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CCP Games

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CCP Games
Information
Industry Video games
Founded 1997
Founder Reynir Harðarson, Þórólfur Beck Kristjónsson, Ívar Kristjánsson
Headquarters Vatnsmýrin, Iceland
Notable Personnel Hilmar Veigar Pétursson (CEO)
Products EVE Online, EVE: Valkyrie, Gunjack, Gunjack 2: End of Shift, Sparc
Website https://fenris.com


CCP Games is an Icelandic video game developer founded in 1997 and best known for the online space game EVE Online, which it launched in May 2003.[1][2] In May 2026, after its management bought the company back from the publisher Pearl Abyss, it became independent again and began operating under the new name Fenris Creations.[3]

Between 2013 and 2017 CCP developed several virtual reality games. Its EVE-VR prototype for the Oculus Rift developer kit grew into EVE: Valkyrie, a multiplayer space combat game that launched with the consumer Rift in 2016 and later came to PlayStation VR and the HTC Vive.[4] The company also made the mobile VR shooters Gunjack and Gunjack 2: End of Shift and the PlayStation VR sport Sparc. In October 2017 it closed its Atlanta studio, sold its Newcastle studio and stopped VR development.[5]

Reviewed 27 September 2026. Checked every cited source for founding, EVE-VR origins, VR game release dates, prices and studios, the 2015 funding round, the 2017 VR exit, 2022 server shutdowns, the Pearl Abyss purchase and 2026 buyback and Fenris Creations rebrand. About review dates.

History

Founding and EVE Online

CCP was founded in Reykjavík in 1997 by Reynir Harðarson, Þórólfur Beck Kristjónsson and Ívar Kristjánsson. To finance its early work, the company published a board game, Hættuspil ("Danger Game"), in 1998, which sold well in Iceland.[2] EVE Online, its flagship game, was released in 2003 after three years of production.[2]

Virtual reality (2013-2017)

CCP's VR work started as a side project. According to a 2013 account by developer CCP Karuck, it was prompted by John Carmack's VR prototype shown at E3 2012 and by Palmer Luckey's Oculus VR Kickstarter campaign, which CCP backed. A group of twelve CCP developers, including staff with Unity experience and people who had worked in VR before, took on the project. The team received its first two Oculus Rift developer kits at the end of February 2013 and built a working multiplayer prototype in about three weeks, working mostly in evenings and weekends. The demo, called EVE-VR, was revealed during the keynote at EVE Fanfest 2013, and nearly 1,000 attendees tried it at the event.[6] After further showings, including at E3 2013, CCP announced in August 2013 that it would turn the demo into a full game, EVE: Valkyrie. CEO Hilmar Veigar Pétursson described the game as having started as "a passion project by a small, incredibly talented group of CCP developers".[7] UploadVR later described CCP as a particularly early supporter of Oculus, dating back to the Rift's Kickstarter campaign.[8]

CCP's first released VR game was Gunjack, an arcade shooter set in the EVE universe and built with Unreal Engine 4. It was made by the company's Shanghai studio and went on sale for the Samsung Gear VR on 20 November 2015 at 9.99 US dollars.[1] In November 2015 CCP raised 30 million US dollars in a round led by New Enterprise Associates, with Novator Partners taking part, to fund more VR content. Fortune reported that the company had several further VR prototypes in development at the time, and Pétursson told the magazine that CCP had people on three continents working on VR.[9]

EVE: Valkyrie, developed by CCP's Newcastle studio, and Gunjack both launched on the Oculus Rift in March 2016. At the time CCP priced the Valkyrie Founder's Pack at 59.99 US dollars and Gunjack at 9.99 US dollars.[4] Valkyrie reached PlayStation VR on 13 October 2016, the headset's launch day, with cross-play between PC and PS4.[10] CCP announced a Vive version, due in November 2016, at its EVE Vegas event that October.[11]

The Shanghai studio followed with Gunjack 2: End of Shift, a sequel that replaced head aiming with controller aiming. CCP announced it on 4 October 2016 as an exclusive for Google Daydream, due that November.[12][13] After its Daydream release it came to the Samsung Gear VR on 11 December 2017, when CCP also listed Oculus Rift, HTC Vive and PlayStation VR versions.[14] The Atlanta studio made Sparc, a one-on-one "virtual sport" in which players throw and deflect a ball using two PlayStation Move controllers. It launched on PlayStation VR on 29 August 2017 for 29.99 US dollars.[15] In September 2017 the Warzone update (EVE: Valkyrie – Warzone) made Valkyrie playable without a headset on PC and PS4, reworked its ship classes and added new maps and an Extraction mode.[16]

