EVE Online's New Heraldry System Could Use A Touch Of Yoshi-P

Back in March, a kerfuffle occurred around CCP selling a package in the EVE Online cash shop that included a Retriever mining barge. The protests against selling internet spaceships directly for real world money like Star Citizen reached Twitch before finally subsiding. The protests faded when CCP Swift published an announcement CCP was pulling the Prospector Pack from the cash shop. His statement included the following passage.

One of the topics for Fanfest is a new project that we’re in the middle of developing, that will transform these and any future packs - a paradigm where packs of this type will be supplied by players, ensuring that any ship we offer to new players through sales, will have origins from actual player work in New Eden: Made for new players, by veterans. This feature will also not only supply each ship from the player base but allow the community to influence which ships will be put in these packs.

In effect, CCP intended to still sell ships for real world money, but would give players a chance to get a piece of the action. The move worked with selling ISK for money (PLEX) and skill points for cash (skill extractors/injectors), so why not ships?

At Fanfest CCP unveiled the heraldry system. In truth, they just announced an intention to create a new system that players might like. On day 1 of the event, we received a hint of what was to come.

HERALDING IN A NEW ERA OF IDENTITY AND SOCIAL INTERACTION

You will soon be able to display your unique identity and loyalty proudly on your ships and hangers through alliance logos, visual changes to your ships, holograms that reflect your social standings, killmarks, structure skins and other customizations attainable through InterBus credits, a new in-game currency.

InterBus credits can only be earned in game. They can never be traded between Characters, sold and do not have a fixed exchange rate to any other currencies.

A nice beginning, but watching the keynote, I had the feeling the new system would involve a bit of monetization. The day 2 news article went into further detail.

MORE ON HERALDRY AND INTERBUS CREDITS

The coming heraldry system lets you show off your achievements by displaying logos, visual changes to your ships, holograms that reflect your social standings, killmarks, structure skins and other customizations. You’ll be able to purchase those items with InterBus credits, which are earned by doing activities in-game. Those activities could be as simple as a daily challenges or events, or something more complicated. In almost every case, the activities will be focused on the social and interacting with fellow pilots.

To go along with this there’s a new unified fitting window coming that will combine heraldry and modules.

We’re also aiming to establish strong, healthy corporations, giving their members plenty of activities and goals, while providing more tools for corps to recruit, train and retain new pilots as they grow their member base.

We’ll also be helping corp leaders streamline their corp’s activities by making InterBus credits, taxable (though they won’t be tradable). We’ll also be giving corporations the tools to automate these arduous bookkeeping tasks with two optional taxes, LP Tax (on earned LP) and Value Tax (on sold goods on the market), in addition to the new Spreadsheets in Space tool mentioned in yesterday’s keynote that exports data directly from EVE into Microsoft excel.

This is all to help strengthen corporations in New Eden.

I think one of the most asked questions was: why not put these items in the cash shop? The answer came in the next section of the day 2 article.

MADE BY PLAYERS FOR PLAYERS

A new program will soon be introduced allowing you to manufacture or purchase items, making them available for other players to purchase. Players who participate will be rewarded with heraldry, which unlocks many cosmetic items that help you establish your individual and alliance identity in New Eden. This is all aimed to lean into EVE’s player-driven economy and provide more avenues to participate in the economy, and be rewarded.

Yes, the plan to sell spaceships directly from the cash shop became clear. Players would acquire or build ships and trade them for InterBus credits to get the sweet, sweet heraldry items. CCP will then sell the ships in the cash shop for real world cash.

I would really like options to obtain heraldry items without engaging in primary market real money trading. CCP is still working through what the system will eventually look like. I expect to hear something in 5-6 months from now. Hopefully CCP isn't too proud to look at other games for ideas. 

I think my current primary game, Final Fantasy XIV, does a good job with its Free Company system. Free Companies (FCs) are FFXIV's name for guilds or corporations. The game has a version of InterBus credits called, simply enough, company credits.

Company credits are used to increase a Free Company's rank as well as buy perks for the FC and its members. Credits are earned by performing the following activities.

