Tuesday to give me a break before jumping into the new safe beginners' area in two weeks when CoW launches.

A Closer Look At Pearl Abyss' 23.1% Stock Crash After The Fenris Creations Divestment

The more I look into the situation between Pearl Abyss and Fenris Creations, the more I become convinced both parties view the separation beneficial for themselves. An article in The Asia Business Daily points out the unfavorable environment for video game companies. 

Industry experts attribute the decoupling between game companies' earnings and share prices to a combination of uncertainty over upcoming game lineups and concerns about a global economic slowdown.

With Black Desert annual revenue falling over 50% since 2019 I understand why Pearl Abyss would want to divest itself of a studio spending a lot of money trying to develop new video games. Getting DokeV developed and released quickly is a better use of now limited development funds to our former overlords in Anyang. And, if I'm honest, their assessment is correct.

The revenue from Pearl Abyss' cash cow is down from 2019

Some analysts thought the divestiture would help Pearl Abyss by removing the need to help the Icelandic/UK studio develop games.

For Pearl Abyss, analysts view the divestiture as a positive move that frees capital for its own intellectual properties. Crimson Desert, released in March 2026, has sold over five million copies globally, and the company has indicated plans to channel proceeds from the CCP sale into developing and marketing its own titles, including DokeV, while remaining open to future collaboration with CCP. 

I thought the last phase was just polite fluff until I learned more about the terms of the managerial buyout.

Pearl Abyss, the Korean developer of hit MMO Crimson Desert, has sold Eve Online developer CCP Games back to its CEO Hilmar Veigar Pétursson for $100 million in cash and $20 million in "token acquisition rights", eight years after buying it for $225 million in cash plus $200 million in performance-related payouts. The figures were reported by Korean outlet Digital Today.

The "tokens" are believed to refer to blockchain-based survival game Eve Frontier, for which CCP raised $40 million in 2023, in a funding round lead by crypto-enthusiast VC firm Andreessen Horowitz. Frontier is currently available in pre-release form for those who purchase Founder Access, and its Terms of Service refer to "on-chain" tokens it terms "Alpha Tokens" while expressly disclaiming "to the fullest extent possible in law any liability regarding the nature or value of these Alpha Tokens or wallets."

At this point I looked at the two major international investors who have issued a rating for Pearl Abyss since the board of directors for Fenris changed hands from Pearl Abyss' control on 6 May. First up is JPMorgan. According to Investing.com, on 12 May the US-based financial giant lowered its target from ₩50,000 down to ₩46,000 while maintaining a "Sell" status. A day later Japanese giant Nomura Securities raised the target price from ₩84,000 to ₩92,000 while maintaining its "Buy" recommendation.

Why the difference in analysis based on the same facts? I had to admit I needed help getting out of the rabbit hole and turned to an AI program, Gemini. Rather fitting since Google DeepMind was involved in the financial transaction covered in this post. Let's start with why Nomura had a positive outlook.

• The "Pure-Play" Margin Fix: Nomura's model looked past the loss of EVE Online's revenue and focused entirely on the immediate elimination of CCP's massive, ongoing R&D burn. Wiping those capital-intensive Web3 and mobile development liabilities off the balance sheet instantly expands Pearl Abyss's upcoming operating margins.
  
  
• The "Free Call Option": Rather than penalizing the deal for including $20 million in digital tokens, Nomura treated those acquisition rights as a zero-risk, high-upside financial instrument. Pearl Abyss successfully insulated itself from 100% of the operational losses of EVE Frontier, yet legally retained skin in the game if the project hits.
  
  
• The Valuation Multiplier: With a clean balance sheet, Nomura argued Pearl Abyss should command a premium P/E (price-to-earnings) multiple, driven by a highly efficient two-tier model: Black Desert Online acting as a stable corporate safety net, entirely funding the global expansion of Crimson Desert and the acceleration of DokeV.

Let's now compare Nomura's rosier outlook with JPMorgan's institutional counter-argument: a strict, risk-averse focus on cash-flow diversification and asset quality.

The Revenue Quality Markdown: JPMorgan's equity research team prioritized structural stability. EVE Online provided a highly predictable, fiat-denominated, multi-decade annuity. Trading that reliable cushion away right as the massive initial package sales of Crimson Desert begin their natural second-quarter post-launch taper leaves the company entirely exposed to a cyclical revenue gap.



