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CCP lays off two execs, closes San Francisco offices [Updated]
Gamasutra reports that EVE Online developer CCP has closed its San Francisco studio and fired laid off CFO Joe Gallo and CMO David Reid. The firm's revenue and earnings were both down year-over-year, the website says. CCP laid off 49 staffers from its Reykjavik headquarters in June after announcing the cancellation of its long-gestating World of Darkness MMO in April. [Update: CCP's public relations firm contacted Massively to clarify our source's original claim that Joe and David were fired; in fact, CCP says, they are both "both leaving of their own volition and it's an amicable split."]
CCP's Valkyrie eyeing 'a really big transformation in how games are built and played'
Eurogamer recent talked to CCP chief marketing guru David Reid about the company's place at the forefront of the fledgling virtual reality movement. EVE Valkryie was the first title to be publicly played on both the Oculus Rift (PC) and Sony's Morpheus (PS4), which puts CCP in the driver's seat in terms of VR game development. "There aren't a lot of white papers and APIs and ways of doing these things yet," Reid explained. "We want to be a flagship game. We're on the cusp, potentially, of a really big transformation in how games are built and played, but we have to do our part to make sure that's worthwhile for everybody." Reid also talks up Valkryie's connection to the economies in DUST 514 and EVE Online as well as its "rock/scissors/paper" game mechanics. "As I go into a battle and I earn skill points and I earn currency, I can translate those to having the capabilities to fly bigger, better different ships and can kit them differently," Reid says. "It's a fundamental mechanic of the EVE universe, in EVE Online and in DUST, and it'll be coming to Valkyrie as well."
CCP: EVE Valkyrie is at the forefront of the VR 'movement'
CCP is convinced that virtual reality is around to stay, which is why the studio is pouring its efforts into EVE Valkryie for Oculus Rift and Project Morpheus. In an interview with VG247, Chief Marketing Officer David Reid said that CCP's involvement is a signal that VR is coming back in a big way: "This is just great for virtual reality. It convinces all of us developers that this thing is really going to happen. That it isn't just a fad or a flash in the pan or just one company trying -– it is now a movement. When you have one of the foundational companies of the video game industry getting into this, it really has accelerated the chances of this becoming a very big deal." Reid said that CCP is showing that it is focused on "things that matter to gamers" by pursuing EVE Valkyrie. "We said a vision statement a couple years ago that we want to be a developer that created virtual worlds more meaningful than real life," he said.
EVE Valkyrie could be coming to console before PC
EVE: Valkyrie was officially revealed back in August of this year with a teaser earlier at Fanfest, but details have been scarce so far. We know that it's a dog-fighting sim that uses the Oculus Rift, but a recent interview over at Rock, Paper Shotgun hints that the game may not be coming to the PC -- at least initially. "It technically works on PC, and it's working fine," chief marketing officer David Reid told RPS. "But there are other platforms it could run on. There's nothing that technically prevents it from running on a console, for example." While Reid does say later in the interview that PC is "definitely in the cards," there certainly seems to be a prominent nudge toward the game coming to consoles first. And interestingly enough, it's not even really confirmed that the game will be released for the Oculus Rift specifically. "While we can't get into details here," Reid pointed out, "there are other platforms that are available. It is technically possible to run this game without a Rift. There's a whole bunch of different things out on the market right now."
EVE Evolved: Is DUST 514 a pay-to-win game?
I've been following DUST 514's development with a cautious optimism for the past few years and have been trying to convince my console gamer friends to give it a try since it launched back in May. Last week I finally sat down to play the game myself and was thoroughly disappointed with both its 2005-era graphics and fundamentally broken gameplay. DUST 514 will likely stay in development for the forseeable future and may end up becoming a polished and integral part of the EVE Online universe, but right now it's a buggy and mediocre FPS that has very little impact on New Eden. DUST 514 launched to mixed impressions from the gaming media, catching a lot of flack from reviewers for its microtransactions options. Some have argued that selling skill point boosters and destructible Aurum tanks and equipment directly for cash makes it a pay-to-win game, while others maintain that it doesn't give you an advantage that free players can't buy for ISK. The definition of pay-to-win isn't always clear, and the console FPS audience may not be as tolerant of microtransactions PC users have long since accepted. In this week's EVE Evolved, I look at the arguments for and against it being a pay-to-win game and ask what went wrong with the game's launch.
