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.

Highlights From The EVE Fanfest 2026 Keynote

At the end of day 2 of the 2026 EVE Fanfest convention Fenris Creations (the studio formerly known as CCP Games) held its keynote presentation. I watched the presentation live and am just going to go through some of the notes I took of the approximately hour and a half session.

First, Fenris does have two mobile games related to the EVE universe, the NetEase-run EVE Echoes and the internally built EVE Galaxy Conquest. A lot of people disregard the mobile games, but they do bring in a not insignificant amount of revenue. According to the group's recently released financial accounts for 2025 Echoes probably brought in $4 million in 2025. And while no figure was given for Galaxy Conquest, cost of sales of $1.3 million lead me to believe mobile game revenue for the company was over 10% if not 15% of total game revenue. Thus, a subject to pay attention to.

EVE Echoes next expansion is titled Titan Descent. Galaxy Conquest was recently updated with pirate invasions, new ships, and a new map. Upcoming additions to GC are achievements, Gurista invasions, and relic explorations. And, like in EVE Online, the mobile game has its own player council.

Next up were player run tournaments in EVE Online. After a review of the Tuskers victory in Alliance Tournament XXI, Fenris announced host of AT XXII would be Amarr. Other player-run tournaments like Anger Gamex VII are supported by Fenris-created tools. Those tools should improve for the upcoming year's tournament season.

The EVE Partner program was mentioned, but I'm not sure exactly how much actually changed. The winners of the new content creator awards will be announced during the closing ceremonies.

Other partners besides players

I'm going to rush past the 1 billion scientific classifications EVE players have submitted over the past 10 years to Kickstarter news. Andrew Groen, the author of the Empires of EVE books, has a new project, The Archive. Covering the history of many MMORPGs besides EVE, the book has received enough support to be published. I backed the Empires of EVE books and just backed The Archive as well.

Now for the news most readers want to know: the summer expansion. Fenris Creations not only changed its name, but also the name format for EVE Online expansions. The next expansion, launching on 9 June, is Cradle of War.  The trailer wasn't too bad.

Since I started playing EVE in 2009 I've heard players wanting to include high sec in factional warfare. With Cradle of War that long held wish is coming true in the form of military campaigns. Players no longer have to engage in PvP in order to participate in FW.

Expansion highlights

FW apparently will now have an in-game interface to track the progression of the war. Each empire will always have a military campaign running for players to which players can contribute. These campaigns are built on the freelance jobs system introduced to New Eden in the Legion expansion in May 2025. 

For those wondering, all the changes planned will not show up in the CoW. The changes will take the next three expansions to implement.

Something I bet some will hate is the introduction of titles and achievements. A staple of MMORPGs not made in Iceland, I hope the system will complement the new starter space also coming in CoW. The region is known as Exordium and the 53-system region will be the first ever safe space in EVE. 

Of course, every EVE expansion must have new ships. CoW will introduce another line of faction navy destroyers and four Tech 2 Command Carriers, one for each empire. More information about the ships was promised during Saturday's EVE Online keynote address.

The next major news came from EVE Vanguard. The Vanguard devs let the world know that the game would enter alpha on 7 July with the introduction of Operation Avalon. The alpha will also launch a new map for the extraction shooter set in the EVE universe. The alpha's first playtest period will run from July 7-20 and be available on Steam. Eventually the shooter will tie into EVE Online, with Operation Avalon introducing the first economic tie-ins between the two games.

The final game presented was the debut of EVE Frontier. For those wondering who gave the presentation, that was Frontier's Creative Director FC MaximumCats. The presentation was more of an introduction to the game than anything else, with MaximumCats perhaps going a little over the top in the roleplay department. For that I blame the influence of FC Burger.

I've watched MaximumCats presentation a couple of times now. The one time people in the audience seemed really interested was the possibility of using Frontier's hyper-modularity to create their own spaceships. I have the feeling I'll want to dig into the EVE Frontier keynote scheduled to stream on Twitch at 1400 UTC. 