Exit from VR

On 30 October 2017 CCP announced that it would close its Atlanta studio and sell its Newcastle studio, changes that affected about 100 employees across its offices. Road to VR quoted Pétursson as saying the company had "faith in virtual reality in the long run".[5] UploadVR reported that the company's leadership believed the VR market needed a few more years to mature before CCP would invest in VR development again.[8] In January 2018 the British developer Sumo Digital bought the Newcastle studio, taking on 34 CCP staff under studio director Owen O'Brien, who had joined CCP in 2013 as executive producer of Valkyrie.[17]

CCP later ended online support for its two multiplayer VR games. EVE: Valkyrie and Sparc were taken off sale and their servers were shut down on 5 August 2022. CCP said the move was made "to focus CCP Games' efforts and resources on new developments in the evolving portfolio of EVE Universe titles".[18][19]

Pearl Abyss ownership and Fenris Creations

Pearl Abyss announced on 6 September 2018 that it would acquire CCP, with the company continuing to operate as an independent developer.[20] The deal was valued at about 425 million US dollars.[21]

In May 2026 Pearl Abyss sold CCP back to a management team led by Pétursson for 177 billion won, about 120 million US dollars.[21] On 6 May 2026 the company announced that it had become independent under the name Fenris Creations, governed by its own board of directors and owned by senior management and long-term investors. Google DeepMind took a minority stake as part of a research partnership built around an offline version of EVE Online.[3][22] The company said its headquarters would stay in Vatnsmýrin, Iceland, with studios in Reykjavík, London and Shanghai. Besides EVE Online, it listed two EVE games in development: EVE Vanguard, an extraction-adventure first-person shooter, and EVE Frontier, an online space survival game. Neither was announced as a VR title.[3]

Products

CCP released the following VR games. Its main product, EVE Online, is not a VR game.

Title Released Platforms Studio Notes
Gunjack 20 November 2015 (Gear VR); March 2016 (Rift) Samsung Gear VR, Oculus Rift Shanghai CCP's first released VR game; Unreal Engine 4 arcade turret shooter[1][4]
EVE: Valkyrie March 2016 (Rift); 13 October 2016 (PSVR) Oculus Rift, PlayStation VR, HTC Vive Newcastle Multiplayer space dogfighting; PC and PS4 cross-play; servers closed 5 August 2022[4][10][18]
Gunjack 2: End of Shift 2016 (Daydream); 11 December 2017 (Gear VR) Google Daydream, Samsung Gear VR Shanghai Controller-aimed sequel to Gunjack[12][13][14]
Sparc 29 August 2017 PlayStation VR Atlanta One-on-one virtual sport using two PlayStation Move controllers; servers closed 5 August 2022[15][18]