The Volatility Haircut: From a Western underwriting perspective, unlaunched utility tokens are non-cash-generating, intangible assets. Lacking legal guarantees or market liquidity, JPMorgan applied a steep risk premium to the transaction, essentially discounting the $20 million token portion down to zero.



Over-Reliance on an Aging Core: JPMorgan argued that with EVE Online gone, Black Desert Online is being asked to carry the entire live-service weight alone. If DokeV faces lengthy development delays, the studio has no fallback if BDO monetization hits a natural mature plateau.

I am not an expert in the investment policies of international banking institutions so I just took the bullet points from Gemini's analysis. But I can say with a lot of confidence which company was correct 3 weeks after the news of the divestment broke: JPMorgan.

Trading on Pearl Abyss stock closed Friday at 46,050, or 50 won above the JPMorgan target price. Perhaps worse for clients of Nomura, Pearl Abyss stock is now half the target price its analysts set. And since the end of trading on 29 April, the day before the news broke, Pearl Abyss stock has declined in price by 23.1%. Unlike investor reaction to the launch of Crimson Desert, the price may not bounce back for quite a while. As The Asia Business Daily article noted:

Securities analysts point out that expectations for Crimson Desert have already been priced into the stock. The current sentiment in the gaming industry makes it difficult for a new game's success alone to push share prices higher, while concerns over a lack of upcoming titles are weighing on investor sentiment.

Samsung Securities noted, "It will take one to two years to release DLC for Crimson Desert, and development of the next titles, DokeV and PLAN 8, will also require time," adding, "A lack of momentum from new releases is inevitable over the next one to two years." Meritz Securities also assessed, "Market attention is shifting toward monetization in China, DLC release schedules, and shareholder return policies."

I think Nomura may have been just a bit too optimistic.

Cloud Imperium Jumps The Shark To Reach $1 Billion In Sales

Today is a record setting day for Star Citizen and Cloud Imperium Games. CIG is releasing the last concept ship for sale, the Odin. A battlecruiser that was the $17 million stretch goal, the massive ship with a crew from 33-65 ran for $5,000. My understanding is the ship quickly sold out.

$6.6 million sold in a single hour

During the hour in which the ship was released for sale, the store's display counter showed $6.6 million in sales. The hour broke the previous full day sales record of $3.56 million set during this DefenceCon event 4 days previously. The monthly sales record of $31.9 million set in November 2025 was surpassed with 7 days remaining. The sales event runs through May 27 so $35 million is probably within reach.

Today also saw two milestones reached. For the year the sales total reached $70 million, already exceeding the $62.3 million in sales revenue generated in the first five months of 2025. By the end of DefenceCon the sales total will exceed the $71.4 million brought in for the first half of 2025.

And, of course, the total sales total for the online cash shop reached $1 billion during that fateful hour.

Just from the amount of sales, I would guess at least 1,000 of the $5,000 ships were sold. I'm not sure where the ships will gather as currently server shards can only handle 700 players. With the crew size, only 10-15 of the ships can enter the same system at one time if fully crewed. 

I'm thinking about how to compare the situation to EVE Online. The relative power and size of the ship compared to the game reminds me of a titan. Now, imagine if the developers sold 1,000 titans in pre-alpha. And these titans cannot be permanently destroyed. Instead of needing to wait weeks to replace a lost ship due to the real life construction time, CIG will ensure the losing player receives a new ship in days instead of weeks.

I think I can safely say CIG jumped the shark with this ship sale. This is ridiculous.

Status In Final Fantasy XIV Before Patch 7.5.1

In Final Fantasy XIV we are rapidly approaching patch 7.51 and more crafting and gathering content. Of course, raiders are also looking forward to 2 June as that is when the next Ultimate fight, Dancing Mad, releases. Everyone else knows in less than two weeks not only is the finale to Cosmic Exploration landing on the servers, but we get a new custom deliveries vendor as well.

In between writing about all the news coming out of Reykjavik and London and grinding the latest event in EVE Online I've managed to get all my classes up to a silver cup in Cosmic Exploration. I discovered that the only thing I received were achievement points for getting each crafting and gathering class up to 30% of the total needed to max out my points. Overall I am 30.4% of the way to getting the big mount at the end of the Cosmic tools grind. I have a little over 7 months to reach my goal.