I don't want to go too far into some of Hilmar's takes on AI. He seemed to imply that AI programs like Deep Blue defeating Gary Kasparov and AlphaGo defeating Lee Sedol helped make the games more approachable to the general public, and more popular. If he is counting on such a thing happening with Google DeepMind's research into EVE Online, well, I think he took a wrong turn down the rabbit hole. But I can imagine Google DeepMind learning a lot of things about artificial intelligence studying EVE and its massive database of player interactions.

I didn't quite cover everything but the Fanfest keynote presentation is a general overview. The real details show up on the various keynotes covering EVE Online, EVE Vanguard, and EVE Frontier on Saturday.

The Board Of Directors' View Of Pearl Abyss Iceland's 2024 Consolidated Financial Reports

On 7 May the financial accounts for all the companies making up CCP Games made their appearance on the website of Iceland's taxing authority. The company under which all others fall is Pearl Abyss Iceland ehf. Since Croda has already done a two-part analysis of the numbers I thought I'd look at the text of the endorsement of the board of directors for Pearl Abyss Iceland. Since the board is headed by a Pearl Abyss employee I thought I would use the endorsement section of the 2024 Consolidated Financial Reports to provide a 30,000 foot view of the numbers inside the document.

First off, what is Pearl Abyss Iceland ehf. In their own words:

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. CCP ehf. designs, develops, markets and operates immersive virtual worlds and games  accessed over the internet. The Company is headquartered in Iceland and owns and operates subsidiaries in the United  Kingdom, China, and the United States.

I'll add in CCP Games description of itself from the CCP ehf 2024 financial statements.

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.

Yes, creating virtual worlds more meaningful than real life isn't just a slogan pulled out for press interviews and Fanfest.

The next paragraph covered the totals that get the most coverage in the press: revenue, profits/loss, and employee headcount.

In 2024, The Group generated revenues of USD 60.2 million, compared to USD 56.0 million in the previous year. Notably, game revenue increased by USD 4.5 million (8%) year-on-year, reflecting strong ongoing engagement across EVE Online and the launch of new titles including EVE Galaxy Conquest. However, the Company reports a net loss of USD 19.5 million, compared to a USD 18.8 million net loss in 2023. This result is primarily due to deliberate and increased 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-2025 onwards. These investments, while impacting short-term profitability, are central to the Group’s strategy and position the Group for strategic and sustainable growth in the years ahead. As of year-end, shareholders’ equity stood at USD 89.2 million, with an equity ratio of 40.2%, and total assets of USD 221.6 million. The Group employed 412 people at year-end, compared to 381 at the beginning of the year.

The headline numbers are:

• Revenue up 8% ($4.5 million)
• Losses increased to $19.5 million from 2023's $18.8 million
• Headcount increased 8.1% (to 412)

The losses are racking up while CCP works to develop two major on-line games one of which is a first-person shooter while developing Carbon. Sounds a lot like 2011 except CCP has a larger financial cushion as Pearl Abyss provided PAI a $50 million loan in 2023. So, no danger of the company collapsing in 2025.

I won't follow the document in order. Instead, what was said about the two EVE Online expansions, Equinox and Revenant? First, the summer expansion.

The year saw a major expansion in the Group’s portfolio and platform capabilities. In June, Equinox launched for EVE Online, introducing expansive changes to nullsec sovereignty warfare. It added new Upwell structures, enabling capsuleers to efficiently harvest planetary resources and customize territories. New industrial hulls and enhanced defensive capabilities arrived alongside the SKINR personalization tool, empowering capsuleers to express themselves through ship design. These innovations sparked renewed engagement across the landscape of New Eden.

A little later on the winter expansion received a summary.

Meanwhile, Revenant, the second major EVE Online expansion of the year, launched in November. It introduced new SKINR upgrades, Corporation Projects enhancements, and powerful ships themed around the enigmatic Deathless — a faction that now plays a pivotal narrative role across CCP titles. In early 2025, Revenant received a significant post-launch content update, deepening both narrative and gameplay layers.

