CCP Games goes independent with $120 million management buyout
EVE Frontier developer CCP Games has become an independent company again following a management buyout from its owner, South Korean publisher Pearl Abyss.
Pearl Abyss acquired CCP Games in 2018 for $225 million. But its plan to significantly grow the business floundered. Instead, CCP Games has become a financial drag, racking up annual losses, including $19 million in 2024. In recent years, Pearl Abyss has lent CCP Games $50 million to finance its operations.
In contrast, Pearl Abyss’ own titles, notably Crimson Desert, have been very successful, which is one of the reasons it’s been keen to offload the developer, even at a loss.
The result is Pearl Abyss has announced that it’s sold CCP Games to its CEO, Hilmar Veigar Pétursson, for $100 million in cash and $20 million-worth of tokens in EVE Frontier.
In that context, the development of EVE Frontier is itself being funded by $40 million raised from investors such as a16z and Bitkraft, who also took their stake in the game via a token allocation.
As well as games such as the core EVE Online game and extraction shooter EVE Vanguard, which is due for release in Q3 2026, the company has invested heavily in R&D, including open-sourcing its Carbon development tools. Combined with its integration with Mysten Labs’ Sui blockchain, this is part of the strategy to make CCP Games a more decentralized entity that runs games that can last forever.
That said, several questions remain unanswered about the management buy-out. These include
- who’s providing the cash for the deal,
- how much cash CCP Games will have for future operations, and
- what’s happening with the $50 million it owes Pearl Abyss?
Hopefully, we’ll find out before too long, particularly as the deal is set to close on 6th May and annual community event EVE Fest starts on 14th May.
