They've admitted to releasing PLEX that were on banned accounts, which would have otherwise hit the market at some point or been used, but I see no reason to assume CCP would poof them into existence. That's essentially comping someone's monthly sub fee.



So what? If you aren't able to pay CCP or have someone else pay CCP in your stead, they're not gaining anything by simply handing you free game time in the form of seeding PLEX themselves.



I don't think isbox is the issue, just a symptom. Neither is renting, which is merely an arrangement between bears and pvp'ers to utilize space that they both want to enjoy. The issue at hand is merely multi-account usership and plex faucets in general. More and more players over the years have discovered two things about EVE:

1. If not absolutely vital for your niche in the game, it's highly preferable that you have more than one account, and many professions scale extremely well with account numbers with or without the aid of isbox. This brings plays who have a short-term windfall of isk + a power of two deal or some other promotion to cash in immediately on more accounts. Only much later when many more players do this is the aggregate effect being felt.

2. ISK faucets are plentiful and easy to tap into. Mission farming, anom ratting, and other isk faucets are staples of pve content and they continuously flood the market with new isk. What's more, even ship destruction itself generates more isk by way of the insurance system. So unless a pilot is dumb enough to buy an insurance plan and let it expire, even if they purchase no insurance at all, the demise of their ship is yet-another isk faucet. Minerals and modules are destroyed, but the supply of isk in the game economy goes up, therefor prices in general rise.

So what we're dealing with here isn't a mere speculative bubble, although i'm sure speculation is feeding into the loop at this point. What we're seeing is the culmination of years upon years of making multiclienting the norm, the popular culture of the "I plex all my accounts so I play for free," meme, and the onerous effects of universal inflation due to unchecked isk faucets.

Given that we're seeing this much of a price hike now, in the summer, when traditionally prices would be lower due to decreased activity; I think it's safe to say that come fall we're either going to see billion isk plex or a fundamental change in how a lot of the more casual multi-client users play the game. They will either have to adapt to a more farming-intensive lifestyle or they will need to cut back on the number of accounts they support. Considering the latter could be a serious competitive disadvantage, I think many players will try to ride out the storm on their savings first, meaning that we'll see critical mass only when those stores of isk have been significantly dented.