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Acquisition lockup: the Pearl Abyss wordmark and the CCP Games logo in white on a dark field, divided by a thin line

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Pearl Abyss Acquires CCP Games for $425M

Image: Composite by New Eden Archive; logos (c) CCP Games / Pearl Abyss · Official logos (c) CCP Games and Pearl Abyss Corp.; composite by New Eden Archive (editorial)

South Korean publisher Pearl Abyss (Black Desert Online) acquires CCP Games. CCP keeps independent operation in Reykjavik but now reports into a Korean parent.

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Pearl Abyss Acquires CCP Games for $425M

On 6 September 2018, Pearl Abyss - the South Korean studio behind Black Desert Online - announced it was acquiring CCP Games in a deal valued at up to $425M USD (around $225M up-front plus up to $200M in deferred performance payouts that were largely never triggered).

CCP continued to operate independently from Reykjavik, London, and Shanghai, with Hilmar Veigar Pétursson remaining CEO. EVE Online itself saw no immediate gameplay impact, but Pearl Abyss's investor reporting became one of the few public sources for EVE's revenue trajectory, and corporate strategy decisions (mobile push, Project Awakening blockchain initiative, etc.) increasingly carried Pearl Abyss fingerprints over the next several years.

The relationship soured over time amid persistent operating losses; Pearl Abyss put CCP up for sale in 2025 and ultimately sold CCP back to its own management in April 2026 for $120M, a substantial loss.

CCP has been (and as of late April 2026 is leaving) Korean ownership for nearly all of the 2018-2026 period. If you left before 2018, the corporate parent is one of the bigger "who actually owns this game" changes in EVE history.

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