The past few days have seen many EVE Online players up in arms over the sale of a mining barge bundle that CCP Games put out last week, causing player outcry and a media blackout on Twitch. Player complaints primarily referenced the damage the barge’s sale would do to the game’s economy and decried the bundle as another pay-to-win maneuver from the studio.
Late Friday night (which is always a hot time for community news), CCP Games put out a statement on the matter that confirmed the mining barge pack will no longer be sold while outlining a plan for upcoming ship packs that are supplied by the players themselves.
“Economic impact and the integrity of the player economy are a top priority. We have limited this pack to one per account and are closely monitoring its effect on the player market. One of the topics for Fanfest is a new project that we’re in the middle of developing, that will transform these and any future packs – a paradigm where packs of this type will be supplied by players, ensuring that any ship we offer to new players through sales, will have origins from actual player work in New Eden: Made for new players, by veterans. This feature will also not only supply each ship from the player base but allow the community to influence which ships will be put in these packs.”
As for why the mining barge bundle was created and sold in the first place, CCP claims that the demand for this sort of pack from new players was clearly there and packs of this kind further helped with new player attrition:
“Part of our experimentation in the new player journey has included the introduction of various packs and sales that give new players strong but limited options to jump forward and catch up with their peers. The destroyer-themed starter packs showed that there is not only an appetite for this kind of option but that these pilots transition into bona fide EVE players; they have aspirations, desire to interact with others, and contribute to EVE’s thriving ecosystem – they become tenured and impactful citizens of New Eden.”
In the future, CCP Games promises that the CSM will have a quarterly meeting to discuss pack sales and other economic topics in order to keep community feedback involved.
Response to this post has been largely unkind, with many people pointing out that players can simply get ships “made for new players, by veterans” from the in-game market, while others accuse CCP of simply getting the money they wanted out of the barge and bailing. “Dude just sell cosmetic skins for our space barbies and things will be chill for both us and y’all,” reads one reply.
