Tabula Rasa to shut down

humanji

Personally, I know no one who actually played the game, but I have to admit I was tempted to get it for the simple reason that Richard Garriot was behind it.

From Gamespot:

Gamespot wrote:

This century, NCsoft is 0-for-2 with sci-fi massively multiplayer online role-playing games. (Unless you count City of Heroes/Villains.) Over a year after Auto Assault headed for the scrap yard, the Korean publisher announced its latest foray into the future, Tabula Rasa, is also being decommissioned. In a post on the game's official Web site, the developers behind the project today announced its imminent end.
"Last November we launched what we hoped would be a ground breaking sci-fi MMO," the post read. "In many ways, we think we've achieved that goal. 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."
As of January 10, 2009, Tabula Rasa will be free to play to its remaining subscriber base, much like the soon-to-be-shuttered Hellgate: London. However, as of February 28, the game's servers will be switched off forever. "We can assure you that through the next couple of months we'll be doing some really fun things in Tabula Rasa, and we plan to make staying on a little longer worth your while," the post concluded.
Though saddening to its subscribers, Tabula Rasa's demise wasn't completely unexpected. After going online last October one day before Hellgate's Halloween launch, the game struggled with a variety of technical issues and lukewarm reviews. Despite over six years in development--and several delays--the game never caught fire in the World of Warcraft-dominated MMORPG market, selling just over 61,000 copies in the US. In its most recent earnings report, NCsoft said the game--which cost a hefty sum to developer--accounted for just 2 percent, or $1.3 million, of its overall annual revenue.
Tabula Rasa's chief designer, Richard Garriott, went so far as to promote the game during his recent $30 million jaunt to the International Space Station. However, the writing appeared to be on the wall when Garriott abruptly resigned last week to pursue "new interests." In his depature message, the Ultima creator conceded the MMORPG's sailing had not always been smooth, saying "I am very grateful to you loyal players for sticking around through what I think we can all honestly say was a rough launch."

Venom

Well maybe this will be a lesson to mmo developers that putting sub-par products on the market = no profits and instead they should take a page out of Blizzards playbook and release the game when its finished = millions of happy customers paying you lots of monies

Sand

they should take a page out of Blizzards playbook and release the game when its finished = millions of happy customers paying you lots of monies

Yes, because Blizzard released WoW completely finished. There has never been a bug fix, patch or expansion ever. It just sprang fully formed from the minds of its designers. But in reality, WoW has many, many years of development lead time on any MMO thats just launching.

That said, Tabula Rasa was just meh. I didnt even realise it had been released.

KoKane

I tried the Beta for Tabula Rasa and was not impressed at all. I only tried it because of R. Garriot being behind it.

It was an MMO that put players against AI.... All the shooting was self aiming aswell. There really wasnt anything special to the game.

super_furry

I bought it at launch, played it for a week then binned it. It was muck.

Yes, because Blizzard released WoW completely finished. There has never been a bug fix, patch or expansion ever. It just sprang fully formed from the minds of its designers. But in reality, WoW has many, many years of development lead time on any MMO thats just launching.

What WoW was like at launch doesn't even enter into the equation. How many of the 11million subscribers now playing it, experienced it at launch? 3.02 WoW is now the standard by which all others MMOs are judged and if they don't live up to the game as it currently is, they may as well not bother because people, quite rightly will judge it against the market leader.

People, myself included, might give these games a chance, but if they don't live up to the standards of WoW, then they'll be dropped. In the current MMO market you either get it right from the start or you don't get a second chance, just look at the likes of Tabula Rasa, Age of Conan, etc. The days of people willing to pay money to be part of a release Beta are long gone.

LoTRO is the only MMO I played at launch that gave a similar level of service to WoW, and it's the only other game I still play.