Notice the first item listed for the winter expansion was the new SKINNR upgrades? I had some thoughts about CCP introducing a feature that would increase demand for PLEX at a time with low supplies of the currency. The prominence of place in the report leads me to believe the SKINNR system is a top priority for the company.

After EVE Online came news of EVE Vanguard.

EVE Vanguard, the Group’s sandbox FPS module set within the EVE Universe, advanced rapidly throughout 2024. Player feedback during the limited-time Solstice event and public playtests helped shape the game’s direction, culminating in a detailed roadmap for the Solstice Era. The team emphasized direct collaboration with our Founders Access community as we build toward launching into Steam Early Access.

As we found out at Fanfest, Vanguard will reach Steam Early Access in July 2026. Expect more development work throughout 2025.

Next came a description of the latest game launched by CCP Games, EVE Galaxy Conquest.

In October, EVE Galaxy Conquest launched worldwide on iOS and Android. This mobile-first 4X strategy title, developed by the Group’s Shanghai studio, blends diplomacy, territory control, and epic-scale fleet battles to deliver the power and politics of New Eden to handheld devices. The game continues to evolve with post-launch content and live operations.

Speaking of mobile games, EVE Echoes is not mentioned in the board of directors summary. Perhaps the fact that NetEase only licenses the intellectual property from CCP doesn't make the game worth noting.

Then we get to EVE Frontier.

September saw the official reveal of EVE Frontier, the Group’s ambitious new hardcore survival MMO. With Founder Access underway and Early Access planned for June 2025, Frontier challenges players to survive and thrive in a fractured cosmos overrun by rogue AI. Featuring a single-shard server architecture, emergent construction via Smart Assemblies, and deep player-driven economy systems, EVE Frontier extends the spirit of EVE into a fresh new genre space.

While not showing up in the PAI financial reports, we have a pretty good idea of spending on Frontier's development by looking at CCP ehf's financial statements. Since 2022 Angelice Prime Foundation has paid CCP ehf a total of $39,980,542, including $10,187,021 in 2024, for "supply of services". 

This money does not show up on PAI's statement as Angelice Prime Foundation is listed as a related party. From one of the footnotes:

Because the Group has power to direct the relevant activities of Angelice Prime Foundation through contractual arrangements, the Group has control over Angelice Prime Foundation and its subsidiaries even though the Group doesn't have any ownership interest and voting rights in Angelice Prime Foundation.

Is this what is known as a creative accounting practice designed to lower tax liability or perhaps gain a tax credit? Because when taking the payments from Angelice Prime Foundation to CCP into account, PAI's loss drops from $19.5 million down to $9.3 million. And 2023's $18.8 million loss is reduced to $1.6 million. I am not an accountant so I'm not sure if I read everything correctly. Just one of the reasons I'm trying to stick to the text of the board of directors' statement.

Finally we get down to a specific technical project.

In March 2024, the Group announced its intention to open-source the Carbon Development Platform. This initiative provides developers with access to the Group’s proprietary game engine and tools, supporting a more open and collaborative ecosystem for game creation and experimentation.

Last but not least, we get down to dividend payments.

The Board of Directors does not propose dividend payments to shareholders in 2025. With regard to the allocation of loss and changes in the equity of the Group, the Board refers to the Notes attached to the Consolidated Financial Statements.

At the beginning of the year-end and at year end 2024 Pearl Abyss Corp. is the sole shareholder in the Company.

Not surprising that Pearl Abyss does not want to pay itself a dividend.

My Predictions for 2025

Since I made some pretty bad predictions for 2024, I thought I should go back and look at how I did. Then, to prove my insanity, I'll make some predictions for the upcoming year of 2025. Maybe I'll do better?

EVE Online - At least I got my first prediction correct: a volcano did not destroy CCP's new offices in Reykjavik. But for those thinking the prediction was guaranteed, a volcano did destroy parts of the famous Blue Lagoon geothermal spa in November.

From here through, the predictions turned bad. Instead of continuing the improvement of low sec, CCP launched two expansions aimed at null security space, Equinox and Revenant.  Thus. the prediction of low sec witnessing more players killed than in null sec was a bust. Still, given all the complaining from null sec players, perhaps CCP would have received a better return on investment by continuing to focus on low sec.

