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CCP: The beginning of the end?
ste2000
Member EpicPosts: 6,194
Two years ago I wrote an article in my blog about what I thought was one of the biggest gamble in the gaming industry.
I was talking about the mistakes CCP were making in publishing a game so closely related to the EVE universe that, for a ridicoulus decision taken by some not very clever executive, could not be played by EVE players because it was exclusive to PS3.
I thought that was one of the dumbest decision ever made in the gaming history.
If you care reading the post is here (from 2012 before Dust 514 launch):
DUST 514: Biggest Commercial mistake ever?
The title says it all but the article goes into detail on the reason why I thought it was going to be such a disaster.
Anyway after the news of two executives at CCP being fired, the San Francisco Office being closed and the cancelation of WOD, it looks like my prediction were spot on.
CCP is running out of money, and that's despite the fact that EVE is still a profitable game.
The flop of Dust 514 hit them really hard in their pocket as predicted, so much they had to cancel WOD and most worryingly they have no other game in the pipeline in the near future.
Now, I am not saying CCP will close tomorrow.
EVE is still very profitable and after the restructuring of the company CCP will do well for the next few years (3-4).
But apart the lack of cash, what worries me the most is CCP lack of ideas.
I always thought that CCP was the coolest developer in the industry, a bunch of innovators the ones that could come up with the next big thing, and certainly I was really looking forward for WOD.
But after all of this I am asking myself if they actually know what they are doing.
Yes EVE is a great game and it will keep them afloat for a while, but for how long? (Star Citizen is round the corner)
PS: By the way if by chance any CCP exec is reading this I remind them what I was suggesting back then in my 2012 post.
EVE+DUST 514 = WIN (That's Space Combat+FPS+Sandbox all rolled into a game there is no such game in the market)
You are still in time and won't cost much to re-code Dust 514 for PC for then merging it with EVE.
I play EVE for 2 months every year but then I get bored of being always in Space, but if I could disembark my ship and fight with my rifle in hands on a Planet I would subscribe for much longer, and I am sure I am not the only one.
Comments
Company not following your personal desires does not make it a mistake...
Take a look at their latest financial statement. Yes they lost some money after writing off WoD and the fuckery that is DUST. But they are in no way dying, or hemorrhaging money. They lost ~30k subs over the year, far less than was estimated and most likely can be attributed to alt retirement and the lack of any player conflicts in null.
But you know I guess even with facts and appropriate speculation it's just easier to say a company is floundering.
It's not personal desire, that was actually an analysys on Dust 514 market strategy......... read the blog entry if you haven't read it yet
Did anyone other than ccp predict dust was going to be a success ?
Company embarks on a new venture, doesn't pan out, cuts its losses and moves on. (real world)
Company embarks on a new venture, doesn't pan out, the world is coming to an end. (MMORPG.Com)
I did read it and that is why I am saying it - it is just your bias, false assumptions and erroneous logic, nothing more.
Prime example is this:
"The idea that EVE players are going to buy a Playstation 3 to play DUST 514 is as absurd"
Yeah, it is absurd but is also YOUR idea you try to put into a mouth of CCP.
Vapourware ?
So Arena commander,the big reveal of the racing element/FPS in Germany and soon to be introduction of the hanger module system is all in my imagination is it,do me a favour check the definition of vapourware it certainly is not 220 odd people working full time on a alpha build module by module game due out from years from now is it.
It wouldn't be the first time a developer had created this much of a game and still had to shutter the project.
The war ain't won til it's released man.
Um...You wrote it on your blog. I believe that makes it a personal desire, not an analysis of market strategy.
I think their gearing up for when their exclusivity contract with Sony expires and they can bring Dust to the PC. They've had all this time to fix its problems and think of ways to improve it as well as incorporating it more closely into Eve Online.
The Eve Universe is a huge franchise if they would just get their heads out of their asses.
Sorry but even though AC is limited in what it offers it is full on proof this isn't vaporware, like the game or not, like chris roberts or not anyone spewing out this is vaporware is off the mark.
Dunno but tween ED and SC I think Eve might lose some steam, I do hope it keeps on trucking though and all the griefers and con artist stay there to enjoy each others company!
Brenics ~ Just to point out I do believe Chris Roberts is going down as the man who cheated backers and took down crowdfunding for gaming.
I think the decline happened when Incarna was shut down. This was something that EVE needed to have happen in order for it to appeal to new audiences. It took away nothing to the standard, EVE game play that EVE faithful came to expect. Incarna sported great, new technology, and new opportunities to develop Tranquility in new ways.
It was scuttled due to a huge backlash by the EVE vets who said such things as "We don't want no stinkin' walking in stations or foofoo...we want more pew pew!" EVE players got mad with the thought that EVE could be about other things than "pew pew," apparently.
And so, Incarna was scrapped...alongside any attempt to make the EVE universe anything more than the same old thing, for the same old people. In fact, CCP as a whole scrapped any hope of being anything except the same old thing, for the same old people. And once Incarna was gone, and CCP became about delivering the same old thing to their existing customers, rather than gain new ones, WoD became a moot project.
DUST 514? Well, I don't see this as anything other than an attempt to deepen the financial commitment of EVE players, rather than broaden CCP's customer base. Since they weren't going to give anyone outside of their existing player portfolio anything worth buying, they had to give their committed subscribers new things to buy. EVE tie-ins force players who want an advantage in EVE to pony up and pay more cash. Same with Valkyrie (if it ever launches).
The real problem with CCP is that they just can't say 'no' to the big subscriber lobbies. They are not run out of Reykjavic anymore...they are run out of SomethingAwful, Scrapheap Challenge and 4chan now, which is a pretty good deal for those internet communities, since they can call the shots at running a medium-sized international business, without having to worry about things like financial solvency and diversifying your product line.
