CCP releases latest EVE economic update

The active subscriber base for CCP's space-based MMO Eve Online grew by 14 per cent between the third and fourth quarters of 2007, according to the latest quarterly economic newsletter from resident economist Dr Eyjólfur Guðmundsson.

Prompted by the release of Trinity, a large content upgrade added in December, the active player base hit 220,000 users, all co-existing in the same unsharded universe, and that's estimated to rise to 250,000 by the end of June 2008.

An in-depth analysis of the game's economy - one of the most complex that exists for videogames because it relies almost completely on player activity - shows that while during Q3 there was a general price deflation, that transformed into inflation of around 12 per cent in Q4.

The newsletter also detailed the ongoing work by Dr Guðmundsson in establishing a viable and accurate version of Gross Domestic Product for the Eve universe - something which has never been attempted accurately for a videogame before.

The measure, which will be known as Gross User Product, should be ready for release in the next newsletter, but estimates put the figure at around ISK 30 trillion (the in-game currency is loosely based on Iceland's real-world currency) for June last year.

The newsletter also details a number of price flows for in-game items, such as minerals used for production, and types of spacecraft.

Dr Guðmundsson was the formed dean of economics at Reykjavik university before joining the CCP staff last year. The full newsletter is available now.