I did use Project Awakening, now known as EVE Frontier, as a reason for ship development in EVE Online. I think I can safely say that did not happen. Instead we received four new industrial ships for EDENCON along with a destroyer and battlecruiser for Deathless Circle. 

Now for some predictions. First, CCP will realize the futility of creating null sec focused expansions and the spring will wind up as a hodge-podge of ideas again. Also, at the beginning of the expansion CCP will conduct another event with EVE Vanguard trying to incorporate itself with null sec play. The experiment will receive a horrible reaction from null sec players, ending the developers' efforts to improve null sec play. And with the realization, much rejoicing will come from player-owned null.

In the winter expansion, the developers will turn their attentions once again to The Deathless. The new pirate faction will receive three new ship types: frigate, cruiser, and logisticis cruiser. That's right, I see the Deathless Circle receiving the Triglavian treatment and getting Tech II ships in its ship tree. I think a Deathless Circle version of the Marshal is a bit much to expect in 2025.

EVE Vanguard - I'll admit I'm a bit confused about the development of CCP's latest attempt at a first person shooter. I'll count my prediction that EVE Vanguard did not go into a continuous alpha ala Star Citizen as true. I'll also count my prediction of the overlords in Anyang bringing up the game on an investor call as correct.

Vanguard will have a roller coaster year. On the plus side the game will enter beta sometime this year, probably during a favorable playtest in November or December. On the minus side, the complaints about CCP ruining null sec logistics for the inferior Equinox sov system (why couldn't they keep Fozzie Sov?!) will shut down development in that area for some time.

EVE Frontier (formerly Project Awakening) - The silence wasn't as deafening about EVE Frontier than I anticipated. I didn't expect any solid news about the title until November or December. Instead, CCP kicked off the announcement of the title's name in September and Closed Alpha in December.

As I am part of the Closed Alpha, I am under an NDA so cannot really make any game-related predictions. I feel confident enough though to predict another round of venture capital funding for the game. And since CCP has openly discussed the future of the Carbon game engine, I'll go ahead and predict the company will announce how Frontier tech has wound up in Online. Not a far-out prediction given both games use the same engine. Oh, and going open source doesn't count.

EVE: Galaxy Conquest - I thought the game would not release in 2024 due to actions of the Chinese government. I'll give myself a little credit for backing away from a no release in 2024 to a world-wide release outside China in Q4. The game was released on 29 October, so I got that part kind of correct. I couldn't tell if the game released in China yet.

Crowd Control Productions - I'm pretty sure some people in Reykjavik are waiting for this section, since I was wrong. Not about the game development part. I predicted CCP would have a good year developing games in 2024 and I count that prediction as true. Where I failed is revenue. I predicted a so-so year of revenue remaining between plus or minus 2-3% of 2023's. Instead. through the first three quarters of 2024 revenue was up year-over-year by 8.8%. I consider that a miss.

I still believe 2025 is the year CCP will fully see the fruits of their hard work in 2024. First, the big prediction. The games in the EVE franchise will meet the goal set by the overlords in Anyang of ₩20 billion each quarter in 2025. For the year, I expect 10% revenue growth, up to ₩90 billion, or $64 million. Due to currency fluctuations, the two figures may not match.

Black Desert Online - I made a prediction and just based on Pearl Abyss' investor calls, I'll go out on a limb and say I was correct about this year's expansion, Land of the Morning Light: Seoul not doing as well as 2023's Land of the Morning Light. I'm not even sure what was released this year counts as a real expansion or just a continuation of the effort in 2023.

The only prediction I'll make about BDO is the game makes a lot of "sickest MMORPG" lists in the gaming media as I expect another 10% decline in revenue from all platforms in 2025, down to around ₩215 billion.

Crimson Desert - A stopped clock is correct twice a day, which is how I feel about my predictions for Crimson Desert. Last year I predicted that while the game would not release in 2024, Pearl Abyss would make an announcement of a release occurring sometime during the first half of 2025. I also expected the ability to pre-order the game sometime at the end of 2024. That didn't happen either.

