The Safe Spot — Episode 7: "Pearl Abyss & Fanfest"

Big news this episode — Pearl Abyss is selling CCP Games back to its own leadership team, and Rixx and I break down what that means for EVE Online, Frontier, and Vanguard. 

We also look ahead to Fanfest 2026 (which neither of us is attending this year, don't judge), swap some FanFest war stories from years past, geek out over the EVE Faction Warfare Yearbook, touch on the brand-new Capsuleer Days event, and Rixx shares a couple of PvP encounters that remind us all why you check local and never fly what you can't afford to lose.

Show Notes / Table of Contents

1. Pearl Abyss sells CCP Games back to its leadership — The big headline: Pearl Abyss acquired CCP in 2018 for around $425 million and has now sold it back to the management team led by Hilmar for roughly $125 million, just two weeks before Fanfest. We talk about what this means for the studio's independence, who might be providing financial backing, and why the timing feels very deliberate — with more details expected at Fanfest.
   
   
2. What happens to Frontier and Vanguard? — With CCP no longer under Pearl Abyss's umbrella, we wonder how the studio carries two major side projects alongside EVE Online. We dig into CCP's history of experimental development — from World of Darkness to VR — and whether that Icelandic instinct to explore always ends up feeding the core game. I share my early impressions of EVE Frontier after picking up a founder pack, and Rixx talks about being in the very first alpha test and how much the game has evolved — plus we float the theory that Frontier's Web3 and blockchain angle may actually be attracting serious outside investment, especially after a very successful recent hackathon with over 800 modders. Vanguard also gets a mention as the spiritual PC successor to Dust 514, minus the PlayStation exclusivity mistake.
   
   
3. Fanfest 2026 is two weeks away (and we're not going) — Neither Rixx nor I are attending this year. Rixx and his wife have been to eight Fanfests since 2015 and basically seen the entire island of Iceland, so it still feels like they just got back. I've been twice — 2008 and 2011 — and I'm targeting next year instead, possibly timed to CCP's 30th anniversary. We both agree that watching the stream will be interesting and that next year is the one to plan for.
   
   
4. Why every EVE player should attend a Fanfest or player event at least once — We swap stories about the magic of meeting corpmates and rivals in person. Rixx describes arriving in Reykjavik for the first time and being recognized on the street before breakfast, then falling into a table of 30 EVE players at the laundromat — selling posters, signing autographs, having dinner with CCP Seagull, the whole whirlwind. I recall meeting corpmates from the States for the first time at my 2008 Fanfest and covering the event for PC Gamer in 2011. We shout out EVE Vegas, EVE Toronto, EVE Amsterdam, and the small-scale meetups — Rixx hosted players at his home for five years, I organized pub meetups here in Montreal — and the point is the same: you share a universe, you share a single shard, and that instant common ground is unlike anything else in gaming.
   
   
5. The EVE Faction Warfare Yearbook by T Sky — I stumbled back into this 94-page document after my break and it's absolutely incredible. Published by T Sky (of EVE Frigates fame), it's packed with frigate stats, fits, killboard deep dives, and balance analysis going all the way back to 2013. We'll drop links in the show notes — if you're into faction warfare or frigate PvP, this is a treasure trove.
   
   
6. Capsuleer Days event and the Warpath — A new in-game event dropped literally the day we recorded, so neither of us has much detail yet. It's the annual Capsuleer Days celebration leading into Fanfest, with free skins, skill points, daily login rewards, and event sites scattered everywhere. Rixx warped into one, thought he was getting scrammed by rats, and bailed. We'll have more to chew on next episode once we've actually explored them.
   
   
7. PvP stories from lowsec — Rixx shares two encounters. First, he catches a month-old player mining in a Pioneer destroyer, takes it out, sends the guy a million ISK with an encouraging note — and then the pilot comes back in a Thorax and gets killed again, having apparently learned nothing about checking local for a -10 flashy red skull. Rixx even has to bump the guy's pod to get him to warp off. Second, there's the "most boring fight ever" short — a Hookbill with a target disruptor and long point kiting his Comet at 23km for nearly 10 minutes of slow, painful death at 120 DPS. The takeaway for both: sometimes you just take your lumps, and never fly what you can't afford to lose.
   
   
8. Next episode: post-Fanfest special — We're holding the next recording until after Fanfest wraps and dropping it the Tuesday after, so expect a full debrief on everything CCP announces. See you on the other side of Fanfest 2026.

Where to find us! 

If you enjoyed this episode, you can catch The Safe Spot wherever you get your podcasts — find us on Spotify and Apple Podcasts. Past episodes and full show notes are up on the blog at crazykinux.ca. And if you're watching on YouTube, do us a solid — like, subscribe, and drop a comment. It helps more than you think.

Fly safe. o7