Paynus Maiassus
Capital Munitions
20
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Posted - 2014.06.13 19:32:00 -
[1] - Quote
I Love Boobies wrote:Something tells me the ship is starting to take on water @ CCP, and they're trying to do their best to bail the water out as fast as possible. I mean, they haven't even touted their subscription numbers like they used to all the time, and I find that a bit odd with as much as they did in the past. And you get them finally closing down White Wolf and all the other changes they have been making. Hope their bucket is big enough.
Not providing the data that we use to extrapolate the subscription numbers is basically just a bit of a PR campaign that is necessary in order to avoid a false impression that things are worse than they really are.
Remember, the price of PLEX has been rising and extra training queues has been developed, and this has caused individuals who have dozens of accounts to unsub those accounts and move characters that don't need to be logged on at the same time or who don't need constant training to be moved over to be subtoons on fewer accounts. Many of these players have moved on to ways of making ISK that don't require so many accounts. Further, ship skins, NEX store, resculpting, transfers, etc. have made the potential uses of PLEX greater than ever before.
Basically, people are paying CCP for PLEX and using them for things other than keeping large numbers of accounts subbed. In Eve, with the huge numbers of alts and the huge number of uses for PLEX, it's really hard to tell from the number of subscriptions exactly how many people are playing the game or how much revenue CCP is actually receiving.
That being said, statistics for showing the number of people online has remained largely flat, and from some views has decreased a bit. It is likely that the Eve player base is staying stagnant, or possibly decreasing but very slightly. Further, the amount of revenue going to CCP is likely staying stagnant, or possibly decreasing slightly. However, slight decreases in players and revenue do not equal the analogy of a ship taking on water. Eve is doing well given the horrible general environment of MMOs in the overall gaming community. CCP is probably in a bit of a 'rough patch' and the game is not growing like they want. However, this 'rough patch' is very likely less severe than the exodus after Incarna. However, it's enough to get investors and executives involved to do restructuring and other planning. From the Guardian article is does seem that the Atlanta Office was not performing, although this was not the fault of the White Wolf team so much as poor corporate management. Further, a publishing division does seem like a reasonable sacrifice for a corporation with several very ambitious technical goals to reach (Valkrie and Project Legion, finding a path for DUST, integrating all the games into one universe, and keeping Eve fresh in its second decade).
I mean basically, stuff happens, the market has done what it's done, the players are doing what they do, and CCP has kept on going, making some mistakes along the way. The company is showing signs of getting its butt in gear, NOT taking on water like a sinking ship. |