• Inviting New Members
• Crafting anything High Quality
• Gathering anything High Quality(?)
• Undertaking supply and provisioning missions with your Grand Company
• Completing FATEs
• Completing Duties
• Completing Quests
• Earning Achievements

Basically, most any basic gameplay function an FC member does earns a free company credits. The system never shows player the credits they generate, so their is no sense of loss. Also, the system incentivizes FC leadership to maintain an active FC. The more active the FC, the more credits generated.

Players get more from the generation of company credits than the ability to put the FC's crest on their gear. FC leadership can purchase buffs that affect all members for 24 hours. The buffs range from increasing experience in combat, crafting, and gathering to buffing stats associated with those activities. Probably my favorite buff is the transportation buff that reduces fast travel fees by 20-40%, depending on the rank of the buff. That one buff can save players thousands of gil every week.

I realize CCP's effort is a work in progress, but I am concerned about this statement. 

You’ll be able to purchase those items with InterBus credits, which are earned by doing activities in-game. Those activities could be as simple as a daily challenges or events, or something more complicated. In almost every case, the activities will be focused on the social and interacting with fellow pilots. [emphasis mine]

Focusing on the social and interacting with fellow pilots is CCP language for PvP activity. I get the feeling, especially since the beginning of 2019, that CCP would like people to play EVE a certain way. I fear people who shy away from PvP and don't join fair sized groups probably won't get much out of the new system. If those people leave the game, well ... CCP didn't want those type of players anyway.

I really hope that CCP follows the philosophy of FFXIV's Producer and Director Naoki Yoshida. Final Fantasy XIV tries to provide content for everyone, even PvPers. He decided to make the game more friendly to solo players in an effort to make FFXIV welcoming to more Final Fantasy fans. 

If Yoshida is still looking to reach out for more players, hopefully CCP will do the same. I know the top leadership of CCP thinks EVE should attract a certain type of player and wants to cater to those people. Hopefully certain important people learned with Blackout in 2019 that abandoning the so-called carebear is financially harmful. We'll find out with how CCP handles the new heraldry system.

MMORPGs Are A Marathon, Not A Sprint

A lot of players are complaining now, but EVE Online really is a remarkable game. How many games last 19 years with continuous development? Thanks to Croda of marketsforISK, we have financial records for CCP and its successor, Pearl Abyss Iceland, going back to 2012. 

Game revenue, mostly generated from EVE Online

Over the last 10 years, games using the EVE IP, primarily EVE Online, generated $636 million in revenue. Last year's $63.8 million was slightly over the 10-year average of $63.6 million. Of course, 2021's revenue includes $10 million from EVE Echoes. But EVE Echoes was not the only other game besides EVE Online published by CCP. Since 2014, CCP published DUST 514, EVE: Valkyrie, EVE: Gunjack, and Sparc.

While we don't have records for 2003-2011, I think I can safely say the EVE IP has generated over $1 billion, if EVE Online itself hasn't recorded $1 billion in revenue since its launch in May 2003. Given CCP's beginning as a small indie studio founded on a rock in the middle of the North Atlantic, creating a $1 billion IP is a pretty good accomplishment.

If people think EVE Online is sick and in danger of dying, then what do we say about New World? The Amazon Games' game started out strong, with a peak of 913,027 users at least trying to log into the game on the first day. Much better than EVE's all-time peak of 65,303 on the game's 10th anniversary. But seven months after launch, New World's numbers were lower than EVE's.

EVE Online vs New World yesterday

Yesterday, New World has a high water mark of 22,779 accounts. EVE-Offline.net recorded a peak concurrent user number of 27,401 on the Tranquility shard for EVE Online. Including the Chinese Serenity shard would push the number over 30,000.

As for sales, how is New World doing? According to VG Insights, Amazon Games had sold 6.8 million units for $162.9 million. Pretty good money, surpassing what EVE Online has made for Pearl Abyss. The question is, how much longer will New World keep going? The game's monetization is limited to cosmetic items with no subscription options, so sales of units needs to continue. 

Slowing sales for New World

According to VG Insights, Amazon has sold 35,000 copies of the game over the past 30 days. At an estimated $37.56 per copy, that runs to $1.3 million. As a comparison, the EVE IP averaged $5 million per month in the first 3 months of 2022.

One final comparison. Yesterday, nine years after EVE's peak concurrent user mark, yesterday's PCU was down 58%. New World, on the other hand, was down 97.5% from its peak concurrent users set 7 months ago.

