Earlier this month, we covered an emerging scandal in EVE Online: CCP Games had announced that it had removed a member of the current player body, the Council of Stellar Management, accusing Brian “Brisc Rubal” Schoeneman of leaking NDA-bound information used for insider trading. Two alleged accomplices were also banned. The story blew up in part because Schoeneman had been previously spotlighted for his day job as a GOP lobbyist in Washington, D.C., and because he had strenuously denied the accusations across social media.
CCP is generally pretty terse on topics like these; it seldom makes a first statement about a ban, let alone a second, but that’s exactly what we’ve gotten, and while it doesn’t exactly exonerate the three players affected, it does cast some doubt on how ironclad the evidence was in the first place. Here’s the core of the statement:
“We have held further discussions with the affected parties. We have also been conducting an internal review to substantiate the evidence available to us and evaluate our handling of the situation. We intend to share a full follow-up statement next week. Transparency, fairness and trust is of utmost importance to us, which is why we’re issuing this brief update while also taking the time to ensure that we conduct a thorough investigation. We understand that there are many questions lingering over the incident, and we want to assure you that we take this matter very seriously. Both the sanctity of the CSM and the relationship we have with our players is of paramount importance to CCP.”
The studio also promises it’ll issue apologies and reparations for “any mistakes for which [it was] responsible.” Yikes.
