According to a recent blog post from EVE Online developer CCP, the company is ending its licensing and support deal in China, in favor of a different deal in-country with another company.
We’re delighted to announce that the story of EVE Online will continue in China, as CCP partners with NetEase Games to take New Eden’s Serenity server to the next level for Chinese capsuleers.
According to Chinese regulations, companies wishing to launch services in China must have the support of a local company to manage the product or service. This requirement was previously satisfied by CCP with their relationships with Tiancity. While Tiancity had handled EVE Online’s affairs in China since the sever’s launch in 2012, CCP has been looking for a new more lucrative deal within the region for a while now.
It seems that the search is finally over, as CCP will enter into a new deal with NetEase after September 30, 2018. And those concerned with the future of Serenity, NetEase has other gaming relationships with Bungie and Microsoft as either an investor or direct manager of certain products. NetEase manages the Chinese version of Minecraft for example.
And even though CCP isn’t officially shutting down Serenity, it seems as though the plan is to keep the game in maintenance mode for the time being. The players on Serenity have been migrating to the main Tranquility server for a while now for a variety of reasons, so it will be interesting to see how this chnage affects the long-term player base on the Chinese EVE Online server.