The game appears close to release, but after so many false starts, I'll repeat last year's prediction and just change the years. Watch for Pearl Abyss to announce a release date of the first half of 2026 sometime in November. Also, I see pre-orders for the game going on sale in either November or December of 2025.

Pearl Abyss - Thankfully I was too pessimistic about Pearl Abyss last year. The predicted 10% revenue decline was only 1% through the first three quarters of 2024. The predicted 12-15% decline in Black Desert revenue wound up at only a 6% decline. But all wasn't good news. Operating losses year-over-year increased from ₩10.9 billion to ₩14.4 billion over the first 3 quarters of 2024, partially justifying my concerns over the financial state of the South Korean video game maker.

Despite the performance of CCP Games, I don't see a good year ahead for Pearl Abyss. Beginning operations in the People's Republic of China this year will help, but I still see Black Desert revenue falling 5% due to the continuing decline of Black Desert Mobile. I'll go out on a limb and say Pearl Abyss will turn both net and operating profits in 2025.

Star Citizen - I think I was mostly correct about all the goodwill from CitizenCon dissipating by the middle of the year. Where I was wrong, however, was about server meshing. Right before the developers left for their Christmas break, they released a version of Alpha 4.0 on live "preview" servers. From watching Star Citizen content creators, the version is actually Alpha 4.0 Lite. But officially I need to call the prediction wrong, even if some creative use of language was utilized.

I think I can make a couple of predictions. First, the 3.24 version of the game still on live servers will not be taken down until sometime in the summer (June, July, August). I even expect the 3.24 version to receive a patch or 2, if only for ship sales. Next, dynamic server meshing will not appear anytime in 2025. And finally, the third planet due up for deployment, Nyx, will also not see the live servers in 2025.

Squadron 42 - Last year I fell for Chris Roberts' hyping up of Squadron 42 as "feature complete" at CitizenCon 2023. So I was wrong about predicting a 2025 launch with a corresponding influx of revenue from pre-orders in 2024. Instead of announcing a 2025 date for the release of SQ42 at CitizenCon, Roberts announced sometime in 2026. At least I got the CitizenCon announcement of a date correct, right?

With a release date sometime in 2026, I don't have anything to predict for 2025, right? Wrong. Cloud Imperium still needs to find a Chinese publisher if the company wants to sell the game in the People's Republic. So at CitizenCon, I predict Roberts will announce the Chinese publisher. I think the choice is obvious: TenCent.

Cloud Imperium Games - Last year I made three predictions about the company, all of which were incorrect. The first was that cash shop revenue, the number displayed on the funding page, would hit $123.5 million for the year. Currently an outside chance exists sales will equal 2023's $117.6 million although the likelihood is the company will fall $1 million short. While a less than 1% shortfall isn't bad, I predicted a 5% increase.

The second prediction was that CIG would surpass Pearl Abyss in the size of each company's workforce. At the time I made the prediction, CIG had over 1100 employees and Pearl Abyss was down under 1300. Since then, CIG engaged in a workforce reduction of 100-150 employees and Pearl Abyss added about 50.

Finally, I predicted CIG would receive another round of funding. As far as we currently know, no such funding round occurred. Which probably explains why we are hearing rumors of additional layoffs among the QA staff in Manchester.

I'll try to make three predictions for CIG in 2025.

1. Cash shop revenue will drop to $113 million. Despite my belief the two big ship sales, Invictus and IAE, will combine for $46.8 million in 2023, I still think reduced sales the rest of the year will result in a 3.5% year-over-year drop.

2. The amount of new accounts created will drop 15% compared to 2024. The last two years have really seen a huge drop-off in the number of new accounts created to play Star Citizen. With no Squadron 42 to attract fans until 2026, I think the decline continues but slows, with 408,000 new accounts created to play Star Citizen.

3. Cloud Imperium will close down its Los Angeles office. Roberts announced that game development had left the location in 2024 due to a restructuring. I know that Roberts affinity for the film industry makes the idea of CIG leaving Los Angeles hard to believe, but the high cost of doing business in California may lead to the change. Plus, Henry Cavill lives in London, so filming in the UK would be easier for him.

