EVE Online is one of the longest-standing MMOs of all time, celebrating its 22nd anniversary since its launch in 2003. In this episode, host Alexandra Takei , Director at Ruckus Games, sits down with CCP Games’ CEO Hilmar Petursson to unpack how the Icelandic studio still maintains one of gaming’s most complex live worlds, a single universe that has generated over $1B in lifetime revenue and 25 million players. Hilmar walks through CCP’s four eras: the pre-Steam founding years, the Steam transition, Pearl Abyss’s acquisition, and the studio today, revealing how an original team of thirty developers pioneered player-driven economies, massive social coordination, and a forever game. The conversation then turns to EVE Frontier, CCP’s new blockchain-powered spin-off built on the Sui network . Hilmar explains why he believes blockchain is the next natural step in EVE’s evolution, not as a trend, but as a means to true player ownership and another step in the direction of a forever game: persistence that is independent of the company, its servers, and its original creators. The episode closes on the state of the industry today from Hilmar’s perspective – why attention and discovery are gaming’s hardest problems and how developers can learn from EVE’s social design to build long-lasting worlds. We’d also like to thank Lysto for making this episode possible! Lysto is revolutionizing how game development teams collect and act on real player feedback with its AI-powered playtesting insights. Learn more about how you can get bias-free feedback at https://lysto.gg/?utm_source=naavik&utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=ad If you like the episode, please help others find us by leaving a 5-star rating or review! And if you have any comments, requests, or feedback shoot us a note at
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