An undercover investigator claims to have evidence that CCP Games executives are deliberately tanking revenues to participate in a grant program by the Icelandic government. The program pays up to half of the full-time employee’s salaries on behalf of businesses that have seen a drop in income due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Upon condition of anonymity, the investigator reports that it is in their best interests to reduce recognized revenues to qualify for the baseline grant program. The team costs the same no matter how much revenue they recognize. By implementing changes guaranteed to decrease income, CCP Games can cut salary costs in half, thereby guaranteeing a profit and forestalling the inevitable hands-on intervention by parent company executives. This has the additional benefit of protecting profits in anticipation of Hilmar’s retirement.
PLEX sales are not considered revenue until the PLEX is exchanged for value. As such, marketing efforts to promote PLEX sales are particularly desirable, as they maintain cash flow while allowing CCP Games to claim a substantial drop in revenues due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Unpopular changes drive Peak Concurrent User counts down, and the vast majority of players are AFK in a few systems, further reducing CCP Games expenses for cooling and electricity.
It is genius, really, the investigator claimed that the CCP may even qualify for the additional grants available for companies that have lost between 60-80% of revenues.
But, the observant might argue, what about the fact that CCP Peak Concurrent User count and the recent rash of unsubscriptions comes as Iceland is officially claiming things are “back to normal?” Ah, that’s the genius. There is nothing that specifies whether the drop in revenue is associated with pandemic response measures versus pandemic recovery. Both qualify as “due to the COVID-19” pandemic.
As usual, CCP offers no comment whatsoever in response to player concerns.
