1 'EVE ONLINE' STUDIO ACQUIRED BY KOREAN MMO MAKER (ENGADGET.COM)
3 Thursday September 06, 2018 @11:30PM (msmash)
4 from the in-some-business-news dept.
6 o Reference: 0102639448
7 o News link: https://games.slashdot.org/story/18/09/06/1921222/eve-online-studio-acquired-by-korean-mmo-maker
8 o Source link: https://www.engadget.com/2018/09/06/eve-online-pearl-abyss-ccp-games/
17 > developer CCP Games [2]has been acquired by Pearl Abyss ,
18 the South Korean studio behind the action-oriented MMORPG
19 Black Desert Online. According to [3]VentureBeat , the deal
20 was worth $425 million and will close in early October. It's a
21 surprise announcement for CCP, which has long operated as an
22 independent developer. Eve Online isn't the biggest MMORPG on
23 the market, but it has maintained a steady and loyal userbase
24 through continuous updates and a well-timed switch to a hybrid
25 premium and free-to-play model. The 15-year-old game is
26 unique, too, with its large-scale battles and notoriously
27 complex economic and political systems.
31 [1] https://slashdot.org/~MAXOMENOS
33 [2] https://www.ccpgames.com/news/2018/black-desert-online-cre-
34 ators-pearl-abyss-to-acquire-ccp-games-makers-of-eve
36 [3] https://venturebeat.com/2018/09/06/black-desert-online-cre-
37 ator-pearl-abyss-acquires-eve-online-maker-ccp-games-for-425-m-
42 (by spiritplumber ( 1944222 ))
45 Now watch the new owners completely misunderstand the userbase's
46 culture and wreck a good thing.
52 If someone could make EVE more grindy, it would be a Korean
53 MMO maker. I don't see them misunderstanding that aspect, as
54 they invented Korean Grinder.
58 (by duke_cheetah2003 ( 862933 ))
61 > Now watch the new owners completely misunderstand the
62 > userbase's culture and wreck a good thing.
63 CCP already did that years ago.
72 Son, if Koreans will do anything it's inject sexy alien
73 women and bikini-space-armor into it.
74 East Asia never suffered the retardation of puritanism,
75 which is unique to the Western world owing to Abrahamic
76 doctrine, to develop Gymnophobia and Genophobia, so they
77 don't care about the Church-Feminist anti-sexualization
78 offense alliance. The only exception are the "Communist"
86 (by jeff4747 ( 256583 ))
89 It's almost like you don't know there's already Korean and
90 Chinese alliances in Eve.......and they're not doing all
91 that well. I'm sure FRT will stop feeding Keepstars soon.
98 (by St.Creed ( 853824 ))
101 It was bad in the beta and never actually recovered from
102 some pretty bad development choices. Have they discovered
103 parallel processing yet? And version management? Okay, I
104 guess the last one was a bit mean. They must have
105 discovered Git by now.
106 But seriously, the game is an unstructured mess. Played it
107 for a while, flew a Machariel and did incursions, level 4
108 missions etc. but after a while it got boring. May pick it
113 ** Not Good News (Score:4, Interesting)
114 (by Kunedog ( 1033226 ))
117 Shamus Young has a series on Black Desert, explaining how
118 shockingly aggressive, expensive and game-ruining he found the
119 microtransactions system to be, even if you're familiar with the
120 worst of the American systems. There's manadatory PvP and
121 deliberately cramped inventory space but the "cash shop" can
122 always make things better (i.e. playable).
124 I'd be worried if I were an EVE Online fan.
126 [1]https://www.shamusyoung.com/tw... [shamusyoung.com]
127 > I see all the default clothes are bland and I need to pay real
128 > money for a cool outfit. Aesthetics are important to me. (Which
129 > is why I spend so much time on sculpting my character.) So I
130 > really don’t want to spend the rest of my time looking at these
131 > blando outfits. Sigh. Fine. What’s a pretend suit of armor cost
132 > these days? Three bucks? Five bucks?
134 > FORTY SIX AMERICAN DOLLARS? ARE YOU TRYING TO START A FIGHT?
135 > The cheap outfits can be had for $22. They also offer ladies
136 > underwear sets for just $7, if you want to run around in your
137 > underpants. (I don’t, thanks.)
139 > (They also offer similar options for male characters. I was
140 > tempted to get the outfit that would let my kung-fu guy go
141 > shirtless, because he’s a kung-fu dude. But all of the choices
142 > looked like modern-day boxers. You can’t just wear baggy pants
145 > Would you like to dye that super-expensive outfit you just
146 > bought? Or any other outfit? That will set you back another $10.
147 > And that’s somehow a rental. Your ten bucks gets you a month of
148 > being allowed to have dyed clothes. After the month is up, your
149 > clothes revert to their original colors and you gotta fork over
151 > Do you enjoy wheeling and dealing at the auction house in other
152 > games, but the egregious 35% tax on all your sales is making it
153 > impossible for you to have fun or turn a profit? Pay fifteen
154 > real-world dollars and the tax will go down to the normal 5%.
