Eurogamer Interviews CCP's Hilmar P

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Earlier this week, CCP announced an estimated 20% reduction in its global workforce in the wake of continued controversy surrounding its development ambitions. The company has offered little official comment since the controversy began earlier this year, and so what follows is a lengthy interview with Hilmar Pétursson, CEO of CCP, conducted yesterday evening.

But it was also a sincere and candid one that for the first time provides extraordinary insight into the developing crisis at the company, as well as CCP's plans for the future of Eve Online, Dust 514 and World of Darkness.

Eurogamer: Eve Online is no stranger to controversy and difficulties but this is obviously a very different and far more serious situation. You're in the Atlanta office at the moment where most of the job redundancies are taking place. What are your reflections at this moment in time?

Hilmar Pétursson: I feel very accountable for the situation and it's really hard to go through these steps in this way. We took on too many things as a company and our focus was spread too thin. These were very much the decisions that I as CEO made and supported, and I think everyone now agrees that we need to do these adjustments. That's a hard thing to realise, especially because people are hurt in the process. That's the reality.

Eurogamer: The list of people who have publicly stated they are leaving CCP reads like a Who's Who of Eve's community history and are popular figures with players. How does their departure tie in with CCP's renewed commitment to engaging with its community?

Hilmar Pétursson: A lot of great people are leaving the company through this process, famous or otherwise. The people who are recognised members of the community get more of a spotlight but there are a lot of people leaving CCP at this juncture. How it relates to the community - that is part of the restructuring, our community division has been spread around the globe and has had a lot of good contact with the community. But we've not been as effective. By centralising customer support and community, we have more people doing community work than we did before. Being co-located with the developers allows the information within the community groups to have a much more direct effect on the development process.

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Lateris

He had to make a tough call. It is what we asked for. And now they are back on track. Resubbed! 

Garkan

CCP are trying hard for a change, the hangers back, theres a new series of ships and they are working on some of the balance issues. The new ships are actually sensible to, they will be a great addition pvp wise, for young and old chars. Usually with new ships they are something exotic that requires huge amounts of specialised skill points, instead they will be new varients of one of the most popular classes used in pvp.

I have never seen CCP work so hard, in the past when they have been forced to make apologies they just say lots of words and do very little. We got a half arsed "boost patch" once but this time they really seem to be taking the game by the scruff of the neck and are trying to address the players complaints.

I have a new found respect for Hilmar, firstly he made that blog and now hes done this interview. Eating so much humble pie in public like this takes balls, other CEOs would not/have not apologise like this.

dave6660

I'm actually excited about the winter expansion.  The past couple expansions were really blah.  I'm glad to see them focusing on internet spaceships again instead of dress-up barbie and microtransactions.

My bet is a lot of the people who left recently will come back when this expansion releases.

They're finally fixing HYBRID TURRETS!  All the SP I have in gallente might be useful after all.  That alone is worth it's weight in gold.