Everyone is playing ships while we wait for fozziesov.

CCP Employment:
603 - 2010, December
553 - 2013, September
508 - 2013, December
339 - 2014, December (FML that bloodletting.)

Revenues down ~10% from 2013 to 2014 in all locations. (North America, Europe and Asia)

In game unused plex up ~30%. Must be a lot of plex hoarding going on.

Its called summer. People, even people that play eve go outside.

Our offices would normally have 30 people here, today it is 3. No our company is not dying. They are on holiday. Like the entire northern hemisphere is basically on holiday right now.

Explain why This summer is the LOWEST summer in 7 (SEVEN) years. Over half eve has been alive.

Not since 2008 summer numbers this low.
People are so debse, come sept people gonna say Global Warming is why login numbers are still low then

Its called summer. People, even people that play eve go outside.

Our offices would normally have 30 people here, today it is 3. No our company is not dying. They are on holiday. Like the entire northern hemisphere is basically on holiday right now.

Your work involve something seasonal or has planned vacations for 90% of it's staff to be on vacation at the same time right?

A few things:

1) To CAM: The employee numbers being lower in 2014 are perfectly in line with the ending of WoD. remember before fan fest 2014 they let go of a ton of people as part of the restructure when they closed WoD. thats not new information and doesn't really mean anything execpt they, for all intents and pourposues, closed a studio. Thats not new infformation

2) Rev being down 10%

here is the problem with this, CCP has two games, Dust was chugging along in earily 2014, untill they screwed up and did the rouge wedding. This drove a ton of the dust player base away, as well as you had countless people asking for refunds from sony.

Your work involve something seasonal or has planned vacations for 90% of it's staff to be on vacation at the same time right?

Can confirm I am doing cover shifts for the 90% of staff that are on holiday

Eve had a good long run of subscriber growth - as long or longer than any MMO. While it was growing, they touted the growth. When it started its inevitable decline, they shut up and started hiding the numbers. There's a good reason for doing that. People leaving can have a snowball effect if it's too easy to see and quantify.

Population is noticeably down, which is why these threads keep popping up here, and on reddit, TMC, etc.

No reason to panic. Eve will likely go on for many years, but it'll go on as a mature game, where what goes on in game is less and less "emergent", and more predictable. EQ1 is still chugging along with its die-hard players. It's just not growing or attracting new players anymore.

The engine of growth for a game is either its "stickiness" or ability to retain players and get players to refer others, or it's paid growth. As with many mature products, CCP has had to rely on "paid" growth (advertising) more and more to attract new players these last few years, as retention and referral have declined.

Nothing stays "hot" forever folks. I wouldn't be surprised to see Eve get sold off to an investor group in the next year or so, as Sony did with SOE. Since it's CCP's only viable property these days, it'd be prudent for them to start thinking exit strategy.

Everyone is playing ships while we wait for fozziesov.

I think reality will sink in for CCP and all these players who ignore the shrinking sandbox. These so called update provide next to no additional gameplay or excitement to the game.

I don't think anything will change upon releasing a new sov system, its the same old grind, for the same old rewards and the same group of players driving content in the wrong directions.

I and many others will let their subs lapse and never return in the next few weeks / months due to CCPs in ability to add excitement and retain players.

It's been fun CCP, but I'm going to get off this boat before it sinks, thanks for all the fish.

this makes no sense. CCP is eve. Sony selling SOE makes sense. sony is an electronics and entertainment compay. selling of fa single division will not hurt them.

CCP is a video game company with two products. You can not sell off eve, as then ccp loses rights to dust and valk, all set in the eve universe.

What CCP can do, is sell off White Wolf. White Wolf is a division or subsidiary of CCP games. Thats a bettwe annology. What you pretty much just said is that Sony will sell off sony. See the difference?

this makes no sense. CCP is eve. Sony selling SOE makes sense. sony is an electronics and entertainment compay. selling of fa single division will not hurt them.

CCP is a video game company with two products. You can not sell off eve, as then ccp loses rights to dust and valk, all set in the eve universe.

What CCP can do, is sell off White Wolf. White Wolf is a division or subsidiary of CCP games. Thats a bettwe annology. What you pretty much just said is that Sony will sell off sony. See the difference?

Of course we are all worried about our favorite game.

