Seoul, Reykjavík
In a stunning turn of events following the public outcry over many EVE Online players being treated as “unwilling collateral damage,” Pearl Abyss CEO Robin Jung has ordered freshly-acquired CCP Games to suspend a “balance pass” previously scheduled to be released in October. “Pearl Abyss is committed to engaging with the player community and reviewing player feedback, for without players, we as developers would be out of a job. This culture extends throughout all of Pearl Abyss and our subsidiaries and we will not tolerate poor decisions that threaten the health of the player communities we have worked so hard to cultivate.”
Seeking to reassure investors during a quarterly shareholders’ meeting, Jung expressed dismay at CCP’s lack of public relations expertise. “It is utterly embarrassing for a company to refer to some of its own players as ‘unwilling collateral damage,’ and it is for that reason that I reluctantly invoke the veto power established in Article Six.”
Article Six of the “Acquisition Agreement Concerning Pearl Abyss and CCP Games” outlines the procedure by which Pearl Abyss, as the majority owner of CCP Games, can suspend the “creative independence” established in Article One of the same document. Notably, this invocation of the veto power can only be exercised through unanimous agreement of the Pearl Abyss Board of Directors, indicating that Jung did not issue the declaration unilaterally—and likely over the objection of CCP.
Under normal circumstances, Article One governs the unique relationship between Pearl Abyss and CCP Games, in which the former allows the latter to develop pre-established IPs such as EVE Online with full creative independence. However, as Jung explained to shareholders, Article Six provides the boundaries within which that creativity must abide. Furthermore, it supplies Pearl Abyss with a great amount of flexibility for how to handle emergent breaches of creative conduct, with remedies ranging in seriousness from ordering a simple review of policy to outright removing CCP developers, employees, or executives from the company.
In this case, Jung—and the Pearl Abyss Board of Directors—selected a relatively light sanctions package. In a statement issued by the Chairman of Pearl Abyss, Dae-Il Kim, “The Pearl Abyss Board of Directors hereby unanimously orders CCP Games to suspend the release of the ‘October Balance Pass’ until further notice, to establish player-led focus groups to analyze, review, and propose amendments to the ‘October Balance Pass’ as currently published, and to issue an immediate apology for insulting a significant portion of the player population. At the heart of this order, we expect CCP to listen to its playerbase.”
Despite what some observers in Reykjavik are calling a “heavy-handed” response disproportionate to the offense, Jung struck a forgiving and optimistic tone. “CCP Games has much to learn about how to properly treat players. We can either choose to see them as a piggy bank or walking wallets, or as living, breathing people who share in the creative storytelling and development of our games. It is a long and arduous process but I remain confident that CCP will continue to learn and grow in this regard.”
