“I think we’re now, by the end of this year, we’ll have invested $30 million into virtual reality games,” he told listeners at his keynote address. “And we’re just about seeing a path to break even… We’ll probably hit it in a few months.”
Readers will recall that in November of last year, the company once famous only for sci-fi sandbox EVE Online announced it had raised $30 million from investors and venture capitalists intended to “drive innovation in VR as the technology begins to transform the entertainment industry.” EVE Gunjack, its VR arcade shooter, launched for the Samsung Gear VR a week later, followed by launches on the Oculus Rift and Vive this year. EVE Valkyrie is playable on PC now and is expected to launch for PlayStation VR a month from today.
Petursson said this week that he believes, in what he calls his “conservative outlook,” that VR will pick up in 2018 and 2019. Following what he called a “difficult period of restructuring,” the company says it is “building a cash position” as it invests into VR and EVE Online in the decades to come. EVE itself will transition to a hybrid free-to-play model later this fall.