Ideally, player logins increase after launch of a new MMORPG. In EVE's case, player numbers grew for 10 years. But after only 7 months, New World had declined to a point below EVE's numbers after 19 years. Apparently, EVE is making more money now as well.

Pearl Abyss Q1 2022 Earnings Call

Some view the world like the glass is half-full. When looking at the results of Pearl Abyss' first quarter 2022 earnings call, an optimistic person might say the South Korean game maker did better than expected. Two analysts wrote their expectations for the call on BusinessKorea last week:

Pearl Abyss is expected to have posted sales of KRW88.8bn (-12.0% YoY,-24.7% QoQ) and operating loss of KRW1bn (negative swing YoY and QoQ, operating margin of -1.1%) for 1Q22. The company should have swung to a loss owing to sales drop and labor cost hikes from new hires, despite declines in marketing spend and other expenses. Sales likely fell QoQ due to high base effect created by Pearl Abyss Capital’s one-off investment gains booked in 4Q21.

Pearl Abyss didn't do quite that poorly, as the slide below shows.

Okay, Pearl Abyss brought in ₩91.4 billion ($75.5 million), beating expectations by 3%. But after the one-time revenue claim from Pearl Abyss Capital at the end of 2021, revenue was expected to plummet from the last quarter of 2021. And while drops in operating profit and net profit fell off a cliff, at least PA had profits to claim.

Gaming revenue rose in the first quarter, up 4.3% from the Q4 2021 total of ₩85.4 billion ($72.7 million) to ₩89.1 billion ($73.6 million). Before continuing, I need to explain why the U.S. dollar total only went up 0.1% instead of 4.3%. The South Korean won is weakening against currencies like the dollar, British pound, and Chinese yuan. In the rest of the article, the won to dollar valuation is calculated using the exchange rate on the last working day of the quarter as found on Xe. So as we can see, the dropping value of the won is boosting Pearl Abyss' profits.

We can do the same with Black Desert IP revenue. Year-over-year, Black Desert revenue dropped from ₩82.9 billion ($73.2 million) in Q1 2021 down to ₩70.9 billion ($58.6 million) in Q1 2022, a 14.5% decline in revenue. The Black Desert IP did post a quarter-over-quarter gain of 5.8%, from ₩67 billion ($56.3 million) up to ₩70.9 billion ($58.6 million).

The EVE IP revenue looked very steady over the last year, with revenue rising 3.4% from Q1 2021's total of ₩17.6 billion ($16.2 million) up to last quarter's ₩18.2 billion ($15 million). Oh, oh. Now we can really see the effects of the weakening won. If converted to U.S. dollars, the 3.4% year-over-year gain turns into a 7.4% revenue decline. 

Continuing on, EVE revenue remained "steady" from Q4 2021 to Q1 2022, only falling 1.1%. Even doing the won to dollar conversion doesn't show a big drop, as EVE brought in ₩18.4 billion ($15.5 million) in the final quarter of 2021.

At this point the pessimist takes over. With revenues inflated by the steadily weakening won, what are Pearl Abyss' plans to increase revenue? The April launch of Black Desert Mobile in China was disappointing not only to the analysts on the call, but to Pearl Abyss as well. From the tone of the call, the real possibility exists that Pearl Abyss will launch no games in 2022.

The analysts tried to get the Pearl Abyss leadership to let them know if Crimson Desert would launch in 2022. The answer was basically, "You'll find out when we tell the public." Listeners on the call were also told that the studio was concentrating on Crimson Desert, which means DokeV most likely will launch after the Black Desert spin-off. One analyst even asked about the upcoming Black Clover mobile game mentioned on the February earnings call. Despite telling analysts three months ago the game would launch in the second half of 2022, the analyst could not get Pearl Abyss to confirm if the timing still held.

About the only big news that might happen in 2022 is Pearl Abyss self-publishing Black Desert Online in South America. The move would mean the South Korean studio would now self-publish around the globe. Perhaps more importantly, every time Pearl Abyss self-publishes BDO in a region, its revenues increase for a time.

New Pearl Abyss CEO Jin-young Heo did answer a question about the future of Pearl Abyss. Below is a transcription of the translated answer.

