CCP's policy on EVE since its beginning has been to price EVE at 15 USD and 15 Euro (after VAT). Since the game launched, the USD has dropped like a rock, and even after accounting for taxes 15 USD is much cheaper than 15 Euro. As CCP is primarily a European company, this has hurt their revenue as the per-subscription revenue from their single largest player base (the United States) continues to drop.
In the mean time, the Euros, happy to cheat CCP out of revenue and their governments out of tax money, have taken a liking to paying via USD. They can't do it via credit card since CCP tracks location for taxation purposes, so they have turned to buying Game Time Codes from US vendors, where they can use their strong currency and avoid paying taxes at the same time. This has gone on in earnest for roughly the last year and gets worse the more the USD drops.
CCP has finally had enough and is closing the loophole as best they can, all the while in CCP style. CCP is discontinuing all current GTC increments (30, 50, 90, 100) in favor of a single new 60 day GTC, under the guise of simplification and bringing EVE in line with other MMOs. The kicker is that while the previous GTCs were priced at a rate equivalent to 15USD per 30 days, the new 60 day GTC is not. The 60 day GTC is $35, a 16% increase over the old costs. The costs of paying via a CC haven't changed, and is still at 15/15 since a subscription price over $15 would sink EVE in the American market rather quickly.
Now it's clearly obvious what CCP is trying to do (increase revenue and close the Euro->USD loophole) but it should come as no surprise that they won't admit it. What resulted is a rather epic whine fueled by Euro-territory customers who were playing EVE with underpriced GTCs. Reading the full 15 (and growing) pages isn't necessary, but you'll see all of the usual things: idle threats to cancel subscriptions, idle threats to tell people to stay away, idle threats to try to scam the system in a new way, idle threats...
Anyhow, if you have the time, read it for a bit, it's a riot.
In the mean time, the Euros, happy to cheat CCP out of revenue and their governments out of tax money, have taken a liking to paying via USD. They can't do it via credit card since CCP tracks location for taxation purposes, so they have turned to buying Game Time Codes from US vendors, where they can use their strong currency and avoid paying taxes at the same time. This has gone on in earnest for roughly the last year and gets worse the more the USD drops.
CCP has finally had enough and is closing the loophole as best they can, all the while in CCP style. CCP is discontinuing all current GTC increments (30, 50, 90, 100) in favor of a single new 60 day GTC, under the guise of simplification and bringing EVE in line with other MMOs. The kicker is that while the previous GTCs were priced at a rate equivalent to 15USD per 30 days, the new 60 day GTC is not. The 60 day GTC is $35, a 16% increase over the old costs. The costs of paying via a CC haven't changed, and is still at 15/15 since a subscription price over $15 would sink EVE in the American market rather quickly.
Now it's clearly obvious what CCP is trying to do (increase revenue and close the Euro->USD loophole) but it should come as no surprise that they won't admit it. What resulted is a rather epic whine fueled by Euro-territory customers who were playing EVE with underpriced GTCs. Reading the full 15 (and growing) pages isn't necessary, but you'll see all of the usual things: idle threats to cancel subscriptions, idle threats to tell people to stay away, idle threats to try to scam the system in a new way, idle threats...
Anyhow, if you have the time, read it for a bit, it's a riot.