A recent Bloomberg piece hinted at considerations by CCP to sell the company, after they had been approached by perspective buyers. There is very little information at this time, and there are no concrete reports that a buyout is happening. But that won’t stop some people from trying to predict what the future would look like for CCP if they did sell.
CCP hf, the Icelandic game developer that created the cult classic Eve Online game, is exploring strategic options including a sale of the business after receiving interest from potential bidders, according to people with knowledge of the matter.
The closely held company’s owners, which include European investor Novator Partners LLP, U.S. investment fund General Catalyst Partners LLC and venture capitalist New Enterprise Associates Inc., are discussing whether or not to proceed with a sale, the people said, asking not to be identified because the deliberations are private. A sale of CCP could value the business at as much as 900 million euros ($955 million), the people said.
Representatives for CCP, General Catalyst and Novator declined to comment, while New Enterprise didn’t respond to a request for comment.
The gaming landscape is changing for MMOs and MOBAs across the globe. The increasing centralization of game developers under mega-AAA development houses and investment firms has a lot of gamers wondering what the future would look like. People are now wondering just who approached CCP with the idea. Some speculation online points towards firms like Tencent. Tencent Holdings Limited is a Chinese investment holding company whose subsidiaries provide media, entertainment, internet and mobile phone value-added services and operate online advertising services in China. Given that Tencent owns a variety of popular gaming companies like Epic Games, Riot Games and Supercell, it’s easy to see how the assumption could form in the heads of those speculating on the future of CCP.
‘Clash Of Clans’ Maker Supercell Posted $2.3B In Revenue, $930M In Profit For 2015. The sales were up 37 percent from the $1.55 billion reported in 2014.
Riot Games posted $1.6 billion in revenue in 2015, a sharp uptick from 2014. And with digital games sales topping $60 billion in 2015, the trend of growth for these companies isn’t slowing. This explosive growth hasn’t stopped some players of these games from criticizing the likes of Tencent for ruining their games. But their cries against corporate greed and centralization seem to only have a minor impact on the recent growth, or the decisions of developers.
As far as CCP goes, the release of EVE: Ascension and the transition to free-to-play has seen a noticeable uptick in new players, although player retention data isn’t readily available for the period after said transition. The sell-off by CCP of White Wolf to Paradox, and a round of major investment in VR for 2015 signaled a commitment to change for the company. CCP has spent the last two years cleaning up after itself and making room for investment in new projects. The future looks bright in terms of innovation on their core products as well, with work continuing on Project Nova and EVE: Valkyrie signaling a willingness to support EVE: Online well into the future.
It’s hard to say whether the rumors of a potential sale in CCP’s future are anything more than that. CCP isn’t hurting for cash, and they wouldn’t want to shake customer confidence by announcing a sale so soon after the deployment of Ascension, so the near future might be business as usual for the developers and players of EVE: Online.