You also asked us about the direction of our new business going forward. And we are planning many things. For example, we have DokeV that uses the metaverse platform as well as others that use the web 3 platform so we are seeing the market trends. And to successfully launch Crimson Desert in line with the Western biggest market, the console market, and also to make DokeV into a metaverse platform and to showcase this to the market. And to have a new project which I have before mentioned, using the current market trends of blockchain and web 3.0 using the EVE IP. So we believe as a game development studio we are going to focus more on these and that will be our task going forward. 

I would love to get a transcription of the Korean language portion, as I believe subtle but important differences exist. For example, in the passage above, the translator used the term "EVE IP", while the CEO used the actual term "EVE Online." Korean and English speakers may walk away from the call with two impressions of what Pearl Abyss plans for the future. 

In today's trading, Pearl Abyss stock declined 6%, finishing the day at ₩57,500. So far in 2022, Pearl Abyss stock has declined 57.1% in value.

Feeling Down About Fanfest

Today is the 19th anniversary of the launch of EVE Online. I have held at least one subscription to the game since August 2009. That's right, I have played through two-thirds of EVE's history. Between the subscription fees and all the EVE meetups and conventions I've attended, I estimate spending between $35,000 and $40,000 on my hobby. While CCP received less than 20% of the total, I have spent quite a lot over the years.

Speaking of travel, I have gone to Iceland to attend Fanfest seven times. I went every year from 2012 to 2018. CCP did not hold a Fanfest in 2019, and my trip in 2020 was cancelled due to the emergence of COVID-19. I started a new job in February so couldn't get the time off to attend this year.

I do have to say, that in all my time playing, this year is the most underwhelmed I've felt at the thought of the news about to come out of Reykjavik from CCP's flagship convention. I started the year wanting to play more EVE following completion of FFXIV's Endwalker expansion MSQ in December. That lasted until March and the news of Prospector's Path and the Prospector Pack that sold Retrievers in the cash shop. Looking back, that was a gut punch. I still fiddle around with planetary interaction, but I really need CCP to come out firing at Fanfest to rekindle my interest in New Eden.

The only problem is, I don't see any indication that we will see CCP release a major content patch following the convention. Or that CCP will make any major announcements over the weekend at all. If they do plan on doing so, they are keeping the news secret.

I find the lack of news disturbing. On 11 April, we have seen a promise to not bring blockchain technology to Tranquility. Two days later, CCP revealed "Siege Green" on the Singularity test shard. So we see some numbers change on Upwell structures. Big deal. Okay, removing the hull reinforcement timers may wind up a big deal. But I don't see an expansion level patch in our near future.

So, what would get me excited? First, that CCP is about to incorporate Hadean's Aether Engine into EVE to allow a huge increase in the number of players who could participate in fights. Did I mention in the last test, the Aether Engine used Unreal Engine 4? Maybe at the same time the developers increase server capacity, they can port our current characters into Unreal Engine and finally get rid of the last vestiges of the Carbon engine.

Next, a full revamp of the mission agent system. Making the PvE in EVE much better would benefit any plan to turn EVE into a play-to-earn game. Forget players like myself. Such a move would make Pearl Abyss investors very happy. The financial world knows our Korean overlords in Anyang could use the boost.

Finally, in this "in case of emergency, break glass" moment, I would love to see a way to finally reach Jove space and run into another race. Not a human-type race like we have today. An actual, alien race. Barring that, I would love to see Triglavians become a playable faction.

Those are my hopes and fears for what we will see tomorrow during the Fanfest keynote address. CCP needs something big. I can hope, right?

Another Record Breaking Sales Month For Cloud Imperium Games

Last week the gaming industry experienced a lot of bad financial news. Everything from Activision Blizzard missing its expected sales of $1.8 billion by $320 million in the first quarter, to a 30% drop in stock price for Pearl Abyss, the news was poor. But the week ended with Cloud Imperium Games bringing in historically high revenue for the month of April.

The figure on the Roberts Space Industries funding page increased by almost $7.7 million in April, finishing the month at $454.2 million. The figure was the best April for CIG in its 10-year history, surpassing 2020's $4.1 million. Total revenue for the first four months of 2022 was $27.7 million. According to the unofficial Crowdfunding Development Spreadsheet, CIG raised nearly $97.5 million from 1 May 2021 to 30 April 2022 for the development of Star Citizen and Squadron 42.