Speak for yourself. I'm as fanatical as it comes when the issue is EVE and I'm not the least bit worried. People who like to worry about this kind of thing (the perpetual "EVE is dying" crowd) are so busy worrying about useless crap that they don't ever actually enjoy anything.

I think reality will sink in for CCP and all these players who ignore the shrinking sandbox. These so called update provide next to no additional gameplay or excitement to the game.

I don't think anything will change upon releasing a new sov system, its the same old grind, for the same old rewards and the same group of players driving content in the wrong directions.

I and many others will let their subs lapse and never return in the next few weeks / months due to CCPs in ability to add excitement and retain players.

It's been fun CCP, but I'm going to get off this boat before it sinks, thanks for all the fish.

Hello everyone,
I want to ask the CCP to share with us some interesting statistics.
We all see that number of players going down and reason of this not a point of this thread. Of course we are all worried about our favorite game.
So.
How many active subscribers has EVE?
What is the average number of unique players per day (if 1 man have 3 accounts this doesnt mean that it is 3 unique players)? We do not need the exact figures. It can be something like "each player have 1.3 accounts" and etc.

Can you show us a bit of trust and share this statistics?
I believe that Eve did not die at all. But the other is no such certainty. Let's give it to them

I would like to see all the players who whine about eve numbers, go out and refer some friends. unless they think the time they spend sitting on the forums complaining dose more for eve

I think reality will sink in for CCP and all these players who ignore the shrinking sandbox. These so called update provide next to no additional gameplay or excitement to the game.

I don't think anything will change upon releasing a new sov system, its the same old grind, for the same old rewards and the same group of players driving content in the wrong directions.

I and many others will let their subs lapse and never return in the next few weeks / months due to CCPs in ability to add excitement and retain players.

It's been fun CCP, but I'm going to get off this boat before it sinks, thanks for all the fish.

I wouldn't be surprised to see Eve get sold off to an investor group in the next year or so, as Sony did with SOE. Since it's CCP's only viable property these days, it'd be prudent for them to start thinking exit strategy.

Eve is my favorite game, so I am quite concerned about this as well.

There are a few new games on the Market: Elite Dangerous, and Star Citizen. Both look pretty interesting. Star Citizen is gonna have a first person view mode, and first person shooter mode.

I think Eve Online has to evolve in order to maintain competitive. A few years ago, I think CCP was doing the right thing when they decided to implement Walk-In-Station, along with some Walk-In-Station games. Perhaps they were ultimately planning to tie it with some kind of first person shooter / third person shooter game. So I think they had a long-term plan to keep the game competitive by evolving the game.

However, the short-sighted players started complaining. Because around that time, there was also a controversial conversation that leaked between internal employees about milking the player base. So that kind of added fuel to the fire, and CCP had to halt the development of Walk-In-Station. But if you think about it, as a business operating for a profit it makes sense to try and maximize income.

I think the players can be too short sighted, and sometimes it's hard to decide whether to listen to the players, or continue with your development plans without listening to the players. Because most of the players only care about how they experience the game right now, without considering 3 years down the road. While CCP has to consider about 3 years down the road, and the new competition that will come out. They probably already know in advance about the new space MMO's that are in development, before most of the players.

Anyways, there are lots of games operating successfully with both subscription + microtransaction model. An example would be WoW, no matter how much you hate that game. If CCP was raking in with the kind of cash like WoW, they can keep the game more competitive too.

So I think Eve would be in a much better state today, if CCP had went ahead with developing Walk-In-Station instead of listening to the short sighted players.

Because developing new content costs a lot of money. If they start on a downward spiral - they have to pull a rabbit out of their hat to reverse the downtrend. Less subscribers also mean less money available to develop new content.

I think reality will sink in for CCP and all these players who ignore the shrinking sandbox. These so called update provide next to no additional gameplay or excitement to the game.

I don't think anything will change upon releasing a new sov system, its the same old grind, for the same old rewards and the same group of players driving content in the wrong directions.

I and many others will let their subs lapse and never return in the next few weeks / months due to CCPs in ability to add excitement and retain players.

It's been fun CCP, but I'm going to get off this boat before it sinks, thanks for all the fish.

