CCP Games is no more: EVE Online studio changes its name as it goes independent and enters an AI research partnership with Google DeepMind

Ah, the smell of desperation in Reykjavik. CCP Games, the folks behind EVE Online, have rebranded to Fenris Creations — a name that sounds like a Norse wolf from their own game's lore. Now they're 'independent' and teaming up with Google DeepMind.

The plan: train DeepMind AI on an offline copy of EVE Online — a twenty-year-old spaceship simulator notorious for its player-driven economy, corporate espionage, and elaborate scams. DeepMind, which once conquered Go and StarCraft, now gets to learn how to optimise asteroid mining and dodge pirate ambushes. Because nothing says 'AI safety research' like teaching algorithms to inflate the price of Tritanium in a virtual market. The 'sandbox' environment is conveniently detached from the live game, so no actual players get scammed — just the AI.

And after the AI has mastered the art of the space hustler, what then? Fenris Creations presumably hopes to sell the technology back to players or license it to other studios. The rebranding is a neat trick: when your old name is synonymous with a game that's been on life support for two decades, just change it and claim you're a startup. Good luck, Fenris.