Readers have asked why concentrate on the funding amounts. What about the game play? The features? The vision. Let's face facts. All of those things are nice to know when a game is about to launch. But currently we are looking at a possible release of Squadron 42 in 2024 and Star Citizen in 2026 or 2027. We don't know the development status of Squadron 42, and Star Citizen is still in early alpha.

One thing we do know is that CIG does not have enough money in the bank to complete development of the project. Here is the amounts raised by CIG so far.

• Ship/equipment sales and game packages: $454.2 million (thru 30 April 2022)
• Subscriptions: $22.8 million (thru 31 December 2020)
• Other income: $44.7 million (thru 31 December 2020)
• Outside investment: $63.2 million (thru 31 December 2020)

At the end of 2020, CIG had $63 million in the bank, but had spent $80.8 million that year. For all the dreams of players to come true, the company needs to continue cranking out ships to sell at very high rates. Currently, CIG is on pace to reach $100 million in sales in 2022. Hopefully that is enough to forestall layoffs until the company can open up another revenue source by launching Squadron 42. But watching the coffers fill up in real time is a bit of slow motion drama I find interesting.

Pearl Abyss Stock Take Beating For Last Two Days

Investors in Pearl Abyss put a lot of stock in the news that Black Desert Mobile would soon debut in China. The initial news surrounding the commencement of BDM's open beta in China led to a massive sell-off of the Korean game company's stock.

Pearl Abyss officially released its mobile version of its popular Black Desert label in China on Tuesday with commencement of open beta test (OBT), nearly one year after it gained permit from Beijing authorities in June last year in a rare acceptance of a Korean game label in recent years.

"Black Desert Mobile" zoomed to the top of the Chinese app store game charts, becoming the No.1 downloaded game in the country upon release. It also led the charts of Tap Tap, an app market run by Tencent that is jointly marketing the game with iDreamSky. Black Desert Mobile is a mobile version of Black Desert Online, the blockbuster published in 2015 with cumulative downloads of more than 36 million worldwide.

But the fanfare quickly fizzled out, with the rank sliding to 75th later in the day and recovering to 29th Wednesday morning.

The result? The price per share dropped from Tuesday' opening price of ₩97,000 ($76.25) down to a closing price of ₩74,100 ($58.25). The 23.6% loss was followed up by another loss of 9.7% in trading Wednesday. Pearl Abyss stock closed at ₩67,000 ($52.67) per share for a two day loss of 30.9%. 

Pearl Abyss ended 2021 on a high note, with its stock worth ₩138,300 ($116.28) per share. While the company's stock is still 26% above its 52-week low price of ₩53,100, Pearl Abyss stock has declined by over 50% so far in 2022. With Pearl Abyss' biggest hope for a success in 2022 fizzling out, the next earnings call in two weeks should prove interesting.

EVE Online Prices Break A Historical Barrier

Well, the mad lads at CCP headquarters did it. In the run-up to Fanfest 2022 in less than two weeks, they became the first to break the $15 per month barrier for a basic one month subscription price for a major MMORPG. Sure, I pay $21.99 per month for my FFXIV account, but included in the price is $8/month for my 4 extra retainers. But on Friday, CCP announced the price of a standard one-month subscription (known as Omega time) would rise from $14.99 to $19.99 per month.

Includes the weekend's sale

For those wondering, the price changes are below.

• 1 month: +33.7%
• 3 months: +23.5%
• 6 months: + 21.3%
• 12 months: +14.1%

The 2 month and 24 month options are new.

The new PLEX prices

The price of PLEX, the item used in EVE Online's cash shop to purchase Omega game time as well as digital goods, will experience its first price increase since May 2017. The price hike is partially obfuscated by the changes in the number of PLEX offered in each package. The only offering that remains constant is the 500 PLEX amount, which is increasing by 25%. 

The two big questions are why, and why now. First for the why. In my opinion, the announcement news article was horribly written. Here are the reasons in CCP's own words.

To continue investing in EVE Online’s evolution and growth, and to realize our mission of EVE Forever, we are updating the price of all existing Omega and PLEX. This adjustment reflects global trends impacting general production costs and accounts for years of inflation, amending the 1-month USD subscription rate for the first time since 2004. These adjustments will have an impact on other currencies.

