Pearl Abyss Is Selling EVE Online Studio CCP Games Back to Management

Pearl Abyss is unwinding one of its biggest international studio deals, selling EVE Online developer CCP Games back to the studio's current management for $120 million.

Inven Global reported that Pearl Abyss announced the sale in a regulatory filing on April 30, valuing the deal at about 177.1 billion won. ChosunBiz reported that the buyer is CCP CEO Hilmar Petursson and that the scheduled disposal date is May 6.

The deal would move CCP, the Icelandic studio behind one of PC gaming's longest-running MMOs, out of Pearl Abyss ownership almost eight years after the Black Desert company bought it.

EVE Online's studio returns to management ownership

Pearl Abyss said the sale is intended to improve its financial structure and increase management efficiency, according to ChosunBiz. The company also said the two sides had been operating under independent management principles and concluded that a management sale would benefit both companies' mid-to-long-term strategies.

Inven Global reported that Pearl Abyss described CCP's operating losses as a burden on its consolidated financials, while also saying the two companies remain open to future collaboration after the equity relationship ends.

For EVE Online players, the most immediate change is corporate ownership rather than an announced shift in the MMO itself. CCP was founded in 1997, and EVE Online launched in 2003 as a single-shard space MMO famous for its player-driven economy, alliances and large-scale conflicts.

Pearl Abyss bought CCP in 2018

Pearl Abyss announced its acquisition of CCP Games in 2018, saying at the time that CCP would continue to operate independently with studios in Reykjavik, London and Shanghai. That announcement framed the deal as a way for Pearl Abyss to secure global IP and bring CCP's development and publishing experience into its wider business.

The sale reverses that ownership structure. Pearl Abyss is now focusing resources around its own internally developed titles, while CCP returns to a management-led future with EVE Online still at the center of the studio's identity.