96 percent of EVE Online players are male
CCP marketing bigwig David Reid recently told Destructoid that 96 percent of EVE Online players are male. The site also interviewed EVE senior producer Andie Nordgren, who opined that the numbers are a byproduct of genre. "Part of it is due to the theme of the game. Science fiction is an extremely male-dominated domain," she explained. Whatever the reasons, CCP is OK with EVE's current demographics. "It's not a goal for us as a development team to specifically increase the number of female players," Nordgren said. It's "more an indicator than something [to] strive for."
Does CCP's future depend on DUST 514?
It's been a couple of weeks since DUST 514 launched as a free-to-play title on the PlayStation 3. While it may be too early to tell whether the MMOFPS will be a big success story, a big flop, or something in the middle, Chief Marketing Officer David Reid argues that DUST 514 is vital to the future of CCP Games. "The second product is often the big product," he said. "Anybody can have a hit, but can you have two? It's very important for CCP right now to make DUST 514 a success. It has a lot to do with the long-term trajectory of the company. We're definitely thinking about that." Reid says that CCP is not trying to directly compete with MMO industry titans, but is forging its own path with a sustained cult following. He sees DUST 514 as an important step to the growth of the EVE Online universe: "On some level, DUST is a bit of a tracer bullet. A very big tracer bullet, a big investment, but it's a test bed. This could be the beginning of a much more interesting strategy of lots and lots of things joining into Tranquillity, and all being part of that shared economy, those shared politics and that shared universe."
CCP talks about connecting DUST 514 with EVE Online
CCP is going into uncharted territory in its attempt to fuse its new console shooter, DUST 514, to its long-running MMO, EVE Online. When breaking new ground like that, it's sensible to take it slow, make sure you're not going to fall into an endless pit, trip over a sleeping cobra, or suddenly throw an incredibly advanced economy into total disarray. CCP's Chief Marketing Officer, David Reid, talked with Joystiq about the challenges the company faces in this endeavor. "If there's anything about EVE that's particularly notorious, it's the fidelity of its virtual economy. You can equate the loss of a giant ship in EVE to some real world amount of money, just based on the time and effort it takes to build. It's really important that, when we do join the games, and we do allow ISK [an in-game currency that can be purchased with meatspace money] to flow between EVE and DUST that we don't accidentally institute some hyper-inflation in one game or the other." Of course, interaction between the games won't be limited to trading. Reid says the grand vision includes space elevators and the ability for EVE characters to go planetside and DUST marines can visit a space station. Check out all the details over at Joystiq.
CCP's DUST 514 will stay in closed beta into 2013
CCP's DUST 514, the console shooter that connects to and extends the scope of EVE Online, is staying in closed beta at least through the end of the year. During a recent media and developer play session, Chief Marketing Officer David Reid mentioned that while the team doesn't yet have a start date for open beta, he's "confident that it won't be much longer after year end." Reid stated that the team wants to take its time with the beta. Nobody has ever really attempted this sort of connection between a console game and long-standing PC MMO before, and Reid says that the testing process will take time to ensure the kind of quality that CCP and fans expect of the game. This is, of course, terrible news for anyone who isn't a PlayStation Plus member (and is therefore unable to access the closed beta), since we all know that the world is going to end in late December. CCP's belief that the world will persist long enough for DUST 514 to go into open beta is noble, if ultimately foolish.
Enter at Your Own Rift: Is the subscription justified?
I wonder whether the folks at Trion Worlds feel as if they're on an ever-shrinking island, holding fast to the subscription-only model while the world erodes into the sea of free-to-play. It's got to be an unsettling feeling, particularly as the competition continues to press in from all sides. Is clinging to RIFT's subscription worth it? When even Star Wars: The Old Republic flinched and buckled to F2P, what chance does RIFT have to stay its course? Is Trion hurting or helping this game by holding fast to the business model? It's a tricky question that's made trickier by the scarcity of facts. Trion's expressed strong confidence in the way it's steered RIFT so far, and I wonder whether that's a genuine confidence based on numbers that I don't see or a brave front for a duck that's paddling furiously under the calm pond surface. So is RIFT really so good that it justifies a monthly subscription, and if so, what makes it OK to stay above the F2P waters on that tiny island?
