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EVE Online: CCP and White Wolf Merge
Stradden
Managing EditorMember CommonPosts: 6,696
CCP Games and White Wolf have announced their plans to merge companies. The creators of the MMORPG, EVE Online and the people responsible for such pen and paper games as Vampire: The Masquerade are coming together.
The new, combined company will be releasing new games in both online and offline form.
MMORPG.com will continue to follow this story as it develops.
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Combined company to deliver next-generation gaming products online and offline |
Reykjavik, Iceland and Atlanta, GA, USA - November 11, 2006 - CCP hf. and White Wolf Publishing, Inc. today announced that the companies have entered into a definitive agreement to merge. The creators of the single largest persistent online role-playing world and the world's second-largest developer of offline role-playing, strategy and collectable card games will create the industry's largest independent Virtual World developer. CCP is the publisher and developer of EVE Online, the world's largest virtual gaming universe. White Wolf is the creator of some of the world's most recognized role-playing titles including: World of Darkness (Vampire, Werewolf, Mage) and Exalted. The combined company will introduce new online and offline gaming products across the science-fiction, horror, and fantasy genres.
The merged company will enable CCP to integrate White Wolf's leading expertise in offline gaming development to enhance and create physical products for its MMOG, EVE Online. Products to be introduced in 2007 will include strategy guides, enhanced collectable card games, role-playing systems, and novels all based on EVE Online. White Wolf will leverage CCP's industry-leading technologies to bring its offline role-playing titles online. Conceptualization and early development has begun to bring White Wolf's World of Darkness, one of the world's strongest gaming properties, into the online world.
"White Wolf possesses the RPG industry's leading offline gaming talent and some of the most recognizable roleplaying properties in the world," said Hilmar Petursson, CCP's Chief Executive Officer. " Virtual worlds are a new form of entertainment, separate from traditional computer games. By combining forces, we will create a company unsurpassed in quality, innovation, and scope which will keep us at the forefront of this emerging trend."
The combined company will continue to operate under their respective names. White Wolf will be operated as a wholly-owned subsidiary of CCP. Hilmar Petursson, Chief Executive Officer of CCP, will be CEO of the combined company. Mike Tinney, President of White Wolf, will continue as President of the independent subsidiary. Further, White Wolf will continue development and enhancement of their entire portfolio of gaming products.
"CCP brings industry-leading technical expertise and online game development experience to us," said Mike Tinney, White Wolf's President. "Together, we will create the industry's most innovative games leveraging both online and offline systems."
Cheers,
Jon Wood
Managing Editor
MMORPG.com
Comments
"White Wolf will leverage CCP's industry-leading technologies to bring its offline role-playing titles online. Conceptualization and early development has begun to bring White Wolf's World of Darkness, one of the world's strongest gaming properties, into the online world."
About damn time someone made an MMO from that. Good luck to them!
Apply lemon juice and candle flame here to reveal secret message.
Now there's a surprise lol. No, I think it's a great move, but never in my wildest dreams did I imagine CCP and White Wolf merging. Looking forward to what this will bring.
I'm a big ol' fluffy carewolf. Be afraid. Be very afraid.
This could work absolutely wonderfullly or incredibly badly, hopefully the latter!
Also knowning CCP and White Wolf, it should work out wonderfully, Yay to decent tie ups!
The Wholly own Sub of CCP sounds a little like a buy out too...WW with lots of debts and CCP with lots of cash :P
WHAT!!???
Well... Ok.... After the initial shock has calmed down... And the stunned surprise is about to relax its grip... SO out of the blue... I feel real good about this. I have never been a paying subsciber of EVE since the game style do not fit my personality, but I have always been impressed by their originality and way of working. They have really built a game likeno other out there, from scratch, and even if the launch was less than succesful, they have continued with improvements and never given up, and in that way created a game with a huge buzz, tons of followers and an enourmus respect in the game development community. CCP has proven thier worth in more ways than one and I think hundreds of thousands of peole are real curious what they will do next.
Then White Wolf...that created one of the THE most succesful RPGs of modern times, straight from scratch as well, and created tons of material for those campaigns, in several different settings.
We all can guess what kind of MMO this will lead to. How big it will be noone can say, will it be only Vamps... or maybe ALL the different creatures of WoD? Will it be a town.. or a whole planet with all its cultural differences.. Noone can say anythign for sure.. But we can be sure of one thing.
This time... The game will REALLY be something noone has ever seen before. These are not the copycats. CCP and White Wolf will both aim to create something new and exciting that will blow the competition away. For them its not a sales pitch.. Its just the way they have always worked.
Now we can only hope.... ( a slim hope, but we have to hang on to it)... the big giants, EA and SOE both WILL be interested in this and they WILL be ready to throw tons of money to buy this concept and call it thier own, and mess it up as everythign else.... We can only hope CCP and White Wolf have the economy together to keep them at bay... I would hate to see such a brilliant future be swallowed up by the big dinosaurs that turn any genious concept idea into "Kiddie Game part 3.472, Extra Kiddie Edition"
"This is not a game to be tossed aside lightly.