See also

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 "Gunjack Now Available for Samsung Gear VR". CCP Games. 2015-11-20. https://fenris.com/news/2015/gunjack-now-available-for-samsung-gear-vr. Retrieved 2026-09-27.
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 "Founding of the Icelandic Gaming Industry". Icelandic Game Industry. https://www.igi.is/history. Retrieved 2026-09-27.
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 "Studio Behind EVE Online Goes Independent, Rebrands as Fenris Creations, Enters Research Partnership with Google DeepMind". Fenris Creations. 2026-05-06. https://fenris.com/news/2026/studio-behind-eve-online-goes-independent-rebrands-as-fenris-creations-enters-research-partnership-with-google-deepmind. Retrieved 2026-09-27.
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 "CCP Ushers in New Era of Virtual Reality with Launch of EVE: Valkyrie and Gunjack on Oculus Rift". CCP Games. 2016-03-29. https://fenris.com/news/2016/ccp-ushers-in-new-era-of-virtual-reality-with-launch-of-eve-valkyrie-and-gunjack-on-oculus-rift. Retrieved 2026-09-27.
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 Scott Hayden (2017-10-30). "CCP to Shelve VR as It Shutters Atlanta Office, Sells Branch Behind 'EVE: Valkryie' in Newcastle". Road to VR. https://www.roadtovr.com/ccp-shelve-vr-shutters-atlanta-office-sells-branch-behind-eve-valkryie-new-castle/. Retrieved 2026-09-27.
  6. ↑ CCP Karuck (2013-06-07). "EVE-VR: An experiment in bringing virtual reality to the EVE Universe". EVE Online. https://www.eveonline.com/news/view/eve-vr-an-experiment-in-bringing-virtual-reality-to-the-eve-universe. Retrieved 2026-09-27.
  7. ↑ Mike Fahey (2013-08-21). "EVE Online's Stunning Oculus Rift Demo Becomes A Real Game". Kotaku. https://kotaku.com/eve-onlines-stunning-oculus-rift-demo-becomes-a-real-g-1176241180. Retrieved 2026-09-27.
  8. ↑ 8.0 8.1 Ian Hamilton (2017-10-30). "CCP Games Ending VR Efforts After Building Its Biggest Titles". UploadVR. https://www.uploadvr.com/ccp-games-stops-vr-efforts/. Retrieved 2026-09-27.
  9. ↑ John Gaudiosi (2015-11-16). "Game Publishers Are Hesitant About VR - Except This One". Fortune. https://fortune.com/2015/11/16/ccp-games-virtual-reality-investment/. Retrieved 2026-09-27.
  10. ↑ 10.0 10.1 Teddy Keefe (2016-10-06). "Dare to Rise in Eve: Valkyrie, Launching October 13 on PS VR". PlayStation.Blog. https://blog.playstation.com/2016/10/06/dare-to-rise-in-eve-valkyrie-launching-october-13-on-ps-vr/. Retrieved 2026-09-27.
  11. ↑ Jamie Feltham (2016-10-30). "'EVE: Valkyrie' Arrives on Vive Very, Very Soon, New Content Teased". UploadVR. https://www.uploadvr.com/eve-valkyrie-arrives-vive-soon-new-content-teased/. Retrieved 2026-09-27.
  12. ↑ 12.0 12.1 "CCP Games Announces Gunjack 2: End of Shift exclusively for Google's Daydream Platform". CCP Games. 2016-10-04. https://fenris.com/news/2016/ccp-games-announces-gunjack-2-end-of-shift-exclusively-for-googles-daydream-platform/. Retrieved 2026-09-27.
  13. ↑ 13.0 13.1 David Jagneaux (2016-10-04). "Gunjack 2: End of Shift from CCP Launches Exclusively on Google Daydream This November". UploadVR. https://www.uploadvr.com/gunjack-2-daydream-november/. Retrieved 2026-09-27.
  14. ↑ 14.0 14.1 "CCP Games' Gunjack 2: End of Shift Blasts onto Samsung Gear VR". CCP Games. 2017-12-11. https://fenris.com/news/2017/ccp-games-gunjack-2-end-of-shift-blasts-onto-samsung-gear-vr. Retrieved 2026-09-27.
  15. ↑ 15.0 15.1 Morgan Godat (2017-07-26). "Sparc, the Fast-Paced Virtual Sport from CCP, Launches on PS VR August 29". PlayStation.Blog. https://blog.playstation.com/2017/07/26/sparc-the-fast-paced-virtual-sport-from-ccp-launches-on-ps-vr-august-29/. Retrieved 2026-09-27.
  16. ↑ Scott Hayden (2017-09-26). "Massive 'EVE: Valkyrie' Update 'Warzone' Rolls Out Today, Including PC and PS4 Support". Road to VR. https://roadtovr.com/massive-eve-valkyrie-update-warzone-rolls-today-including-pc-ps4-support/. Retrieved 2026-09-27.
  17. ↑ Scott Hayden (2018-01-03). "CCP Studio Behind 'EVE: Valkyrie' Acquired by Sumo Digital". Road to VR. https://www.roadtovr.com/sumo-digital-acquires-ccps-studio-behind-eve-valkyrie/. Retrieved 2026-09-27.
  18. ↑ 18.0 18.1 18.2 Josef Erl (2022-07-07). "Online VR games EVE: Valkyrie and Sparc - servers are shut down". MIXED. https://mixed-news.com/en/online-vr-games-eve-valkyrie-and-sparc-servers-are-shut-down/. Retrieved 2026-09-27.
  19. ↑ Scott Hayden (2022-08-02). "CCP is Finally Pulling the Plug on VR Pioneers 'EVE: Valkyrie' and 'Sparc'". Road to VR. https://roadtovr.com/ccp-eve-valkyrie-sparc-shutdown-date/. Retrieved 2026-09-27.
  20. ↑ "Pearl Abyss Acquires CCP Games, Makers of EVE Online". Pearl Abyss. 2018-09-06. https://www.pearlabyss.com/en-US/Board/Detail?_boardNo=187. Retrieved 2026-09-27.
  21. ↑ 21.0 21.1 Rachel Kaser (2026-05-04). "Pearl Abyss sells CCP Games to its management for $120M". GamesBeat. https://gamesbeat.com/pearl-abyss-sells-ccp-games-to-its-management-for-120m/. Retrieved 2026-09-27.
  22. ↑ Chris Kerr (2026-05-06). "EVE Online dev turns independent and rebrands as Fenris Creations". Game Developer. https://www.gamedeveloper.com/business/eve-online-studio-ccp-games-turns-independent-and-rebrands-as-fenris-creations. Retrieved 2026-09-27.
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