4. Tencent will get a 5-10% stake in Cloud Imperium. I'm waiting on CIG's 2023 financial report so I don't have a real good idea on CIG's spending over the past two years. I am guessing that CIG can't attract venture capital funding so the next best thing is getting money from a big publisher. Tencent fits the bill. Did I mention Tencent also likes picking up little stakes in lots of companies it thinks will do well?

Final Fantasy XIV - And last but not least is Final Fantasy XIV. I got a lot of predictions right last year. The game earned a lot of credit for handling launch traffic well along with the graphics upgrade. And there is also a lot of doom and gloom about the franchise with at least content creators complaining about how bad the Dawntrail expansion was and is.

I was wrong about World of Warcraft impacting Dawntrail's launch as The War Within didn't launch until 26 August, or almost 2 months after the launch of the Dawntrail early launch on 28 June. I was also wrong about both new housing and the cosmic exploration content as neither reached the live servers during 2024. In fact, Dawntrail probably will not new a new housing zone until patch 8.1 in 2026 with players having to settle for the expanded interiors coming to housing in 2025.

So what do I think is in-store for FFXIV in 2025? First, with the next expansion due to release sometime in the summer of 2026 I expect the first fanfest to occur in November, right before the release of patch 7.4. Either at Fanfest or as part of the MSQ in patch 7.4, players will discover the next expansion will have players continue to search for treasure in the frozen waters of Blindfrost, which is north of the continent of Othard. Yes, I think we're returning to the east to visit Doma once again.

Finally I will repeat one of last year's predictions hoping I was just a year early. When cosmic exploration finally comes out I expect the feature to resemble housing more than island sanctuary did. I do think we will also see a restoration project in Garlemald at least teased sometime during the year if not in patch 7.4.

CCP Games Begins Its Seventh Year Owned By Pearl Abyss

Time really flies, so much so I almost forgot another anniversary. The acquisition of CCP Games by Pearl Abyss was finalized in mid-October 2018. I was at EVE Vegas seven days later and if someone had told those I was with the Icelandic studio would engage in more video game development than the much larger Pearl Abyss over the next six years, I think we would have laughed.

But looking back, that's exactly what happened. Sure, the mobile game we played at the convention, EVE: War of Ascension, died a little-noticed death in 2019. My memory is a bit hazy, but CCP's new mobile game launched on Tuesday, EVE Galaxy Conquest, sounds a lot like the first planned mobile game set in the EVE universe.

CCP Games also partnered with Chinese gaming giant NetEase not only on running the Chinese EVE Online shard, but in producing a new mobile game. The transfer of the game from Tiancity was finally approved in March 2020, with the operation of Serenity restarting a couple of months later. But EVE: Echoes, the mobile game licensed and developed by NetEase, launched in August 2020. Looking back, these two moves worked to ensure 2019 was CCP Games worst revenue year under Pearl Abyss' ownership. Not bad for a studio many believed was dying at the beginning of 2018.

Future game development is being performed in-house. In addition to keeping EVE Online up-to-date with two expansions per year beginning at the end of 2022, the studio currently has two games undergoing player testing. The first, EVE Vanguard, is CCP's fourth attempt at creating a lasting first-person shooting game set in the EVE Universe. The game has undergone player testing all year and I would not be surprised if a release date was announced at the upcoming Fanfest in May. 

The second game is EVE Frontier. The oft-derided blockchain-based MMORPG is currently under development having missed the "blockchain games as flavor-of-the-month" wave from a couple of years ago. While I'm under an NDA, I can say the Phase V playtest begins on 7 November. 

On the other hand, CCP Games' parent company Pearl Abyss has not pumped out the content like the developers out of Iceland, Shanghai, and London. Of the three planned games the South Korean company announced, only Crimson Desert is still under active development. Work on DokeV was put on hold in order to concentrate on launching Crimson Desert. And as for Plan 8? The game is barely visible in the pipeline, at least on Pearl Abyss' quarterly earnings calls for investors.