1. To continue investing in EVE Online's evolution and growth. I think a lot of players are going to wonder about that claim. How many expansion level patches have we seen over the last few years. I doubt many people even noticed Tuesday's article on the history of EVE's database server hardware. With the announcement, the motivation for publishing the article goes beyond fan service to a bunch of computer geeks.

2. "...to realize our mission of EVE Forever..." What? I believe that marketing campaign came out in 2013. Does anyone give it any credibility anymore?

3. "...reflects global trends impacting general production costs..." Having lived through Square Enix' failed attempts to beef up its servers before the launch of the Endwalker expansion, I can sympathize with the increased costs and lack of availability of computer infrastructure and other associated IT costs. Plus, inflation is going to raise the price of labor. The cost of living in Reykjavik is high in the best of times. I don't want to see the staff not able to eat properly.

In addition, CCP Paragon went to Discord and spent 40 minutes talking to players and trying to explain the reasons for the price hike. The big takaway was that the sanctions on Russia due to its invasion of Ukraine really is hurting financially. I remember how an 8% loss of subs in 2011 helped lead to major layoffs in October 2011. I imagine a sudden drop in players from a country that supplies approximately 10% of its player base could hurt financially.

Finally, for the question of "why now?" My question is, if not now, when? I was at Fanfest in 2014 and saw the aftermath of The Rouge Wedding, when CCP told DUST 514 players about the effective death of their game. At the time, I think everyone agreed the devs should have told players before Fanfest to avoid learning the news thousands of miles from home.

CCP also couldn't tell players after Fanfest. The convention ends on 7 May, only 4 days before Pearl Abyss' Q1 2022 earnings call. The price hikes are bound to come up on the call. Best the news comes from CCP than from a blogger who listens to all of the calls live.

The above reasons dictate that the announcement come before Fanfest. However, the stakes for Fanfest and the upcoming May patch just went through the roof. CCP really needs to knock Fanfest out of the park. 

Personally, I have three EVE accounts. With the price hike, I will unsub one account whose subscription runs out in December and use part of the money to add two more retainers to my FFXIV account. For those interested, that will bring the cost of my FFXIV account up to $25.99/month. My Omega time on my other two accounts runs out in March and August of 2023. I'll keep those at a cost of $25.98/month because I buy my Omega time in 12 month chunks. I think spending $52/month is a pretty good price for entertainment. I just need to rearrange my spending, because a third EVE account is no longer worth the cost.

Star Citizen Reaches $450 Million In Sales

Early this morning the counter on Roberts Space Industries page surpassed $450 million. That's right, Cloud Imperium Games has sold $450 million in virtual good in order to fund the creation of Star Citizen and Squadron 42.

The funding page for Star Citizen and Squadron 42

The total amount of revenue received since Cloud Imperium Games' founding in April 2012 from known sources is:

• Pledges/Counter: $450 million
• Subscriptions: $22.8 million (thru 31 December 2020)
• Other income: $44.7 million (thru 31 December 2020)

Not too bad for a company that showed a negative net cumulative position at the end of 2019.

At its current pace, Cloud Imperium Games will reach $100 million in revenue in 2022. The only question is whether we will see the mark achieved from watching the funding page or if we will need to wait until CIG's 2022 financial statement comes out, probably in December 2023.

I'm not sure these $50 million figures are even newsworthy for CIG anymore. But for now, I think the event is worthy of a post.

Hilmar's Change Of Mind On NFTs In EVE Online

Currently we are seeing _very predictable feedback_ on what we are doing. Having the perspective of having done this for a decade, I can tell you that this is one of the moments where we look at what our players do and less of what they say. Innovation takes time to set in and the predictable reaction is always to resist change.

CCP CEO Hilmar Veigar Pétursson, June 2011

In 2011, a leaked internal email from CCP CEO Hilmar Veigar Pétursson contributed greatly to the event known in EVE history as The Summer of Rage. I use the quote above often, as I believe the events led to an era of distrust between the developers and the players. One of the many concerns were CCP's plans to monetize the game.

