Iceland's economy is collapsing under the weight of the global credit crunch. Inflation has skyrocketed, unemployment is rising, construction has halted all together, and CCP, makers of EVE Online, is considering picking up shop and leaving the country entirely.
Source: Guardian.CO.UK [ more info ]

I saw this news initially a while ago, but a news item on Gamasutra [more info] reminded me of it again. And since the headlines in October were fond of using the phrase "free fall" when describing Iceland's economic woes, the comic, unfortunately, just kind of wrote itself.

EVE servers are not located in Iceland and CCP also has offices in Atlanta and Shanghai, so a move out of Reykjavik shouldn't impact service. In any case, good luck CCP!

Poor guys... poor country! That is a major ouch there. I think a tempory relocation to Atlanta, here in the southern USA, might be a good plan. They can always go back when things improve.

Did...I....just...see...a...GU Political Cartoon?

Awesome!!!

Does that surprise you though Dash? Quite a few of GU's strips are "political" cartoons.

Well here is hoping they keep things rolling. I enjoy Eve Online, its a nice switch from the fantasy based stuff.

I really hope the don't, it is almost the only company in the country that we can be proud of. And the economy is getting better.
P.S. I hope, I miss shopping on the internet.

Gotta wonder if moving to either Atlanta or Shanghai would really be a good move, since that would make them more vulnerable to the laws and politics of the new location.

As long as they can maintain system functionality and cash flow, staying in Iceland should be desirable. Unless they like trees...

As someone who plays EVE, I LOL'ed a bit extra at this comic :-D

CCP stated early in the whole "omg the economy is failing" situation that they wouldn't fall with the rest of the country, as all their income was in Euro and Dollar instead of the local currency. Only thing that affected them for real, was that they paid employees in local currency and that hurt the non-Icelandic devs a lot. That might be the reason for them wanting to move, but I doubt it will happen. They love it too much in Iceland and are very proud of their company growing as it has, despite being located on a little island in the middle of nowhere.

And as Barasawa writes, a move will make them vulnerable to the sometimes very ridiculous laws of other countries,so I for one hope they stay put. I like coming to Iceland for the FanFest. Wouldn't want it anywhere else...

Aren't the Eve servers in France (not placing any bets on this... just have a vague niggling in the back of my head that's saying they are... though that might be the servers of another mmo I've played sometime). If they are, well... the Euro-zone isn't doing as badly at the moment as some other places are.

The first thing I thought of was a Northrend, land of the frozen dead, connection. With them being up there at the roof of the world and their economy being dead and all. I could see them trying to bring it back to "life" by any means necessary. Maybe they could try Warcraft tourism. Turn the country into a Northrend theme park. The president or whatever they have could dress up as Arthis