Even on the publishing front our overlords in Anyang are playing catch-up to their not-so-newly acquired company. Much of the increases in profits over the past few years were due to moving the publishing of the Black Desert franchise internally. And as for China, Pearl Abyss switched in-country partnership to Tencent in May, which coincidently led to approval to operate Black Desert Online in China in June. BDO may begin operations in the world's second largest market at the end of 2024 or sometime in 2025.

I'm two weeks late to the party, but I haven't seen anyone make a big deal (or even mention) the 6th year anniversary of Pearl Abyss' acquisition of CCP Games. And given the need of CCP to go out and acquire on its own $40 million to help develop EVE Frontier, perhaps the oversight is warranted.

CCP Games News: Galaxy Conquest And EVE Online Patch Notes

Today is a pretty big day for CCP Games. To the outside world, the big news is the launch of EVE Galaxy Conquest, the studio's second mobile game and first developed internally. But to the null sec residents of EVE Online, today is also the day their infrastructure is forcibly changed over to the new Equinox sovereignty system.

First, the Galaxy Conquest news. While no new articles appeared on either the official EVE Online website or the CCP Games corporate site, an advertisement is on the EVE Online launcher. Apparently interacting with the Galaxy Conquest social media accounts earns players in-game rewards.

Also on the Galaxy Conquest website is an advertisement looking to enroll content creators in the Partnership Program.

EVE Galaxy Conquest is looking for content creators within our player community! Whether you are an accomplished content creator or an enthusiastic beginner, whether you plan to depict epic battles, dive into the meta, or provide tutorial guides, our team has prepared generous rewards for you. We look forward to seeing you showcase EVE Galaxy Conquest and grow your audience!

In addition to in-game rewards such as Quantum, As an EVE Galaxy Conquest partner you can expect the following:

• Access to the devs via Discord
• Featuring on CCP promotional channels
• Sneak peak at upcoming content

On a business note, I have to make two predictions related to CCP's new mobile game. First, I don't believe the EVE IP meets the ₩20 billion quarterly revenue goal as stated to investors on Pearl Abyss' Q2 earnings call. I do believe that going forward that the revenue generated by Galaxy Conquest will allow CCP to meet the target in fiscal quarters in which the studio does not launch an EVE Online expansion. At least for the next 2-3 years.

On to EVE Online. Today's patch is not the only one released over the last week. I'll combine last Thursday's patch notes with today's to allow players to see all of the changes and fixes implemented over the past 7 days. I'll start with the sovereignty changes as to not bury the lede any further.

Features & Changes:

Sovereignty:

• All remaining Sovereignty Hubs which were running in Legacy mode have been automatically converted into using the new mode.
  
  
• It is no longer possible to remove rigs from structures which were eligible for rig removal.

Balancing:

• The bounty rewards for the destroyer, battlecruiser and battleship NPCs which are exclusive to the Forsaken Sanctum/Teeming horde sites have been increased by 20%.
  
  
• The chance of a Large Mercoxit Deposit spawning in a nullsec sovereignty system with a level 2 Prospecting Array Upgrade present has been increased by 3x
  
  
• The Magmatic Gas cost to run a Metenox Moon Drill has been increased from 88 to 110 per hour.
  
  
• Reduced the NPC buy order price of Superionic Ice.

Missions and NPCs:

• The SoCT has expanded journal buy orders to Genolution stations, including new buy orders for recently discovered journal entries.

Defect Fixes:

Audio:

• Combat music no longer plays over other music.

Gameplay:

• Insurgencies - Fixed an issue where the pirate FOB could move from reinforced back to vulnerable again if there was a temporary outage with the external service while it was reinforced.
  
  
• Insurgencies - Fixed a bug which could cause empire factional warfare HQ solarsystems (Amo, Intaki, Mehatoor and Onnamon) from not starting at suppression level 2.
  
  
• Insurgencies - Fixed a bug where corruption effects could linger after an insurgency ended.
  
