CCP Games

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CCP hf
Private company
Industry Video games
Founded Reykjavík, Iceland (1997 (1997))[1]
Founder Reynir Harðarson
Ívar Kristjánsson[2]
Þórólfur Beck[3]
Headquarters Reykjavík, Iceland
Area served
Worldwide
Key people
Birgir Már Ragnarss (Chairman)
Hilmar Veigar Pétursson (Global CEO & Iceland CEO)
Products Eve Online
Dust 514
Eve: Valkyrie
Project Legion
Gunjack
Owner Novator Partners
General Catalyst Partners[4]
Number of employees
600[5]
Website www.ccpgames.com

CCP hf or CCP Games (Crowd Control Productions) is an Icelandic video game developer and publisher, majority owned by the company's staff and founders, Novator Partners and the American investment fund General Catalyst Partners.[4] CCP is best known for producing Eve Online.

History

CCP was founded in June 1997 by Reynir Harðarson, Þórólfur Beck and Ívar Kristjánsson[6] for the purpose of making MMORPGs. In order to finance the initial development of Eve Online, CCP developed and published a board game in Iceland called Hættuspil ("Danger Game").[6][7] The game sold more than 10,000 copies to Iceland's 80,000 households.[8] In April 2000 the company, with Sigurður Arnljótsson as CEO, raised $2.6 million, through a closed offering organized by Kaupthing Bank (now Arion banki), from private investors in Iceland, including the Icelandic telephone company Síminn. He was with the company from 1999 to 2002 during which time the company raised 2 rounds of financing and secured a contract with Simon and Schuster interactive games. Approximately half of the initial 21 staff were drawn from the Icelandic dot-com company OZ Interactive, the makers of OZ Virtual.

2011: Restructuring

In late 2011 CCP released an announcement to its community admitting that they had made a mistake by releasing the Incarna expansion in its current development stage. In the wake of the Incarna expansion and following a mass protest by EVE-Online players, CCP announced that it had decided to prioritize and shift their focus from their World of Darkness MMO back to their EVE-Universe products, EVE Online and Dust 514 respectively.[9] The restructuring resulted in the lay-offs of 20% of CCP's staff worldwide. The majority of these lay-offs affected the Atlanta, United States, office, but also affected were several positions in CCP's head office in Reykjavík.[10] Even though after considerable downsizing, CCP claims that EVE Online and its development is stronger than ever and that the company will continue to grow.[11] CCP confirmed that they had moved away from the Incarna/Ambulation project to focus on the core game mechanics and that Incarna may be revisited further down the line.[12]

In March 2015, CCP withdrew all public bonds which it had previously issued in July 2012.[13] As a result, its current and past financial data that had previously been publicly available was removed from CCP's website.[14]

Products

CCP currently manages three video game products, with two more in development: the Sci-Fi MMORPG Eve Online, the Sci-Fi MMOFPS Dust 514, and the virtual reality arcade shooter Gunjack.

Video games

Eve Online

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EVE Online is CCP's first video game, originally published by Simon & Schuster, Inc. in May 2003. Later CCP re-acquired the rights to publish Eve Online[15] and continues to manage it to this day. The core gameplay around Eve Online revolves around player choice and decision, and features a wide variety of activities, such as mining, exploration, industry and piracy. A major design choice is the freedom to do what would be illegal activities, such as scamming for ingame items.

Dust 514

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On 18 August 2009, Hilmar Veigar Pétursson announced Dust 514, a new ground-based FPS with RTS and MMO elements being developed by CCP's Shanghai office.[16] Dust 514 was released for the Playstation 3 on 14 May 2013.[17] It features a core first person shooter experience, with a high level of customization. The game will be shut down by CCP on 30 May 2016.[18]

Eve: Valkyrie

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Eve: Valkyrie is an upcoming first-person space combat simulator for the Oculus Rift and PlayStation VR. It is unknown at this time if the game can be played without a virtual reality headset.[19]

Gunjack

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Gunjack is a virtual-reality arcade shooter released for the Samsung Gear VR on 20 November 2015, the Oculus Rift on 28 March 2016, and the HTC Vive on 5 April 2016.[20][21] A PlayStation VR version is planned for release in 2016.[22] Players take the role of a turret operator defending a mining operation, set in the EVE Online universe. It gathered positive critical reviews on release.[23][24]

Project Nova

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Project Nova is a class-based first-person shooter for the PC taking place in the Eve Online universe and in development by CCP Shanghai.[25] Project Nova will run on Unreal Engine 4 and is intended to focus on the competitive FPS feel as well as focus more on space combat and less on planet combat which is a different focus than Dust 514.[26]