CCP secures $20 million in funding for DUST 514
With DUST 514's closed beta just around the corner and an anticipated 2012 release, folks are sure to be hearing more about the shooter that's a ground companion to EVE Online's space game. And to help get the word out, CCP has secured $20 million in funding in the form of convertible bonds raised from Icelandic institutional investors. Chief Marketing Officer David Reid noted funding will go toward marketing the game's launch. That doesn't mean players will see a one-time blitz of promotional advertising; Reid pointed out CCP is able to focus on a more long-term marketing campaign. The funds will also go toward preparing for an IPO. Although the company does not have immediate plans to go public, Reid states that the money allows the company to lay some of the preparatory groundwork so it would be ready if and when the time was right to actually go public.
CCP shows off seven years of DUST 514 skill training
CCP recently said that it would take seven years to max out every skill in its DUST 514 MMOFPS. If you want to see what that improbable feat looks like on a DUST character screen, head to fansite DUST514.org (or check out the video clip behind the cut). "Much like in real life, and in EVE Online, we don't expect that a player will master all of these skills," explains CCP marketing guru David Reid. Specialization is the name of DUST 514's skill game, and Reid says that most players will probably choose a few skills and "get really, really good at them." DUST isn't just about skills, though. It's an MMO, and an MMO means gear, so the game will launch with upwards of a thousand items (the vast majority of which can be lost in battle). How do you manage and equip these items? Through the fitting screen, of course, and today's video gives us a good look at the system in action.
CCP shopping EVE Online to cloud gaming services
You'd think the hardest of the hardcore MMORPGs would be exempt from the casual-fueled cloud-gaming craze, but you'd be wrong. Eurogamer reports that CCP's EVE Online sci-fi sandbox is in talks with both OnLive and Gaikai to expand New Eden's audience. "We are in dialogue with both companies and others," CCP marketing guru David Reid says. "We think it's a really important way to not just play the core Eve Online gameplay -- that you do play today principally on the PC and on the Mac -- but also to add new sorts of experiences." What sorts of new experiences? Well, Reid mentioned EVE's planetary interaction mechanics, and he said that CCP could see PI finding its way "to tablets and mobile devices." It's still very early in the process, though, and Reid clarified that CCP has nothing to announce as of yet.
GDC 2012: The Firing Line's PlanetSide 2 and DUST 514 redux
This week I was fortunate enough to chat up the developers on the two biggest MMOFPS titles of the year. Exactly what year that is remains to be seen, and after hearing Sony Online Entertainment use the word "alpha" quite a lot, I suspect that PlanetSide 2 may slip into 2013. And that's not a bad thing at all, by the way. CCP's DUST 514, on the other hand, is surely coming in 2012. The devs will be doling out some long-awaited hands-on time with EVE's precocious little brother at Fanfest in a couple of weeks, and while DUST and PS2 share similar core gameplay, their target audiences (and the general feeling I get from each game) are completely different.
GDC 2012: CCP talks DUST 514 PC possibilities and World of Darkness development
GDC 2012 is now in full swing, and today we had the chance to sit down with CCP's Hilmar Petursson, Halldor Fannar, and David Reid to chat about the studio's upcoming FPS title, DUST 514. When asked about the studio's primary goal with DUST 514, the team had a simple reply: Make the best AAA free-to-play shooter possible. But is it coming to the PC? While many EVE Online players aren't thrilled with DUST 514's PlayStation 3 exclusivity, there may be hope for a PC release yet. And while the devs weren't ready to make any official statements on the spot, a bit of wink-nudging indicates that a PC release may still be in the cards. As the devs note, mouse and keyboard controls are already supported in the PS3 version of the title. "I wonder why we did that," Hilmar joked during the interview.