  
• ESS - It’s no longer possible to place deployables (like Micro Jump Units and Mobile Tractor Units) closer than 1000km to the ESS in the main ESS room.
  
  
• Fixed an issue where NPC kills would not be counted towards daily goals and events if an NPC was one-shot by a player.
  
  
• Fixed an issue where NPC kills would not be counted towards daily goals and events if an NPC was killed indirectly with a smartbomb or an EDENCOM vorton projector weapon bounce and wasn’t targeted by any player directly.
  
  
• Fixed a killmail bug which could occur if a player killed themselves in one shot (Such as dying to their own bomb in a stealth bomber/failing Ghost Site hack etc).
  
  
• Fixed a killmail bug which could occur if a player got a final blow on a player’s ship, but the damage they did was all in one-shot and they didn’t damage the target previously.

Graphics:

• Adjusted the distance from which certain objects are visible in space.
  
  
• Shattered Paradigm decals no longer clip on the Orthrus.
  
  
• IGC logo on Shattered Paradigm SKIN is now grey instead of red.

EVE: Galaxy Conquest To Launch October 29th

I'm a week behind the announcement, but due to the importance of the news I do need to make a post. On the Q2 2024 earnings call investors were told they should expect the EVE franchise to earn at least ₩20 billion in revenue every quarter. A part of that is the launch of the new games under development at CCP Games. The first of those games, EVE: Galaxy Conquest, is due to launch on 29 October. I'm pretty sure CCP won't mind if I copy/paste from the press release announcing a cinematic trailer for the new game. 

The cinematic trailer

REYKJAVÍK, Iceland – September 26, 2024 - CCP Games today announced the official launch date for EVE Galaxy Conquest, the free-to-play 4X strategy game that brings the intense player-driven conflict of New Eden to mobile devices. Aspiring Commanders can prepare for galactic warfare on October 29, 2024, when the game launches worldwide on iOS and Android devices. To mark this occasion, CCP has released a breathtaking cinematic trailer and opened pre-registration in the Apple App Store and Google Play Store.

Developed by CCP Games’ Shanghai studio, EVE Galaxy Conquest transports the intense player-driven conflict of EVE Online’s renowned universe to mobile devices. Nefarious forces have unleashed an unprecedented assault, overwhelming the established Empires. To combat this extreme threat, Empire leaders have initiated the Valhalla System, resurrecting heroic Commanders to spearhead the fight in retaking New Eden. Choose your Empire and form fleets with iconic ships from EVE Online to dominate the galaxy, whether by forming alliances or acting alone in a seasonal battle for factional supremacy. Build unstoppable armadas, form corporations with allies, and vie to conquer the cosmos itself.

“October 29 marks the day when Commanders will rise to reclaim New Eden from the forces that seek to destroy it,” said Bing Mikael Xi, EVE Galaxy Conquest’s executive producer and CCP Shanghai’s General Manager. “The galaxy's fate hangs in the balance, and we can’t wait to see the alliances and rivalries that will shape its future.”

The cinematic trailer plunges viewers into the heart of New Eden’s crisis, showcasing the fall of the great Empires to an unprecedented pirate assault, the activation of the mysterious Valhalla System, and the resurrection of legendary Commanders tasked with leading the counterattack.

“EVE Galaxy Conquest translates the vast, player-driven universe of EVE Online to the palm of your hand in a new 4X experience,” said Michael Lee, Brand Director at CCP Shanghai. “Whether you choose to forge alliances or stand alone, your decisions will shape the future of the galaxy.”

In order to ensure meeting Pearl Abyss' financial goals for the franchise, EVE Galaxy Conquest will need to earn ₩3-4 billion ($2.2 million to $3 million) per quarter until the two games in the development pipeline, the FPS game EVE Vanguard and MMO blockchain-based EVE Frontier, come online. Due to the activity levels seen in EVE Online over the summer, do not expect overall franchise sales to meet Anyang's ₩20 billion quarterly goal on the next earnings call, as EVE Galaxy Conquest did not launch in the 3rd quarter. Then again, I believe the plan was always for the new mobile game to launch in the 4th quarter.