But it sucks if you are CCP, a game developer, who ought to be able to appeal to new markets and new tastes. They had a chance with Incarna to do something different. Now, they are chained to the playerbase, can't do anything without their stamp of approval, and unable to create anything new.
__________________________
"Its sad when people use religion to feel superior, its even worse to see people using a video game to do it."
--Arcken
"...when it comes to pimping EVE I have little restraints."
--Hellmar, CEO of CCP.
"It's like they took a gun, put it to their nugget sack and pulled the trigger over and over again, each time telling us how great it was that they were shooting themselves in the balls."
--Exar_Kun on SWG's NGE
The game development has no direction for some years...there is nothing to approve when your ship is aimlessly cruising around.
That's what happens, I suppose, when you listen to what the Player Establishment wants...because Player Establishments are notoriously conservative....they don't like change.
And, sometimes, they are right. But I don't think that the EVE players were right in denouncing Incarna.
__________________________
"Its sad when people use religion to feel superior, its even worse to see people using a video game to do it."
--Arcken
"...when it comes to pimping EVE I have little restraints."
--Hellmar, CEO of CCP.
"It's like they took a gun, put it to their nugget sack and pulled the trigger over and over again, each time telling us how great it was that they were shooting themselves in the balls."
--Exar_Kun on SWG's NGE
What's not absurd is people who already have a PS3 playing the game. Anyway, moving on.
If you look at the Eve-Offline site, Dust has a been steady with players for a long time. They are currently at a third of their all time high player count for statistics going back to January of 2013. If the problems with Dust were going to have this dramatic an impact, it seems like it would have happened before now. They've been running their current player count since like August of last year.
CCP has certainly had some missteps, but if the stories coming out of the offices are at all true, then the missteps were wholly in the realm of World of Darkness, not Dust.
I can not remember winning or losing a single debate on the internet.
This post hit the nail on the head.
CCP's problem is the EVE community. Incarna would have allowed for MAJOR testing of the tech that was to be used in World of Darkness MMO. It would have done so without affecting the EVE metagame, and its cash shop would have been purely cosmetic and non-game changing. The part it WOULD have changed is the social aspect of the game, by making the world feel more alive. It would have been an incredible opportunity to not only flesh out the universe they're trying to create, but by allowing them to test the tech in an environment where balance was not an issue. An environment where changes and alterations made to it would not negatively affect the other parts of the game.
I think the shutdown of Incarna likely torched their entire 5+ year plan for their products, in which they used an incredible amount of foresight to use existing products to test untried technology. They were creating these engines from scratch, and we see how beautifully done the character creator was. I can just imagine the places it could have gone, especially in a whole new genre of MMO in the World of Darkness.
WoD failed because their engine was a dud. That thing called Captains Closet? That's the WoD engine. Imagine an entire game made with that. It was heating up computers to the melting point just to render that small area with no other players in it. Walk around in it, head out to where the ships were, run around the furniture. The collision mechanics were a disaster.
Dust514 is the new CCP. The old CCP wouldn't have allowed the game to be out as long as it has been out and not added anything. If EVE was under the wing of the new CCP it wouldn't have made it to 2006. From 2003 to 2006 were some rough years.
There is one final aspect, one that kind of never gets mentioned. EVE is over rated. I play EVE, I even enjoy it for the most part (did more than do) but most people want nothing to do with EVE Online. Most gamers want nothing to do with it. They see the scenario editor in space/ spreadsheets in space/ Sims in space as watching paint dry. Even if you can take 5 paint balloons and splat them on the wall, you then get to sit there and watch the rainbow of balloon paint, dry. "It's not for everyone". It's shrinking and everyone has an opinion why (me too) but it is and it will continue to. Knowing that, I see it being dead? In 15 years because it isn't shrinking that fast.
Star Citizen? It will happen. It will be a Freelancer for the i7 and it will be a good game. It won't be EVE and it won't kill EVE.
CCP's problem is the EVE community. Incarna would have allowed for MAJOR testing of the tech that was to be used in World of Darkness MMO. It would have done so without affecting the EVE metagame, and its cash shop would have been purely cosmetic and non-game changing. The part it WOULD have changed is the social aspect of the game, by making the world feel more alive. It would have been an incredible opportunity to not only flesh out the universe they're trying to create, but by allowing them to test the tech in an environment where balance was not an issue. An environment where changes and alterations made to it would not negatively affect the other parts of the game.
I think the shutdown of Incarna likely torched their entire 5+ year plan for their products, in which they used an incredible amount of foresight to use existing products to test untried technology. They were creating these engines from scratch, and we see how beautifully done the character creator was. I can just imagine the places it could have gone, especially in a whole new genre of MMO in the World of Darkness.
This is why WoD was canceled. Most of the work going on to the engine for WoD was being done within the Eve side of things. Once Incarna was killed off, so did there ability to keep building up the engine with the dev teams they had.
As for Eve Online. It's playerbase has always been the reason its never going to become more then just a small nitch game. Anytime any type of real change is about to happen to the game or is forseeable to happen to the game the players throw up there arms and complain about it. Then CCP listens to them because of the past times players have done this. They have created a situation where they really can not innovate on there own projects without fear of the players jumping ship. And they can not afford to lose the players because there is just a limited number of them at this time. It's a catch 22 system they are stuck in and it really does not look like it is going to change anytime soon.
Pretty much them cancelling WOD made me not give a rat's ass what happens to this company. They can't see anything past EVE or other than EVE then there is nothing this company has to offer me personally and if they aren't developing anything other than EVE products then they have ceased contributing to the genre so, meh!
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Just trying to live long enough to play a new, released MMORPG, playing New Worlds atm
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