We reported last week about the plans to implement a $99 yearly fee for a license that would have allowed EVE Online players to offer paid services to their fellow space travelers.

CCP took a large amount of flak over that announcement, but looks like the complaints have been listened to, as EVE Online senior producer Arnar “CCP Zulu” Gylfason explained yesterday on the game’s Devblog.

Gylfason clarified that the company didn’t intend the commercial license as a revenue source, but as a way to create a legally binding contract between the developer and third party service providers, in order to protect the brand and the IP.

To do that, though, he specified, they just need a token charge and $99 “is not a token charge by any stretch of the imagination”. He also said that the community rightfully “called bulshit” on some nuances of the previous plans.

That’s why CCP is going back to the drawing board and will come up with new arrangements by the end of summer, without the controversial $99 fee.

[EVE Online Devblog]