Out of Pod Experience

Let's face it: Iceland is a liability to CCP. Outsourcing their foreign talent to a more liveable place would be a good idea, but they did it in the past (Atlanta, San Francisco) and it didn't turn well due to travel time, time zones and overall cost.

So I hereby suggest my city (Barcelona) as the right place for a CCP european office.

Pros:

Plenty of cheap office space in a dedicated IT quarter (22@). Office space is cheap and the IT and electric infrastructures are totally underused by the companies currently settled at 22@. CCP could build quite a sizeable datacenter for a low cost, and even consider buying office space rather than rent it.

Continental Europe timezone, i.e., Iceland +1. No jet lag, no weird meeting times.

Good air links to Iceland; 3 companies operate direct flights between REK and BCN, plus there's some 30+ scheduled flights around the week. Flight time is about 3 hours.

Good air links to the world: direct flights to New York, Istambul and the Persian Gulf provide plenty of opportunites to travel anywhere in the world. Europe is thoroughly covered with over 200 direct destinations.

Abundant and cheap local talent. Spain haves some top level schools, but there is not enough local gaming and IT industry to absorb that output so most of that talent just emigrates. Also, only in Spain 20,000 € per year look like a nice pay for a junior developer.

Perks: beachgoing april to october. Most of 22@ is within 20 minutes walking distance from beaches. Temperatures below cero degrees are unusal. Snowy days average at a bit above 1 per year. Awesome and cheap food: Mediterranean diet for the win! Multicultural city with open and friendly natives. 2 hours drives take to both magnificent beaches and the Pyrenees mountains. Plenty of schools, museums and other cultural equipments which could interest parents with children. Cheap alcoholic drinks and year round night life for partygoers. Good enough public health care and good private health care. It's a safe and large (1.5 million inhabitants) tourist city.

Cons:

Local laws are somehow intricated for foreign companies, and public administration is usually slow; 6 months is a realistic time schedule for the paperwork of setting up a foreign company office in Spain.

Summertime is hot and humid, and not even locals enjoy leaving their AC offices and homes june to september.

Lots of tourists all year round (that may be good for someone looking for a friendly acent, though).

CCP Master Plan Unveiled!

But on a serious note, I rather see them sorting out all their finances first & get EvE & other development programs on a stable path before going to the route of opening new offices (again)

Dublin? Meh!

And twice as expensive as Spain, too.

Also, who likes German weather? The only good thing you can say about German weather is that it's not Belgian or Icelandic weather!

I've proposed Stockholm a few times earlier.

Pros
+ No volcanos
+ Better summers than Iceland
+ They could hire Notch
+ Swedish girls and guys, just saying
+ Ski slope in the middle of town
+ You can go to Gotland if you crave sheep's head
+ No hákarl
+ You can buy brennivín
+ No volcanos

Cons
- Cold winters
- No hákarl
- High office rent

He probably isn't evil enough.

OP is a troll he has AFK cloaky alts on the spain region barcelona constellation. How can CCP do their work if they can't undock and warp to their desk office because of your afk cloak alts?

Dublin.

No earthquakes, volcanoes etc.
Not too hot not too cold.

Cheap corporation tax (cheapest in like Europe hence why Google have their EU HQ here.)

Beer.
Potatoes.

Wins.

Beer? Wine!
Potatoes? Fruit!