Could economic crisis drive CCP from Iceland?

Icelandic EVE Online developer CCP has told UK newspaper The Guardian that it might have to reluctantly move its operation out of the country due to the economic crisis.

The country was one of the first to suffer when the credit crunch bit due to the number of foreign investments made by the country.

CCP, whose game EVE has 300,00 subscribers – as many inhabitants as there are in Iceland itself – is one of the country’s biggest exporters and is one of the country’s big entrepreneurial success stories.

But according the newspaper report ‘restrictions on access to foreign currency for individuals and businesses and on foreign investment into Iceland are making life difficult’ for the studio.

"To make new games, we need foreign investors," commented Eyjolfur Gudmundsson, formerly an assistant professor at the University of Akureyri, who supervises Eve’s virtual economy.

"The present currency restrictions are putting us in a straitjacket. We are in talks with the government, but if we can’t let capital in, we might be compelled to leave Iceland, even though this would be against our wishes."