Ya your right, no additional gameplay. Except T3 destroyers, a whole new sov system, completety overhauled structures, nerfed Ishtars aka more variety in viable doctrines, drifters......

And the tone... "I'm getting off this boat before it sinks, because if I don't... uh... if I don't... I'll lose everything I don't have invested int he game materially?"

Sigh.

Yeah, I think the community supported WiS. Unfortunately, it's timing coincided with the "gold ammo" controversy and both issues became amalgamated. Very unfortunate. I remember seeing a trailer showing a physical player performing a hit on another player within a station. Ah, those were the days when EVE's future was looking so bright!

I don't really think a declining userbase is that big of a deal.

We're still dealing with multiple thousands.

You can still always find what you're looking for, whatever that may be.

Now if there were like, 800 people left, then I'd be all like, OK your concern is valid.

So we're on a decline, we can still enjoy the ride. And maybe with our continuing to enjoy ourselves, it will entice those who've left to come back, and those looking to try to do so.

Oh hey.

the game can NEVER die.

CCP Please continue developing Walk In Station!

And perhaps microtransactions too. A lot of games are doing microtransaction these days.

Being able to explore your own ship in 3rd person view would be great too

or having the OPTION of flying your ship with full controls (like Star Conflict or Elite Dangerous). But I guess these are more challenging to implement.

That's delusional thinking. Everything can end. Just like how Blackberry can go from the World's #1 Smartphone maker to almost bankrupt, and Apple can go from almost bankrupt to the largest company. It depends on what they do.

Sorry what I meant to say is, it would be delusional to think "this game can never die".

I'm not saying you're delusional. Edited.

Its called summer. People, even people that play eve go outside.

Our offices would normally have 30 people here, today it is 3. No our company is not dying. They are on holiday. Like the entire northern hemisphere is basically on holiday right now.

It's quite delusional to think that's what my post boiled down to.

I wonder what the "EvE is dead" experts are going to say when log ins spike next week?

Hello everyone,
I want to ask the CCP to share with us some interesting statistics.
We all see that number of players going down and reason of this not a point of this thread. Of course we are all worried about our favorite game.
So.
How many active subscribers has EVE?
What is the average number of unique players per day (if 1 man have 3 accounts this doesnt mean that it is 3 unique players)? We do not need the exact figures. It can be something like "each player have 1.3 accounts" and etc.

Can you show us a bit of trust and share this statistics?
I believe that Eve did not die at all. But the other is no such certainty. Let's give it to them

Yep, to all the players who complained about Walk In Station a few years ago. If you are wondering why Eve's population is decreasing - you are the main reason.

The micro transactions could have given CCP more capital for content development. And it was optional to the player, not a requirement. So if you think it's a rip off, just don't buy it. But because of the outcry, they had to give up the development of micro transactions

Basically, the short-sighted crybabies had a huge impact on where the game is today.

But Eve has the potential to live much longer. I think they need to start developing new content again to keep up with competition. What happened a few years ago was a major setback.

CCP Please continue developing Walk In Station! And perhaps microtransactions too. A lot of games are doing microtransaction these days.

Being able to explore your own ship in 3rd person view would be great too, or having the OPTION of flying your ship with full controls (like Star Conflict or Elite Dangerous). But I guess these are more challenging to implement.

This thread reminds me of when I lost my job. Everyone had numerous stories of how there was no way the company would be sold because bla, bla, bla...then BOOM, we came to work one day and it was a done deal...The End...

Every game out there has spikes when new content is released, for EvE as a subscription based game more relevant is how long that spike will last.

I have fears that many players will get in few weeks/months tired of constant griefing of timers, and grinding timers back in new sov system...

Eve had a good long run of subscriber growth - as long or longer than any MMO. While it was growing, they touted the growth. When it started its inevitable decline, they shut up and started hiding the numbers. There's a good reason for doing that. People leaving can have a snowball effect if it's too easy to see and quantify.

Population is noticeably down, which is why these threads keep popping up here, and on reddit, TMC, etc.

No reason to panic. Eve will likely go on for many years, but it'll go on as a mature game, where what goes on in game is less and less "emergent", and more predictable. EQ1 is still chugging along with its die-hard players. It's just not growing or attracting new players anymore.

