The Secret To CCP's Success

During a recent visit, CCP North America president Mike Tinney explained how the EVE Online developers continue to expand in an economic environment where many online gaming companies are cutting back.

The recession hasn't been kind to online game developers, with companies like Mythic, Nexon America, Funcom, and NCsoft all experiencing job cuts and studio closings over the past few months, yet EVE Online creator CCP is growing strong. Mike Tinney explains that it's all a matter of self-sufficiency.

While all these other companies are doing layoffs and scaling back, because we're pretty self-contained - we're not a developer beholden to a publisher; we're not a publisher waiting for a developer. We self-publish EVE Online and support it in its entirety, so we have a lot more ability to react as the world economy shifts, and that's allowed us to retool focus on the core drivers for our business, and steadily grow while a lot of other companies are shrinking.

Growing while other companies are shrinking also gives CCP the benefit of a rather large pool of talented individuals who suddenly find themselves looking for work, as well as developers who are employed, but losing confidence in the way their employees are handling the harsh economic times.

It's given us an opportunity to go into a rapidly filling job market and open up new positions at all three of our locations and start looking for the next round of industry like-minded professionals.

Between EVE Online's steady growth and the development of the World of Darkness online title with its built-in audience of dedicated fans of White Wolf's Vampire role-playing game, CCP has all the pieces in place to continue its growth well into the next decade.