CCP 'Sharpens its Focus' Said focus does not invovlve Vampires.

[Stabs]

Eve stabilizing is a safe assumption because, if they don't, then all other discussion is largely irrelevant :)

The game will survive. It's a money printing machine. The issue is whether CCP will survive or someone else will buy it.

Running Eve without doing all the other games would have had them rolling in money. They had until yesterday 600 staff. The FiS Live team until recently was about 20?

[tgr]

and Dust is a huge success.

Hahaha, you're really expecting Dust to actually not be a complete flop because console gamers are a fickle bunch who aren't going to have anything near the staying power to actually stay and make a difference, once the next "ooh shiny" FPS shooter comes along?

[Kageru]

No. I personally believe it's going to be a poor performer and damage Eve. But I'm pretty sure CCP expect a massive flood of revenue from it.

[tgr]

Not so sure about the damage eve part, unless we're talking about the money it's going to consume, and probably a few game mechanics which are going to make little sense after the FPSers go away.

I think they should probably just fold it back into EVE itself, and stop looking at the consoles as some place where moneyhats are made just because they release an FPS, but time will tell whether or not this'll happen, or indeed if my doom and gloom outlook on console gamers turn out to be true.

[Gets]

Dust 514 isn't just going to be a console FPS, it's going to be a console FPSMMO attached to another niché MMO. It's a double-down of   

[Evildrider]

Dust 514 isn't just going to be a console FPS, it's going to be a console FPSMMO attached to another niché MMO. It's a double-down of   

I don't know many people, who play FPS games, that would invest in Eve when they don't care about the other half of the game.

[Sir T]

On Whote Wolf, I bought the books of their newish 'Scion' game and its really really good, at least to read. Their Ragnarok book in particular is absolutely first class. There's some serious talent still working there. If CCP takes out White Wolf in its death throws it will be yet another crack in this aging gamers heart.

[Sparky]

Well Incarna was a huge fucking waste of time then! (they were developing an engine for WoD and Incarna was just a spin off product)

Must've seen how horribly their avatar engine performed in the most forgiving conditions(small room, no other avatars) and realised how much work it still needed.  Really sucks for people losing their jobs in this economy but I hope in the future that Eve gets the love and resources it enjoyed for expansions such as Apocrypha.

[tgr]

Well Incarna was a huge fucking waste of time then! (they were developing an engine for WoD and Incarna was just a spin off product)

Must've seen how horribly their avatar engine performed in the most forgiving conditions(small room, no other avatars) and realised how much work it still needed.  Really sucks for people losing their jobs in this economy but I hope in the future that Eve gets the love and resources it enjoyed for expansions such as Apocrypha.

To be fair, what they did was launch captain's quarters with the details set to full or high, not medium or low depending on what the hardware could perform with. So people like me, who permanently run eve with all the detail settings set to low to be able to run 3 of htem at a time, with at least one of them at 2560x1600, got a shock.

[Stabs]

However DUST goes it's better to have a game out and selling than in development. Release of Dust will be a huge financial relief for the company even if it bombs.

[Gets]

Well Incarna was a huge fucking waste of time then!

Depends on how much you really wanted people to stop asking when they can go walk in stations.

[IainC]

Well Incarna was a huge fucking waste of time then!

Depends on how much you really wanted people to stop asking when they can go walk in stations.

To be fair, that question still hasn't been answered.

[Reg]

Aside from Bloodworth and some CCP people I don't know anyone that even asked.

[tgr]

Aside from Bloodworth and some CCP people I don't know anyone that even asked.

I used to talk about being able to walk around in stations. This was back when I mostly played solo and we never warped closer than 15km to a gate, so the game was a bit staler then than now, for me.

[Margalis]

I can't really see Dust being a huge success though. An FPS on the PS3? That's a title at the back of a long line.

Yeah, they will have to catch lightning in a bottle.

Console-exclusive FPS games on the PS3 have struggled to find an audience. Even the top-tier titles like Resistance and Killzone are just moderate successes. I can't see being tied to Eve as a draw for most PS3 players nor can I see many PC Eve players getting the game just so they can play both.

[eldaec]

An awful lot of PC EVE players would have to buy a PS3 first.

If they had put out a PC version (or if I had a PS3), I would probably have bought it for novelty value.


Fuck, if they'd at least made an Xbox version they'd have achieved more EVE-related sales.

[tgr]

Problem with xbox is MS and their policies though. At least that's what they keep saying.

I, too, might be inclined to purchase it if it was released on PC instead, but I sure as fuck aren't going to start with a controller-based FPS now after having yelled at them for years. vOv

[calapine]

So...the forum prediction is DUST is going to tank, thus dragging down CCP which will go bankrupt/get bought by EA/Acitivsion or similar...

Did I get that right?
How many months are you giving Eve?

I am trying hard not to panic now... 

Cala

[UnSub]

I would trust CCP to develop the WoD MMO more than I'd trust them to get a console FPS correct.

On top of which, CCP should really just change its name to "Mittani's Place" given how (publicly) it looks like he's basically running the company.

[Kageru]

CCP never listen to the CSM anyway, they're just a PR engine and a sounding board for some of the lesser developers. The current action is all due to the sub curve going down when they need that revenue.

Dust will be a console FPS. The connections to Eve are flavor and meta-game, but if it's a bad shooter they're not going to matter....

[Kovacs]

I would trust CCP to develop the WoD MMO more than I'd trust them to get a console FPS correct.