Fishing, as always, was the class that gave me the most problems. I finally decided to just do the fishing missions at The Moros Well. There are a couple of other missions I liked, but since I'm moving on to the final planet in a couple of weeks I'll start taking careful notes then.

The final piece I'm looking forward to is the new custom deliveries vendor. Dawntrail is known for tacos, and the new vendor runs the most famous. I'm looking forward to learning more about Aunt Tii's Tacos.

I do have to conclude with one final note. I still haven't completed the Hell on Rails trial from patch 7.4. I think I'm going to switch from White Mage to Dancer the rest of the way through the MSQ until Evercold. Having a DPS die a lot is a lot less painful for everyone than having the healer repeatedly die. As such, I'm practicing on the dungeons until I can get back up to speed. And while I practice I'm gathering up new glamour pieces as the equipment I'm picking up is storable in the armoire. Might as well do two things at once.

Turning Final Fantasy Images Into An EVE Related Logo

When I first heard the new name for CCP Games, Fenris Creations, my mind went quickly to Final Fantasy XIV. I had the Fenrir mount, obtained from The Gold Saucer, for 1 million MGP. I also obtained a couple of space suits from working on the Cosmic Exploration, specifically Sinus Ardorum, the first area. I specifically thought the Cosmosuit would work well for the purpose of making a heading banner. 

The original base image

I then traveled to the moon and flew in front of Etheirys, the name of humanity's home in the system known as the Source. I had an idea to turn the rider into an astronaut and the planet into Earth. I also wanted to include the Fenris Creations logo. I decided to use Google AI to modify my FFXIV screenshots into something I could use for EVE-related content. After all, Google DeepMind is a part-owner of Fenris Creations, right? So instead of something like Photoshop I wound up using Google Flow.

I discovered I could take an image of the Fenris Creations logo from the corporate website and add that as an "ingredient" for the image. 

Before asking for help

I then decided I needed some help. So I turned to Google Gemini for some advice. Needless to say, I received a lot of ideas on how to improve my creation.

Final product

With the sparkles from the original screenshot cleaned up and the space suit turned into something less like Final Fantasy I think my image came out all right. Now I just need to store the image someplace safe because I may find a use for it in future blog posts. I do need to update some things on the blog, after all.

Flying Solo In EVE: Exordium

This past week EVE Online experienced a yearly event: EVE Fanfest. I didn't go this year but found my EVE activity disrupted anyway. Between the management buyout of CCP Games from Pearl Abyss and rebranding to Fenris Creations, the release of the 2025 financials as well as announcements of the future of EVE, I had a lot to keep me occupied. But what about the rest of the game?

Active concurrent users from EVE-Offline.net

Last week the average number of accounts logged in at any one time dropped back down to 25,000 +/- 500 accounts. An expected development as I don't think the Capsuleer Day event was as captivating as the previous Gallente election event. The reason I credit Fanfest with causing a decline in my EVE playtime is I also didn't do my usual daily activity grind last week either. But with the final week of Capsuleer Day coming up I really do need to prepare to push the one character I ran the event with to the finish line.

Global PLEX market activity spiked during Fanfest

Fanfest usually involves commerce and 2026 was no exception. In addition to physical item sales at Harpa Fenris Creations ran two digital sales that are still ongoing. The first, running from May 15-24, involves between 20-23% off PLEX packages of 1000 PLEX and up. The next, in the New Eden Store and also running to the 24th, involves 20% off the PLEX price of 1-3 months of Omega time. And sure enough, the volume of PLEX sold from Friday to Sunday spiked to an average of 1.9 million PLEX sold per day. And with the amount of PLEX sold, the price also dropped down for the same three days.

Selected stats for the week through 17 May 2026

The news today is the new starting region, Exordium, is now accessible to players. New players will not automatically start the game in the region until the launch of Cradle of War on 9 June, but players can poke around now by accessing the region using the Manifest gate in Yulai. 

Here are today's patch notes on the new region.

As discussed back in April, Exordium is a dedicated new-player region designed to provide a safer introduction to EVE Online while still introducing players to the game’s core systems, progression paths, and faction identities before they move into the wider cluster. We are opening up Exordium and its features in stages ahead of the Cradle of War expansion.

This deployment introduces the first iteration of the new starter space security class (1.0), along with several pieces of new content aimed at newer players.

At this time Exordium is still in a “work in progress” state, and the new AIR Trade Center station in Manifest can be seen in its partially-constructed form. New players will not be sent to Exordium until the Cradle of War expansion releases on June 9th.