The engine of growth for a game is either its "stickiness" or ability to retain players and get players to refer others, or it's paid growth. As with many mature products, CCP has had to rely on "paid" growth (advertising) more and more to attract new players these last few years, as retention and referral have declined.

Nothing stays "hot" forever folks. I wouldn't be surprised to see Eve get sold off to an investor group in the next year or so, as Sony did with SOE. Since it's CCP's only viable property these days, it'd be prudent for them to start thinking exit strategy.

I'd just like to point out that pretty much every EVE trailer in recent memory has made heavy use of Ambulation, Dust, or Valkyrie content to supplement it.

I'd say the trailer guys have a better grasp of what excites people better than the developers themselves do, and thats kind of a problem in and of itself.

Yeah, I know people who have seen EvE trailers, thought game is like that, then disappointed...

ED trailers atleast try to give some percpection what the game is like.

Maybe CCP should not build too big expectations, because dropping from higher hurts more.

Look at WoW players, they like the game and it-¦s mechanics, eventhough graphics and visuals are total crap, they don-¦t need fancy trailers and have millions of players..

EvE has always said to be niche game for just certain type of players (strategic etc.), where is the "niche" if trailers look like newer ED and SC trailers?

I also think CCP needs to do something to expand this "niche" by lowering the Barrier to Entry. Barrier to Entry is a main reason that keeps new players out.

Eve is over 10 years old. Before starting the game, most new players would consider if they will ever be able to catch up to the "veterans" because it takes years to train skill points.

WoW is also over 10 years old, but they still have around 7 million subscribers. To keep getting new players, one of the things that Blizzard does correctly is to lower the Barrier to Entry.

So they offer a service to instantly boost your character to level 90 for $60. Without these measures to lower the barrier to entry, I doubt they would have as many new players.

1: You want to add grind? No thanks

2: Microtransactions, which includes services for PLEX, that offer an ingame advantage do not belong in a subscription MMO. They are an analogue of gold ships and ammo, something CCP will be very very cautious about even suggesting after the summer of rage.

Dual character training isn't an advantage because you can only log one character per account in at a time.

Double training speeds are an advantage because with such a service a player who chucks money at it gains character SP at twice the rate of one who doesn't.

3: Cue complaints about scams involving said rare item, calls for nerfs to margin trading, and some really expensive kills; it'd backfire hilariously.

4: Why should game time be exchangeable for SP? You made the suggestion, it's up to you to put a case forward that supports it.

In short, no.

... Barrier to Entry is a main reason that keeps new players out. ...

If you want to be taken seriously, come up with a well thought out proposal for one or more of your ideas. Showing that you understand the effects that such a proposal would have on Eve in general and more specifically the price of PLEX, preferably with some graphs; we like graphs.

You should then post it over in Features and Ideas where it can the level of attention it deserves from both CCP and other players.

1. Not necessarily add grind, but give the options to new players if they choose. That's why I say "certain missions". There are missions that offer ISK, and missions that offer SP, depends on what they choose to do. Either one or the other.

2. There are MMO's operating successfully with both Microtransaction and Subscription. They are not mutually exclusive, because WoW is not doing it. I'm not saying Eve has to copy WoW, but I'm saying they are not mutually exclusive.

3. What's wrong with scams involved in these items? There are already scams involved with everything else. I don't see a problem here.

4. To get new players. When I started playing a few years ago, one of the things that made me hesitate was the time it takes to train. So what I did was trade and make ISK, then spent 20 billion ISK to buy a fully trained character. But I would have never started playing Eve in the first place, if I didn't see a way to upgrade quicker. I didn't want to wait 4 years for a fully trained character. I would imagine a lot of players are the same way.

I'm actually not against the idea of being able to buy skill points.

You have $2,000 to spend?

By all means, create your 200mill sp pod pilot brother.

Unless you have 30,000 friends doing the same, you wont affect anything in the sandbox

Please Confirm

Do you want to redeem this 1 x 30 Day PLEX for Advanced Weapon Upgrades V?

I'd just like to point out that pretty much every EVE trailer in recent memory has made heavy use of Ambulation, Dust, or Valkyrie content to supplement it.

I'd say the trailer guys have a better grasp of what excites people better than the developers themselves do, and thats kind of a problem in and of itself.

... Barrier to Entry is a main reason that keeps new players out. ...

Uh, no they haven't.