On top of which, CCP should really just change its name to "Mittani's Place" given how (publicly) it looks like he's basically running the company.

I think it's probably more accurate to say that The Mittani is the public face of the general hue and cry from the 0.0 player base.  I'm certainly not hoping that the result of CCP's mgmt. listening to and acting upon the reasonable sounding suggestions from the players ends in disaster.

quoting is hard.

[Sparky]

I wonder if they're contractually obliged to make Dust now it's a PS3 game.  I read On A Forum that Sony chucked a bunch of money at CCP to make it exclusive to their platform.  Would they stick that game on the back burner too given the choice?

[Sparky]

I would trust CCP to develop the WoD MMO more than I'd trust them to get a console FPS correct.

On top of which, CCP should really just change its name to "Mittani's Place" given how (publicly) it looks like he's basically running the company.

I think it's probably more accurate to say that The Mittani is the public face of the general hue and cry from the 0.0 player base.  I'm certainly not hoping that the result of CCP's mgmt. listening to and acting upon the reasonable sounding suggestions from the players ends in disaster.

quoting is hard.

Although it's fair to say CCP are following that cry like a little lost lamb follows it's mother's calls, which is close enough to make Mittens unusually smug.  Given Mittani is super smug by default that means we're at incomprehensible levels of smuggitude.

[IainC]

In public at elast he's not being smug. He appears to be pretty pissed off, not so much that he won't get to play a Ventru in real life, but because a lot of the people he thought were doing good work are amongst those who were let go.

Also, no, the CSM is not a PR engine for CCP. If they were, the whole program would have been scrapped as soon as it started publically slating CCP. I've seen the inside of the CSM process and I've also done some professional stuff with the CCP producers in charge of it.

[Sparky]

Yeah I just assumed he was smug, sorry.  It's normally a safe assumption. 

[Ghambit]

I'm still trying to grok how some jackass seems to think it's a good idea making some random obscure fps title coupled to an old mmo in its death-throws instead of taking the WoD license and running with it.

I'd have ditched Dust, contracted Eve, and doubled-down on WoD if it were me.  Also, does CCP seem to think EVE can compete with the other big titles coming out within the year?   I think not.  The only way the company stays intact is if it develops another successful title, and that title was WoD.  Scrapping/shelving that pretty much spells their doom.

[Sparky]

Also, does CCP seem to think EVE can compete with the other big titles coming out within the year?   I think not.

Such as?  EVE has got the PVP with consequences niche by the balls and I don't see any big budget game on the horizon that's even trying to do the stuff EVE offers.

[Amaron]

So...the forum prediction is DUST is going to tank, thus dragging down CCP which will go bankrupt/get bought by EA/Acitivsion or similar...

Did I get that right?
How many months are you giving Eve?

CCP's problem is top management.   So if they got bought out by EA or Activision, it could remove the top management.   Even better we could see the whole operation moved to the US or Europe somewhere.

[tgr]

CCP's problem is top management.   So if they got bought out by EA or Activision, it could remove the top management.   Even better we could see the whole operation moved to the US or Europe somewhere.

No. Don't even joke about EA.

[eldaec]

If they moved away from Iceland just think of all the rotted shark jokes we'd lose.

[sinij]

CCP's problem is top management.   So if they got bought out by EA or Activision, it could remove the top management.   Even better we could see the whole operation moved to the US or Europe somewhere.

No. Don't even joke about EA.

If EA purchases CCP expect P2W cash shop withing couple month and likely F2P, elimination of 0.0 sec space and game largely pushed into "trading simulation" direction.

[tgr]

How would you "pay to win" a trading simulation? Buy more isk?

We have that now.

[Fordel]

I think WoD would have made them more money then the continuation of Eve will.  Even if WoD in itself isn't as hot anymore, it's still vampires, werewolves, etc.  As we've seen from Twilight that sill makes money.

It's not the vampires and werewolves that makes Twilight money.

It kind of is. At least part of the forbidden thrill for young ladies is, I imagine, the brutality and aggressiveness of the boys. If they weren't vampires they would be wife-beaters and the books would be much less romantic.

You'd be surprised how many 'wife-beaters' are actually the protagonists in romance novels. 

[squirrel]

I'm still trying to grok how some jackass seems to think it's a good idea making some random obscure fps title coupled to an old mmo in its death-throws instead of taking the WoD license and running with it.

I'd have ditched Dust, contracted Eve, and doubled-down on WoD if it were me.  Also, does CCP seem to think EVE can compete with the other big titles coming out within the year?   I think not.  The only way the company stays intact is if it develops another successful title, and that title was WoD.  Scrapping/shelving that pretty much spells their doom.

I agree that WoD has/had a brighter future than Dust - only because I can't see Dust succeeding. But I don't know what game you think is going to compete with EVE. It's the antithesis of most games on the horizon.

[calapine]

I agree that WoD has/had a brighter future than Dust - only because I can't see Dust succeeding. But I don't know what game you think is going to compete with EVE. It's the antithesis of most games on the horizon.

You are correcter (more correct?) than Ghambit but Eve always had minor numbers of normal people among its playerbase as well. Insfor it is not totally shielded from outside developments...for example, I think it's a safe bet to predict the launch of SWOTOR will have a noticable effect on subscriber numbers, especially at a moment where player satisfation is at a lowpoint.

My fear is that CCP might falter simply due to not having enough 'fat reserves' to sit out drop in subscription numbers or the sunk cost from a failed development (DUST, WOD).

Cala