Elevated Security

Systems within Exordium now use a dedicated 1.0 security class designed to prevent all forms of PvP.

As part of this update:

• All Exordium systems have been set to security class 1.0
• Existing 1.0 systems across New Eden have been adjusted to 0.9
• This does not meaningfully impact CONCORD response times in those systems.
• Security tooltips and the starmap now support the new security tier classification.

Within Exordium:

• Safety settings are permanently locked to green
• War Declarations and Factional Warfare combat are disabled
• Duels cannot be initiated
• Killrights cannot be activated
• Characters with combat flags such as suspect, criminal, and limited engagements cannot jump into Exordium or undock within the region until their timer expires
• Players cannot freely attack other capsuleers
• Upwell Structures cannot be deployed
• Deployables and anchored containers cannot be placed

Starter Space Economic Balancing

Exordium is intended as a starting environment for new capsuleers. Economy activity within the region has been adjusted to have reduced payouts compared to standard highsec space.

• Mission ISK rewards, LP rewards, and NPC bounties reduced by 20%
• Additional 5% market fees added to non-instant orders.
• Industry installation fees increased by 5% for manufacturing , material efficiency research, time efficiency research and invention

Additional balancing changes now active within Exordium include:

• Ores found within Exordium are new “Grade 0” versions with lower mineral yield than their standard variants.
• Exploration sites within Exordium contain distinct loot tables with lower value loot and items optimized for new players.
• Homefront Operations within Exordium have reduced difficulty, as well as reduced rewards.

Agents & Mission Content within Exordium

Exordium now includes a broad range of empire-aligned agents designed to introduce new players to mission running, mining, security gameplay, and faction identity.

The following agents are now available for interactions:

• Level 1 and Level 2 Security agents
• Level 1 and Level 2 Mining agents
• Sisters of EVE agents
• Paragon agents

The Final Board Of Directors' View Of CCP Games From The 2025 Consolidated Financial Reports

Two weeks ago the 2025 financial reports for Pearl Abyss Iceland and CCP ehf came out on the website of the Icelandic national taxing authority. Croda over on marketsforISK did his annual analysis on the finances of Pearl Abyss Iceland. But something changed this year. On 6 May the three Pearl Abyss members of CCP ehf's five person board of directors resigned as a result of the management buyout and rebranding of the company to Fenris Creations.

I'm going to try to do something rather foolish and write a couple of posts looking forward based on the 2025 financials. But as the statement in CCP ehf's filings was dated 21 April 2026, what follows is probably the last statement from the old Pearl Abyss dominated board. Except for a couple of points of clarification, what follows below is the statement of the board before the management buyout occurred.

CCP ehf. designs, develops, markets, and operates immersive virtual worlds and games accessible over the internet. Our mission is to create virtual worlds more meaningful than real life. Headquartered in Iceland, the Company operates subsidiaries in the United Kingdom, China, and the United States.

I just want to point out the Pearl Abyss Iceland is different from the now Fenris Creations. "Pearl Abyss Iceland ehf. is a holding company established in 2018. In October 2018 the Company bought all issued and outstanding shares in CCP ehf." As far as I can tell, Pearl Abyss still owns Pearl Abyss Iceland.

Operations during the year

In 2025, CCP generated revenues of USD 70.3 million, compared to USD 70.4 million in the previous year. Notably, game revenue increased by USD 4.8 million (8%) year-on-year, reflecting strong ongoing engagement across EVE Online. However, the Company reports a net loss of USD 14.0 million compared to a USD 2.9 million loss in 2024. This is a continuation of CCP's deliberate and increased fully funded investment in multiple active development projects — including EVE Frontier, EVE Vanguard, and the Carbon open-source platform — which are scheduled to enter key release phases from mid-2026 onwards. These investments, while impacting short-term profitability, are central to CCP’s strategy and position the Company for strategic and sustainable growth in the years ahead. As of year-end, shareholders’ equity stood at USD 13.2 million, with an equity ratio of 21.5%, and total assets of USD 61.2 million. The Company employed 165 people at year-end, compared to 173 people at the beginning of the year.

Here once again I have to stop to provide figures from Pearl Abyss Iceland. PAI showed revenue of USD 65.3 million, compared to USD 60.2 million in 2024. The Group also reported a net loss of USD 28.8 million, compared to a USD 19.5 million net loss in 2024. The numbers for PAI are much worse than for CCP, meaning outside factors played a role even before the management buyout. Yes, Angelice Prime Foundation is involved, but that subject requires its own blog post or two.

