Tabula Rasa Shutting Down Feb. 2009
Source: Tom's Guide | Keywords: Tabula, Rasa, NCSoft, Richard, Garriott | Themes: Digital Entertainment
Ten days after Richard Garriott left NCSoft and his Tabula Rasa project, the MMORPG is being shut down, and several team members will be laid off.
It’s been a rough few months for NCSoft, to say the least. After laying off several teams worth of employees and rededicating itself to AAA-titles (instead of the smaller, free games it was releasing en masse), the Seattle based developer will be shutting down service for its MMORPG Tabula Rasa.
"Last November we launched what we hoped would be a ground breaking sci-fi MMO. In many ways, we think we’ve achieved that goal," said NCSoft in a statement. "Tabula Rasa has some unique features that make it fun and very different from every other MMO out there. Unfortunately, the fact is that the game hasn’t performed as expected. The development team has worked hard to improve the game since launch, but the game never achieved the player population we hoped for. So it is with regret that we must announce that Tabula Rasa will end live service on February 28, 2009."
For last month of live service, starting January 10, Tabula Rasa will be free to play. While specific numbers have yet to be released, it’s clear that much of the Tabula Rasa team has been let go in light of the news. "We’re going to be scaling down the TR team in preparation for the end of live service," said NCsoft spokesman David Swofford to Kotaku. "But for now, we currently don’t know how many people will be affected."
Something like this has likely been in the works for a while now, at least since Richard Garriott left the company a few weeks ago. Unfortunately, you can likely chalk this MMO death up to World or Warcraft. With its new Wrath of the Lich King expansion selling nearly three million copies in its first 24 hours, Blizzards popular MMO likely lured some of those who left the land of Azeroth back with the promise of a new level cap and several other new features. With titles like Hellgate: London and Age of Conan already lost in WoW’s wake, one can only hope that games such as Warhammer Online can survive the latest expansion and maintain a solid user base. Here’s hoping that whatever is left of Tabula Rasa’s development team goes on to make another innovative game.
-
Previous News Article
Apple Patents "Always On" Display -
Next News Article
Eidos: No Posting Review Scores...
Why do I get the feeling this whole last month free deal is just a ploy to get more players? If the reach a certain quota I get the feeling they will continue anyway. Why else would they prolong the service?
The issue with TR and AoC was not that WoW is such a monster hit, but that these games were not up to the standard people now expect from MMORPGS nowadays.
WAR is suffering the same issue, people are stopping subscribing in droves because of the poor PVE in the game. Relying on a good PVP system to cover up the fact that the game itself is quite poor is not working, the only players left playing are those committed to 100% PVP with is a tiny proportion of the MMORPG market and quite a fickle population.
If WAR's PVE had been half as fun as the PVP I'm sure it would have been an enormous success. Providing poor quality PVE does not improve the PVP in the game, it leads to falling subs and worse PVP.
The lessons that need to be learned are if you want a successful MMORPG, don't listen to the bean counters about releasing an unfinished/poor quality game, the playerbase will not stand for it.
I will put it next to Auto Assault in my "It failed" pile
I have a feeling Hellgate will be joining it real soon....
Sad day, I remember all the hype and cool trailer when the game was released.
It was a cool idea, but the story and characters just didn't grab you early enough to make it compelling.
I played the open beta just prior to release... uninstalled it that same day.
so how is lord of the rings online doing?
they just released a huge expansion: two new classes, new areas, updated skills
but I still think the game is so boring its unplayable
anybody know how its numbers are doing?
This is the one I have big hopes for and am eagerly anticipating
StarGate Worlds
http://www.stargateworlds.com/
Battlefield Heroes online is supposed to be a free mmo and currently in beta
it looks promising: it looks fun, its free, and it seems to have a lot of the goofy stuff that would appeal to WoW players
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eDf [...] re=related
These are the two I'm currently playing and enjoying very much (both free)
Shaiya
http://shaiya.aeriagames.com/download
Perfect World International
http://www.perfectworld.com/
This is definitely sad. I did the closed beta and open beta for TR. I just never could get into the control mechanics. It was fun for a break from the normal MMO though.
They just had a free week or two also about two months ago or so opening up all accounts for anybody who had an account previously. I think that was their last strike at getting a boost in the player base. I don't see a free month before the end as a last ditch effort though.
Too me Auto Assault's end was a lot more sad though. I miss that MMO to this very day.
All that being said I do agree Stargate Worlds should be interesting! As for NCSoft I am really looking forward to Aion! I just hope it doesn't share other NCSoft games' fates because it might not be a typical MMO!
Bout the only NCSoft game I still see a lot of people playing is Guild Wars. And thats likely because it's free to play after buying the game. I personally won't do more than 1 pay to play game at a time. And right now that slot is taken up by EVE Online. I never got into WoW, warcraft wasn't my favorite world, and I've play all too many fantasy MMO's in my time.
I wasn't including the free games from NCSoft in my post. Guild Wars is great and I still play that to (I in no way attribute Guild Wars success to NCSoft though - I give Arena Net full credit for Guild Wars). Exteel is a very fun game published by NCSoft also even if it's still claimed to be a beta of sorts.
I don't think Aion will be one of the free sorts published though. I could be wrong though. And if I was to include all of the games NCSoft publishes including the free ones then I would have add in that I am looking forward to Guild Wars 2 also (all credit given to Arena Net of course).
Many years to develop; only a year or so to fail.
I really want to play a good sci-fi / cyberpunk MM0 (and I really dislike EVE). I though that TR might be it, but after a few days of play, I realize that it definitely was not a good game. Anarchy Online was kinda cool, but is way past its expiry date.
Bout the only NCSoft game I still see a lot of people playing is Guild Wars. ...
isn't Dungeon Runners an NCSoft game?
I always thought it was pretty popular. I tried it out after they made the graphics update and it was pretty crowded (I thought it was ok, not great)
Yes Dungeon Runners is published by NCSoft also. It is one of there free games like the Exteel model more so than like Guild Wars. And I know for a fact Exteel uses NCCoins which allows you to buy in-game items with real money. I believe Dungeon Runners is like this also. I have yet to try it out though.