CCP: DUST will offer a 'more intuitive' EVE experience
Rock, Paper Shotgun has a new interview with CCP CEO Hilmar Petursson and CMO David Reid. The pair have a few interesting nuggets to share about DUST 514 and EVE Online, as well as how the two games are related. Petursson says that initially, DUST mercenaries will not be riding the proverbial space elevator into orbit to parlay with their capsuleer counterparts in EVE. As in the eight-year-old spaceship MMO, though, the design will evolve and change, and "the two experiences are going to be more and more crafted over time." The interview also also posits that DUST's accessible shooter design may lead new players into the world of New Eden in spite of EVE Online's legendary learning curve. "EVE is a very particular type of experience, made for people who want to commit a lot of energy to have a game experience like that," Petursson explains. "Over the years we've seen a lot of people interested in the EVE universe, the single shard and the political drama, but [they] might not be particularly looking for an experience like the game itself. We see DUST as a way to allow people to participate in this universe by offering them a more intuitive, familiar, speedier, quicker, shorter time-commitment type of experience."
Interview confirms World of Darkness dev team, predicts DUST 514 sales
When CCP Games laid off 20% of its worldwide staff back in October of last year, the World of Darkness dev team bore the brunt of the cuts while DUST 514 continued on course for its launch later this year. In an interview over at TenTonHammer today, CCP's new Chief Marketing Officer, David Reid, joined CEO Hilmar Petursson to discuss the development of both games. Hilmar reveals that a team of 60 developers are currently working on WoD, and that DUST 514 will be playable at this year's EVE Online fanfest event in March. Despite acknowledging that the entire PlayStation Network comprises a total of 60 million users, Reid asserts that DUST will bring "tens of millions of people that play shooters on PSN into the New Eden universe," going on to make the bold statement that "EVE could be the biggest game in the world at the end of 2012" as a result. Reid also claims that "EVE Online is the only game in the West that has shown consecutive growth year after year," a statement that's sure to upset RuneScape developer Jagex and others. The statement also comes with a slightly bitter note as this year EVE may have lost its record of continual subscription growth during the summer drama.
Ex-Trion SVP David Reid joins CCP for DUST 514
CCP's newest hire is none other than David Reid, formerly of Trion Worlds and NCsoft. Reid steps into the role of chief marketing officer for DUST 514, and Gamasutra reports that he'll also shape the publicity strategy for CCP's upcoming World of Darkness title. Reid helped launch Trion's RIFT MMO in 2011, and was instrumental in the development of its "we're not in Azeroth anymore" campaign. "We had a great launch with RIFT and I have nothing bad to say about it," Reid explains. "But I have kept my eye on CCP for a very long time."
Tiny Speck and Trion Worlds make gaming headlines in 2011
Trion Worlds and Tiny Speck are two MMO studios that have made waves in 2011 with their ambitious plans and potential profit margins, according to the Wall Street Journal. The publication's article examines how these companies are running contrary to Zynga's model by producing top-tier content without trying to nickle-and-dime customers. Trion's story is seen as one of high risk and higher rewards, especially considering that it was bringing in no revenue before last March while developing three titles. "RIFT has had tremendous success -- the commercial results are just astounding -- but we've got two more big games coming... There is no joy in Mudville," said Trion's David Reid. The article notes that once a MMO breaks even, the profit margin can be as high as 70%. Trion is reportedly adding 100 new people to the team in the first part of 2012, which will put this studio in giant-sized territory: 520 employees in total. Tiny Speck may not be as large, with just 41 employees, but the team is growing due to Glitch's success. Even though the potential to make money is there, co-founder Eric Costello says that the team puts in long hours as primarily a labor of love: "The game industry is famous for running their employees into the ground, and we definitely don't want to do that, but we've also found that building a game is a lot harder than we thought it would be."
Trion's David Reid: 'New era' of premium games inevitable
It's a brutal, cutthroat world in the MMO industry, Trion Worlds' David Reid admits, and he thinks that companies that can't adapt to the rapidly changing scene need to get out of the pool so others can swim. Talking to a crowd at GDC Europe, Reid spoke on an inevitable "new era" of premium games that are being fashioned in the forges of increased competition, challenging business models, higher development costs, and lower social interaction. "It's a lot harder to make your money back in the premium games space than it used to be," he said. Reid used Trion's approach as an example of how MMO studios need to be at the top of their game when developing games, including "AAA ambition and polish, massive scale, persistence, and customization." RIFT, which he cites as having over a million customers and holding the number two spot in the West, made sure that high-quality visuals were a key part of the experience, but also that the team was willing to listen to player feedback when preparing future content. He also pointed to End of Nation's free-to-play model and Defiance's synergy with the Syfy TV show as ways to captivate player interest and stay on top of the game.