During the year, the Group continued to expand the EVE Universe through major updates to EVE Online while advancing development across multiple new titles and platforms, alongside ongoing live operations. In January 2025, the Group published the EVE Online development roadmap, outlining two major expansions supported by continuous narrative events and systemic improvements designed to strengthen the player-driven economy and large-scale conflict across New Eden. 

Community engagement remained strong throughout the year. In February 2025, the Group announced that tickets for EVE Fanfest 2025 had sold out in record time, demonstrating the continued strength and global reach of the EVE community. 

I should point out "community engagement" was a very big topic on Pearl Abyss quarterly earnings calls. I'm not sure if that is one of the subjects the overlords in Anyang learned from CCP/Fenris.

The first expansion of the year, EVE Online: Legion, launched in May 2025. 'Legion' introduced new systems aimed at broadening participation in both economic and military gameplay, including features designed to support more flexible and accessible collaboration across player organizations. The expansion formed part of the Group’s ongoing strategy to evolve EVE Online’s sandbox by enabling new forms of player agency and contribution. 'Legion' continued to be refined through updates and live iteration throughout the year. 

This was the point in the year EVE Frontier also came into its own with its universe hosting 24/7 access to the game. I would have to wonder how the new board that took its seats over the last week or so would have written the above paragraph.

In November 2025, the Group released the second major expansion, EVE Online: Catalyst, focused on evolving the industrial and resource systems that underpin the game’s economy. 'Catalyst' introduced new resource flows, alongside improvements to exploration, navigation, and strategic mobility, reinforcing the foundations of New Eden’s player-driven ecosystem. Subsequent updates in early 2026 further expanded on these systems, supporting continued engagement and long-term economic balance. EVE Online maintained strong player engagement throughout the year and delivered its strongest revenue performance in several years. 

The comments about content released in 2026 leave a clue that content in the document isn't just about the past.

Significant progress was made during the year on EVE Frontier, a new hardcore space survival MMO set within a persistent single-shard universe. Frontier expands the EVE Universe into a new genre while introducing programmable infrastructure systems that enable players to build, automate, and operate complex in-game structures. During 2025, the Group expanded access through its Founder Access program and introduced multiple gameplay cycles, allowing early participants to engage with evolving systems and provide feedback that informs development. 

This is why I wonder about how the write-up was done. I'm used to seeing events pretty much documented in chronological order. Nothing wrong with ordering the content by game, but I wonder if a subtle message is being portrayed in a document almost no one will read. Probably not, but given the history of the company, one can never tell.

In October 2025, the Group announced a strategic collaboration with Mysten Labs and the Sui network to support the technological platform underlying EVE Frontier. This partnership provides scalable infrastructure for programmable in game systems and digital assets, supporting the development of a broader ecosystem of tools and services around the EVE Frontier platform. 

The above paragraph shows how Fenris looks at blockchain technology. As a ready-made scalable infrastructure. I'm not sure the rest of the world would apply the tech to game systems and digital assets. Perhaps if Frontier succeeds.

Development also progressed on EVE Vanguard, the Group’s sandbox first-person shooter set within the EVE Universe. In September 2025, the Group launched Operation Nemesis, a large-scale public playtest introducing new mission structures and gameplay systems, while demonstrating early integration between planetary combat and events occurring in EVE Online. EVE Vanguard continues to be developed in close collaboration with its player community as the Group works toward future release milestones. 

Given the ordering of the year by game, is anyone surprised by the first person shooter showing up third in the priorities? 

The Group also continued live operations of EVE Galaxy Conquest, the mobile strategy title developed by the Group’s Shanghai studio. The game extends the EVE Universe to mobile platforms, enabling players to engage in large-scale strategic conflict through fleet command, territorial control, and alliance-based gameplay, supported by ongoing content updates and live operations.

And finally the mobile game. I really have to wonder if the mobile game was pressed upon Fenris by Pearl Abyss. Black Desert Mobile was such a hit in its first few years I can well imagine the folks in the home office in Anyang thinks a mobile game would produce big money in a short amount of time.

I have not seen the forms listing the members of the new board of directors. But that is a subject for the future. For now, we are closing down the Crowd Control Productions chapter of Fenris Creations history.