157 > Everything is exorbitantly priced like this. It’s so
158 > outrageously expensive that I get immediately pissed off. It’s
159 > not even about the money, it’s about the sheer audacity of the
160 > seller to ask this much[2] for what should be trivial virtual
161 > goods. Even if you’re a millionaire, you’re still likely to get
162 > offended if someone tries to sell you a stick of ordinary gum
168 [1] https://www.shamusyoung.com/twentysidedtale/?p=42507
170 ** Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
171 (by Anonymous Coward)
174 > Everything is exorbitantly priced like this. It’s so
175 > outrageously expensive that I get immediately pissed off.
176 > It’s not even about the money, it’s about the sheer audacity
177 > of the seller to ask this much for what should be trivial
178 > virtual goods. Even if you’re a millionaire, you’re still
179 > likely to get offended if someone tries to sell you a stick
180 > of ordinary gum for five bucks.
181 Sometimes, I thought Stallman was being a pendant for gripes
182 about terminology like "intellectual property".
183 Now I realize he was exactly right.
184 This guy uses the words "virtual goods", like it's something
185 he'll actually own. Dollars to donuts, the EULA and TOS says
186 these 'virtual goods' are nothing more than bits on their
187 server, you don't own a single bit of it, and they do
188 whatever they like, and fuck you we're keeping your money if
190 Seriously, this should be a legal term. If your company
196 (by Calydor ( 739835 ))
199 Remember when they wanted to make players PAY for mods for
205 (by JustAnotherOldGuy ( 4145623 ))
208 $46 for a suit of armor?
209 If I ever had any interest in playing Eve*, this pricing
210 would instantly cure me of that notion.
211 *Which I don't, but still...
214 ** Eve + Korean MMO + Pay To Win (Score:2)
215 (by Crashmarik ( 635988 ))
218 If that isn't a match made in hell I don't know what is.
223 (by MAXOMENOS ( 9802 ))
226 ....if they can only get out of beta......
229 (by blackomegax ( 807080 ))
232 The current beta is 3 moons, 2 stations, and a shitty
233 framework of a "game" that runs at 10fps on a GTX1060
234 at low settings and looks 5x worse than games like doom
241 (by St.Creed ( 853824 ))
244 They're not even in Alpha. They call it that, but
245 what it actually is, is "perpetual development
246 hell". It doesn't have a version number but if it
247 had, it would be 666.
253 ** Why didn't microsoft acquire it? (Score:3)
254 (by xxxJonBoyxxx ( 565205 ))
257 Since its unofficial tagline is, ya know, "spreadsheet online"
260 (by JustAnotherOldGuy ( 4145623 ))
263 It's also known as "Spreadsheet Simulator".
267 (by meglon ( 1001833 ))
270 But...it's a really pretty spreadsheet.
276 (by ctilsie242 ( 4841247 ))
279 Makes me wonder too. I wonder if White Wolf would be sold off
280 (likely) or spun off (unlikely, but would be nicer). My fear
281 is that it gets tossed to some big company, and the IP
282 completely shelved, never to see the light of day again,
283 similar to how EA has done with a lot of Origin IP.
287 (by jeff4747 ( 256583 ))
290 CCP was making a World of Darkness MMO, but canceled the
291 project a few years ago. I think they sold the IP.
294 ** Only half a billion? (Score:2)
295 (by beheaderaswp ( 549877 ) *)
298 My god... that number is kinda high...
299 That aside... this new owner will just accentuate the problem
300 areas of Eve that kept it from truly meeting it's potential.
301 As it is, it's already a griefing sandbox with little wiggle
302 room for anything except PVP and/or massive corporate/alliance
303 industry or fleet ops. When it could be far more balanced and
304 appeal to a larger player base.
305 Pushing it further into "gang warfare" style griefing will
306 eventually make the player base smaller.
307 I stopped playing in 2016. So I play
310 (by Luckyo ( 1726890 ))
313 Your description of events is the exact opposite of your
314 conclusion. It sounds like EVE has in fact achieved
315 greatness, because the process you describe functions exactly
316 like real world functions on macro level.
317 The fact that they apparently managed to recreated the world
318 on macro level in a game through long standing player
319 interactions in less than two decades is mind blowingly
323 (by St.Creed ( 853824 ))
326 And indeed, a subject of economic studies. Pretty
327 brilliant work in that respect. Whether it's successful as
328 an enjoyable game is something else entirely.
331 (by Luckyo ( 1726890 ))
334 Not economic. Political. This is literally the core
335 tenets of concept of sovereignty. Economy is just a
336 part of the picture here.
341 ** Eve Online New addon will contain loot boxes (Score:2)
342 (by Cito ( 1725214 ))
345 No more expansion packs but eve online will offer season passes
346 at 4 different tier prices; standard, deluxe edition, legacy and
349 ** Also known as (Score:2)
350 (by JustAnotherOldGuy ( 4145623 ))
353 "Eve Online", also affectionately known as "Spreadsheet
356 ** made me laugh (Score:2)
357 (by meglon ( 1001833 ))
360 > Eve Online isn't the biggest MMORPG on the market
361 In other news: water is wet, and the sky is blue.