Pearl Abyss Paid $425M for CCP, Sold It Back for $120M

In 2018, South Korean publisher Pearl Abyss bought CCP Games for roughly $425 million. Yesterday, it sold the studio back to CCP's own management team for $120 million. That is a $305 million haircut on a deal that, by all appearances, never produced anything meaningful for either side.

The split, announced on the newly rebranded studio's website, came after what the companies described as "a joint review of long-term strategy" that identified "broader differences in operating context, current strategic focus, and long-term priorities." Corporate speak for: this isn't working, let's call it. The $120 million price tag includes both cash and non-cash elements, though the exact breakdown wasn't disclosed.

I covered the Google DeepMind angle of this story yesterday, but the financial side of this deal deserves its own spotlight. Pearl Abyss, the studio behind Black Desert and the upcoming Crimson Desert, spent the equivalent of a blockbuster game budget acquiring CCP, and seven years later walked away with less than a third of that investment back. I struggle to name what Pearl Abyss got out of this partnership. CCP kept making EVE. Pearl Abyss kept making its own games. The two companies operated on different continents with different philosophies, and the acquisition never seemed to produce the synergies that typically justify a deal this size.

$305 Million, Gone

What makes the loss even more striking is that CCP wasn't struggling. CEO Hilmar Veigar Pétursson confirmed in a memo to the EVE community that 2025 produced record revenue in November, one of the strongest quarters in EVE Online's 20-plus year history, and over $70 million in total reported revenue for the year. This wasn't a fire sale of a failing asset. Pearl Abyss let go of a profitable, self-sustaining studio at a fraction of what it paid because the strategic fit simply never materialised.

The studio has now rebranded as Fenris Creations, returning to an ownership structure similar to how it operated before the 2018 acquisition. The new board is chaired by Omega Ventures co-founder Birgir Már Ragnarsson, while Pétursson remains CEO. No layoffs, no office closures, no restructuring. Studios in Reykjavík, London, and Shanghai continue as before, and the full slate of projects, including EVE Online, EVE Vanguard, EVE Frontier, and EVE Galaxy Conquest, remains intact.

Pétursson framed the independence as a positive. "This transition gives us direct ownership, clear accountability, and the independence to invest in worlds that grow over decades," he said. He was diplomatic about the Pearl Abyss years, thanking the publisher for "consistent support" over seven and a half years. But the subtext is hard to miss: CCP's leadership wanted out, and Pearl Abyss apparently agreed the relationship had run its course.

The other half of this announcement is a new research partnership with Google DeepMind, which has taken a minority equity stake in Fenris Creations. An offline version of EVE Online will serve as a training environment for DeepMind's AI models, with research focused on long-horizon planning, memory, and continual learning. DeepMind CEO Demis Hassabis cited his own history in game development and DeepMind's track record of using games like Go and StarCraft for AI breakthroughs. That partnership carries its own set of questions, particularly given that DeepMind workers have recently voted to unionise over concerns about military AI applications, but it's a separate conversation from the financial story here.

The financial story is simple and brutal. Pearl Abyss spent $425 million on a studio it didn't know how to use, held it for seven years while it operated essentially unchanged, and sold it back for $120 million. For Pearl Abyss shareholders, that's a loss that dwarfs most failed game launches. For CCP's team, now operating as Fenris Creations, it's a second chance at independence with a profitable business, a loyal player base, and new backing from one of the biggest tech companies on the planet.

More details on Fenris Creations' plans, including the DeepMind research, will be shared at EVE Fanfest 2026, which begins on May 14.