Cancelled games

World of Darkness

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In October 2006, CMO Magnús Bergsson stated that Eve would not be the only game to come out of CCP.[27] On 11 November 2006 CCP and White Wolf Publishing jointly announced that CCP would be working on a World of Darkness MMORPG.[28] CCP planned to focus on the development of this game from March 2009 onwards.[29] It was scheduled to launch in 2012 at the earliest, but due to problems in Eve Online, several layoffs in 2011 and the planned release of the PlayStation 3 FPS game Dust 514 in the summer of 2013, the launch of the game was delayed indefinitely.[30] On 14 April 2014, CCP announced that the game had been cancelled.[31] However, on 28 October 2015, CCP revealed that the game, its license, and all of its related assets had been sold to Swedish publisher Paradox Interactive.[32]

Project Legion

Project Legion was a first-person shooter for the PC similar to Dust 514.[33] The project was cancelled in 2015 and was replaced with Project Nova.[34]

Miscellaneous

Eve: The Second Genesis

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Eve: The Second Genesis is a collectible card game set in the universe created for the online game Eve Online. Each player represents the CEO of a corporation, aligned with a particular race, and through exploration, mining, and military strength, their goal is to defeat their opponent CEOs.

Quafe

Quafe is both the name of a popular drink in the EVE Online universe[35] and the name of the in-game corporation which produces it.[36] On 22 October 2004, CCP made a marketing first when they launched the virtual drink for sale in the real world.[37] CCP sold the drink from their website for $1.50 USD for a single bottle, or $15.10 for a multi-pack, but sales of this drink have since ceased. The real-world Quafe soft drink had a lemon-lime taste. While the sale of this drink has ceased the drink does still exist, it appears in many YouTube videos, and is available for sale at CCP's annual EVE Online Fanfest and can be found under its original brand name, Egils Orka, all over Iceland.[38]

Corporate affairs

Corporate structure

The company is run by a board consisting of seven people, many of which worked for Björgólfur Thor Björgólfsson of Novator Partners at Landsbanki up until the 2008–11 Icelandic financial crisis and Icesave dispute: Birgir Már Ragnarsson (chairman), Harry Weller (vice-chairman), Adam Valkin, Andrew Schoen, Isaac Kato, Liv Bergþórsdóttir, and Sigurður Ólafsson.[39]

Demographics

At the beginning of 2009, CCP had a staff of 353 people from more than 20 nations of which 81% were male. 67% of the employees have received higher education, 9% vocational and technical training and 24% some other form of education.[40]

Merger

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On 11 November 2006, CCP and White Wolf Publishing jointly announced a merger between the two companies during the keynote address at the Eve Online Fanfest 2006. White Wolf Publishing became a wholly owned independent subsidiary of CCP with Mike Tinney remaining as the president of CCP North America | White Wolf.[41][42]

Layoffs

In October 2011, following a large controversy over its introduction of microtransactions to the game EVE Online, CCP announced that it would be reducing its staff. As stated in a CCP press release, the layoffs affected about 20% of all worldwide jobs within CCP, most in their Atlanta, GA office. These layoffs were mainly of staff related to the development of World of Darkness.[43]

On 28 August 2014, CCP shutdown their San Francisco studio to refocus their efforts on EVE Online. At the same time of the announcement, the CFO, Joe Gallo and CMO, David Reid quit.[44] As of 2015, none of CCP's original founders are still with the company.[45][46]

References

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  3. "CCP Games", Giant Bomb, (Retrieved 29 June 2010)
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  6. 6.0 6.1 "10 Years of CCP", Page 2, Eurogamer, 15 June 2007 (Retrieved 15 June 2007)
  7. MMORPG.com: CCP Celebrates 10 Year Anniversary by Jon Wood (Retrieved 12 June 2006)
  8. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  9. [1], CCP Devblog, 5 October 2011 (Retrieved 22 October 2011)
  10. [2], CCP Press Release, 19 October 2011 (Retrieved 22 October 2011)
  11. [3], PC Gamer News, 19 October 2011 (Retrieved 22 October 2011)
  12. [4], PC Gamer News, 21 October 2011 (Retrieved 22 October 2011)
  13. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
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  15. "EVE Online AVAILABLE FOR DOWNLOAD", CCP Press Release, 3 December 2003 (Retrieved 31 August 2006)
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  19. EVE Valkyrie, Retrieved 8 May 2014 http://evevalkyrie.com/
  20. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
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  22. Kevin Joyce. EVE Gunjack Confirmed for PlayStation VR, vrfocus.com, April 21, 2016.
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  27. "Interview with CCP: EVE currency traders 'going to lose big'?", Virtual Economy Research Network, 2 October 2006 (Retrieved 12 November 2006)
  28. World of Darkness MMO: CCP merges with White Wolf, Virtual Economy Research Network, 11 November 2006 (Retrieved 15 June 2007)
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  31. http://www.ccpgames.com/en/public-relations/press-releases/article/77171/ccp-games-halts-development-of-world-of-darkness-mmo/
  32. http://www.pcgamer.com/paradox-buys-white-wolf-world-of-darkness-vampire-the-masquerade-from-ccp/
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  38. In development: CCP's Core Technology Team - YouTube
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External links