It should be thrown with great force"
"Because it's easier to nitpick something than to be constructive." -roach5000
Either a World of Darkness of MMO or an Exaulted MMO would rock my socks!
Brrrflp!
Excellent move from both companys, lets hope for some cracking titles.
-doro
CCP already has a brilliant art/creative department, but they lack a bit on emersion. If White Wolf can fill that void, they would be able to produce an amazing product.
Trinity was far, far better than any of the WoD games anyways, if you ask me. I know a lot of people sure won't like me saying that though.
I mean great move - But i would be less soprised if they announced that Pope of Vatican joined forces with CCP!?!?
LOL
"Before this battle is over all the world will know that few...stood against many." - King Leonidas
Why would they want to go into bed with EA or SOE ?
They are making a bunch of money. They have complete control over their own company. Why on earth would it interest them to join forces with some company that takes all the control and half the income?
No. CCP is independent. The only true independent game maker. Them going to EA would be like Quinten Tarrantino making a 3 movie contract to do Disney kiddy flicks.
JonGretar: You wont believe the amount of money those two giants will wave in front of this merger now, after seeing this. This will have the same impact on the market as Warhammer Online did, maybe even more.... No, about the same... Believe me, the dinosaurs want that feather in their hat.
Mythic was the MMO company with one of the best reputations internationally today.... They gladly threw that reputation out the window, together with their creative freedom, to instead marry the company with one of the worst reputations in gaming history, just because the money was waved in thier faces. This will be no different.
Believe, if you want to have a new exciting game in the future from two of the best independents on the market... Now is the time to pray.
"This is not a game to be tossed aside lightly.
It should be thrown with great force"
I for one don't really care for Eve or its design, thats just my personal preference. Although this makes me feel sad for White Wolf, as someone who formerly worked with them as a writer. They did make the best table top products in the gaming industry for quite a long time. Although, I'm definitely very concerned with CCP calling the shots... and as they are a wholy owned subsidiary, that means by law that they can tell White Wolf what to do and how to conduct operations. Unforatunately based on what I saw in Eve I'm one hundred percent unconvinced that they can pull off a World of Darkness game successfuly.
Banegrivm
Leader of the 1st Fist of Light
www.1stfistoflight.com
As to White Wolf, they've been hurting badly for a long time now, as are all table top gaming companies nowadays. See if you can get a copy of Comics & Games retailer, it's an industry trade magazine that details the goings on in the gaming industry. You'll see if you follow the yearly reports that the table top gaming industry has been losing money consistantly every year pretty much. For that matter if I remember my figures correctly I think they dropped 40 percent from 04 to 05, and distributors are starting to dissipate as the money stream narrows.
Banegrivm
Leader of the 1st Fist of Light
www.1stfistoflight.com
As a very old school WW RPGer (stop laughing at the back!) I was appalled at the way WW screwed up then nuked their old games, ran the Camarilla almost into the ground and then released shoddy replacements for their old big name system (World of Darkness) which have mostly been out-sold by their other game systems these days. I went from being an ardent WW fan to an embittered player/storyteller who'd had enough of being jacked around.
I first read this with much trepidation but it seems that CCP is going to be the one calling the shots and having seen a little something of how both companies are, I can see CCP being a great deal better at letting WW get on and do it's own thing than if the situation had been reversed and WW was wading in dictating to CCP what it should do.
I look forwards to the idea of an EVE RPG but if WW are going to be developing it, they'd better make sure that CCP keep the consistency. WW were once innovaters and ingenious writers but, well, not so much these days. I'm hesitant about the novels, though, as WW novel writers and their quality are - how shall we say - varied.
Oh and now maybe someone can convice WW to hire a proofreader or two
I'm hoping that this merger will mean WW gets a kick up the bum by CCP to sort itself out, and not that CCP is going to be yanked off course. I'll remain cautiously optimistic here.
This ought to be interesting.
Perhaps now we will see Noob: The Podded.
Notice: The views expressed in this post are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the reviews of MMORPG.com or its management.
Actually this has been in the works for over a year. I first heard about it from a friend that works at WW during Dragoncon 04. WW really needs some positive cash flow and Licensing it's titles to crap companies like SOE, or EA isn't something they were willing to do. They know that CCP will never be sold off to a corperate Giant, and they know that CCP is all about making great Online games.
Don't look for a WoD or a VtM game anytime soon however. One thing that WW and CCP agree on is they absolutely DO NOT want to create a MMO that will turn into one massive Cyb0r session due to the Lunatic Fringe fan base that WW has managed to gather (They actually detest these people one trip to DC or any other WW gatherings leave little doubt about that and they have done everything possible to drive this contingent away.) So CCP and WW will be working out how to make the game they want that won't be hijacked by the nut jobs.