Shadow of Cerberus EVE Community Forum

Should CCP Have Saved The Moon Goo Redistribution For Odyssey 1.1?

It's no secret that big nullsec wars are a public relations boon for CCP Games. These wars make it into the media with a big splash. They drive attention to EVE. Which in turn drives new subscribers, all of whom have visions of getting in on the action.

It's no secret that the summer months have been a time when the PCU (peak concurrent user) numbers in EVE Online take a significant dip. Those July through August months. In September, when all those summer holidays are over, the PCU starts recovering.

The War in Fountain lasted through June and July, then came to a close. Whereas I don't doubt that EVE Online saw a bump in new subscribers due to all the media reporting on the war, I wonder if the war at a different time could have shown an even larger bump? The big battles, the war, half of it happened during this normally quieter time in EVE. Certainly it kept people subscribed through the summer who might have otherwise been camping or at the beach or just outside playing some ball. But there were probably potential new subs who didn't subscribe due to holidays and other summer plans. Perhaps they decided they'd wait until the end of the summer before joining.

Now that it is September, what do we have? A big lull in nullsec. Nothing of interest is really happening. For EVE players it's kind of boring. For those that waited the summer out before subscribing, if they are now looking for a reason to subscribe, there really isn't one. If the summer war is what attracted their attention in the first place, there is currently no war to convince them to carry-through with an after-summer subscription.

So I wonder if perhaps holding off on moon goo distribution until September might have been the better decision? A time when PCU is generally better than during the summer. When all those potential new subscribers have more free-time and motivation to sign-up on the spot.

We'll never know ? because so much could have changed between June and September ? but had the War in Fountain happened September and October, rather than June and July, could that have resulted in even more new EVE subscribers?

Something to think about, at any rate, the next time CCP decides to add some conflict drivers into the game. It's always hard to predict exactly when big wars will happen, and how they'll play out, but if adding new mechanics (or changing old) in an effort to spur wars, perhaps timing those changes to points where annual PCU numbers are peaking might be something worth experimenting with.

Something to think about because after a summer doing other things, people are now returning back to their normal lives and their gaming, and with EVE Online in a big conflict lull there's not much to convince new subscribers to fork over their money.
Source: Should CCP Have Saved The Moon Goo Redistribution For Odyssey 1.1?