One of those “note the time and date” posts, Massively OP reported earlier today that CCP was backing away from development of Virtual Reality games, closing their Atlanta office and selling off the studio in Newcastle responsible for now VR-optional Oculus Rift launch title EVE: Valkyrie. This will mean a job loss for as many as 100 CCP employees world wide, including 30 in Iceland.
CCP says that they will continue to support their VR products but will no longer be investing time into new development for EVE: Valkyrie, EVE Gunjack, or the recently launched Sparc. That sounds nice, but once you cut the development team restarting on a VR project won’t be easy.
Hello VR captain’s quarters?
In addition to a renewed focus on EVE Online… because what else is making them any money… CCP will continue with development of the shooter known as Project Nova as well as the EVE Universe themed mobile game Project Aurora, which was demoed at EVE Vegas earlier this month.
CCP Falcon had the following to say on Reddit:
With regards to EVE, it’s kind of bittersweet that this puts us in a more solid position going forward, as a lot more focus is back on EVE Online, its services and all the technology and support around it.
The EVE Online development team was not impacted at all by these changes, and remains the same size, working toward the same goals and features that have already been announced.
While that may be so, one of the losses with the Atlanta office is CCP Manifest who was the PR and social media lead who paid a lot of attention to the EVE Online community. Likewise CCP Logibro who minded the fansites and worked with the CSM appears to be on the list. They will be missed.
We shall see what this means in the longer term. EVE Online remains the only money making video game for the company.
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