Reykjavik, Iceland, 3. December 2003 – CCP hf., the developer of the highly-acclaimed Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game (MMORPG) title EVE Online, announced today that is has regained the publishing rights for the title worldwide and will start distributing it as a direct download from the Internet.
“We are very pleased to be in a position where we can contribute equally to both development and publishing,” says Ivar Kristjansson, CEO of CCP. “We have reached an agreement with Simon & Schuster Inc. and Vivendi International regarding Canada and North America, as well as with Crucial Limited for Europe.” Kristjansson adds, “In order to give this web-based distribution of EVE the launch it deserves, we have redesigned the EVE Online website and added a lot of new content.”
“We expect the downloadable version to increase global sales sharply and we have started operating a global affiliate program to motivate the online sales channel,” Mr. Kristjansson said. For further information about the affiliate program, please visit: https://secure.eve-online.com/affiliate.
“Our player base has been growing steadily since the launch of EVE Online in May. Our game servers are in good shape and we are technically ready for much faster growth now,” said Hilmar V. Petursson, CCP’s Chief Technical Officer. ”The player community is a great source of new ideas for the future development of the game. EVE Online is an evolving, living game and we can’t wait to see how the players will react to some of the new stuff we will be adding in the future.”
About CCP Games and EVE Online
CCP is a privately held company founded in 1997. It was created with a strong vision of developing online games that focus on maximizing player interaction and on utilizing the new, unexplored possibilities arising when thousands of players interacting in the same game world.
EVE is a massively multiplayer online game set in a persistent world. It is played via the Internet and takes place in an unknown region of space, in a unique world that is alive and kicking. Players are spaceship captains cruising around the universe - trading, fighting and communicating with other players.
In this expanding galaxy, five major empires hold the balance of power. For more than a century, they have lived together in relative peace as each of them realizes only too well the grave consequences of a massive interstellar war. Recent technological breakthroughs have shaken, but not broken, the fragile peace - at least not yet.
For further information visit http://www.eve-online.com/.