Move forward almost 11 years. Players are still worried about monetization efforts that would negatively affect the game. Today, the issues involve non-fungable tokens, the metaverse, and play-to-earn mechanics. On 5 November 2021, CCP announced the company was giving out NFTs for prizes in Alliance Tournament XVII. Six days later, Pearl Abyss stated CCP's parent company was looking for opportunities to introduce NFT into both EVE and Black Desert Online on a quarterly earnings call. Also starting on that November call, analysts began asking about the possibility of introducing the play-to-earn model into EVE. Perhaps more ominously, Pearl Abyss invested $3 million into Hyperreal, a metaverse company whose software can create NFTs the day before CCP announced the introduction of NFTs into EVE Online via the Alliance Tournament.

Of course, Hilmar looked excited about the move to embrace NFTs. 

The first ever NFTs from #eveonline Alliance Tournament are rolling in. It’s kind of historic! https://t.co/o8qE76jZ9K

— CCP Hellmar (@HilmarVeigar) November 6, 2021

He even went around to conferences joining meetings with NFT types.

One of my favorite gdc moments was this private session with @HilmarVeigar to talk about @EveOnline with the @YieldGuild, @Delphi_Digital and @BitkraftVC teams. pic.twitter.com/6Eb4gi9a0k

— Eden (@eden_holdings) March 29, 2022

Which leads us to yesterday. Hilmar made a much needed statement about blockchain technology before Fanfest in a few weeks.

There has been a lot of speculation around blockchain technology, NFTs and cryptocurrency and what that means for the future of EVE Online, so I wanted to address it.

At CCP, our mission is to have the EVE Universe outlive us all: EVE Forever. One huge part of this is exploring new technologies and new possibilities - something EVE players know that I’m always fascinated by. This philosophy is rooted in EVE Online’s inception; when we created EVE, it was seen as too radical and ambitious, yet here we are about to celebrate EVE’s 19th anniversary.

Many of us at CCP have been following the new frontier that has been developing around blockchains and cryptocurrencies for the past few years. We’ve read your feedback and we also see what you see - blockchain tech has both a lot of untapped potential and a lot of work needed before being ready for EVE-scale games.

On that note, we have no plans to add blockchain technology into EVE Online’s global server Tranquility for the foreseeable future. For the coming years, development for Tranquility will focus on building exciting new opportunities on top of the robust foundation that has been laid over the past two decades.

While we remain intrigued by the technology, for us, NFT stands for “Not for Tranquility”. Overall, the EVE IP will continue to push the boundaries of digital economies and virtual worlds - and we will continue to explore that outside of TQ.

Fanfest is a month out and personally, I’m very excited – it’s been two-and-a-half years since our last in-person meet, in London during the EVE World Tour. I look forward to seeing many of you in the flesh again and talk about EVE and our future!

CCP Hellmar

Honestly, I don't know how much to trust the statement. The fiscal quarter ended two weeks ago. I have to ask how much did all the talk of NFTs and selling fitted ships do to EVE subscription and sales rates. One thing I've observed about Hilmar over the 12 years I've played EVE Online. He starts changing his opinions when he starts losing money. When Hilmar stated 11 years ago "where we look at what our players do and less of what they say", he was really talking about how much money players were spending. The next Pearl Abyss earnings call should prove interesting.

Cloud Imperium Games Reaches $20 Million In Revenue In Q1 2022

Cloud Imperium Games, the maker of Star Citizen and Squadron 42, recorded $20 million in sales in the first fiscal quarter of 2022. For the month, March's total of $5.8 million in revenue from ship and equipment sales fell 20% from February's $7.3 million in sales. 

I stumbled across a Google Sheet that tracks funding for the project on an hourly basis. I have seen the file referenced on a couple of Star Citizen videos, so I decided to use the data myself. The results might surprise people.

Remember the stories at the beginning of the year about immense dissatisfaction over CIG changing the amount of detail the developers shared on the roadmap? About that dissatisfaction. In the first quarter of 2022, revenue publicly updated every hour on the Star Citizen website is up 50.8% compared to Q1 2021. As a reminder, CIG had its best year financially in 2021, bringing in $86.4 million, not including subscriptions and other forms of income. 

Last month I speculated that CIG was on pace to receive $100 million in revenue from ship and equipment sales in 2022. With major sales event like Invictus Launch Week, CitizenCon, and the Intergalactic Aerospace Expo still to come, I feel more confident in stating CIG will raise $100 million in 2022.