Tabula Rasa To Close « Broken Toys

21Nov/08Off

Tabula Rasa To Close

And it's official.

Good luck to everyone at NC affected by this news.

Filed under: NCsoft, Tabula Rasa, _ Comments Off

Comments (32) Trackbacks (2) ( subscribe to comments on this post )

JoBildo
November 21st, 2008 - 13:03

There goes another really unique game… what a shame.
Igniferroque
November 21st, 2008 - 13:26

Out of curiosity, how many boxes did the game sell? What were its subscription numbers? How long ago did it launch?

I knew it came out but I never picked up a copy. I’m asking more because I’m wondering what it takes for a game to be shut down and whether there’s any reason to be concerned that a game like WAR – which I’m currently playing and mostly enjoying – would go down that route.
Demolira
November 21st, 2008 - 13:36

Tabula Rasa came out about a year ago. I tried it out near release, and it seemed interesting enough, although it had plenty of the usual new MMO problems. I’m surprised it did poorly enough to get shut down, though.

NCSoft’s having a rough time of it lately. Austin just keeps getting hammered all together!
Lars
November 21st, 2008 - 13:50

@Igniferroque: When you see WAR selling for 96 cents on Amazon, you’ll know its going that route.
dartwick
November 21st, 2008 - 14:07

Click to aim doesnt work in a sci-fi game. If you base your game on guns let people aim them like guns – even if you make it easy mode like HellGate did.
Raevhen
November 21st, 2008 - 14:15

Darkwick: Click to aim doesnt work in a sci-fi game. If you base your game on guns let people aim them like guns – even if you make it easy mode like HellGate did.

City of Heroes clicks to aim and people like it. Anarchy Online does as well, but I would not call it successful
D-0ne
November 21st, 2008 - 14:34

I’m honestly not surprised. I know people who play AO, GW, EQ1 and 2, LOTRO, WoW, on and on. I didn’t know anyone who played Tabula Rasa.
J Thomas
November 21st, 2008 - 14:45

“Out of curiosity, how many boxes did the game sell? What were its subscription numbers? How long ago did it launch?”

Looking at NCsofts’ Q3 financial statement, I estimated the 3-month average subscription rate during that period at a little under 50k. The game came out last November, and I vaguely recall that it sold around 100k copies at the time, maybe less.

I played TR in beta. I have a hard time articulating why I didn’t like it, but it’s the same reason that I also didn’t like Auto Assault. It wasn’t really a FPS-MMO hybrid; it was more of a conventional MMORPG design with some lightweight shooter-y elements on top. It just seemed to combine the worst elements from the MMO and FPS genres instead of the best.
dartwick
November 21st, 2008 - 14:51

City of heros had click to aim guns but I dont think the game was perceived as being primarily about shooting.

It will be kind of sad when StarGate fails.
Ed
November 21st, 2008 - 15:01

Unique doesn’t equate fun. TR had some interesting features, but they weren’t enough to overcome what was basically a crappy game.
Ronin Geek
November 21st, 2008 - 15:09

I really enjoyed playing TR, it’s a shame to see it go. It was unique. I didn’t think it was as bad as some of the other games out there. The minimalist UI was a very nice change. For the most part, you could solo through the game, which is good, but yet bad at the same time. Grouping was kind of a pain to me, as it was hard to target what everyone else was targeting, but still I did enjoy my time in TR. Oh well, another one for the zapper.
Tesh
November 21st, 2008 - 17:12

I still blame the subscription model. If your business model hinges on a critical mass of subbers, you die in a saturated market like this one, especially in times of economic distress. (Whee, Dow under 8000 again!) If you provide a good product and build around profiting from box sales (the Guild Wars model), you’re much more likely to recoup costs and turn a profit.
Jessica Mulligan
November 22nd, 2008 - 01:52

NPD stats show only about 61k retail boxes for TR were sold.

NCsoft’s quarterlies showed that Tabula Rasa brought in only about $1.3 million during the period. Run the math and that results in an average of less than 29k subscribers (a total of about 86.9k subs, divided by 3 months). The actual average was probably less than that, since I didn’t bother to equalize for the cost of the retail package during the period.

Which just goes to show – again – that guessing wrong in the premium AAA MMO space can be costly. This business model is unsustainable in the west except for a few rich companies.
ubvman
November 22nd, 2008 - 05:12

Would have been cheaper for everyone concerned for NCSoft to have just bought that 30 million dollar ticket and shot Richard Garriot into space! =)

Yes, its an obvious joke…
Jay Thomas
November 22nd, 2008 - 05:25

“NCsoft’s quarterlies showed that Tabula Rasa brought in only about $1.3 million during the period. Run the math and that results in an average of less than 29k subscribers (a total of about 86.9k subs, divided by 3 months). The actual average was probably less than that, since I didn’t bother to equalize for the cost of the retail package during the period.”

Doh! I looked back to double-check my math, and realized that I used the wrong set of numbers. I was doing a ratio comparison with City of Heroes (NCsoft lists the sub numbers for CoH), but I used the sales figure for Guild Wars instead of CoH. My bad! Using the right numbers I get 35k for TR, and that’s still a rough estimate. Variation in the exchange rate might account for some of the difference between your numbers and mine, because the won has been dropping like a rock lately.
Jessica Mulligan
November 22nd, 2008 - 06:55

Yeah, we’re likely both on the high side a bit, but in the neighborhood.
Arkenor
November 22nd, 2008 - 07:09

I’m surprised they’re shutting it down altogether.

Would it not have been viable to merge all the servers, and just keep running one with no further updates? Clearly some people still wanted to play.
Temujin
November 22nd, 2008 - 08:35

When I first heard about TR and starting doing research only to find out that aiming would be tied to a targeting mechanism, I never touched it.
Scott
November 22nd, 2008 - 09:06

Money says this is part of a grander north american pull out for NCSoft. The NA market hasn’t been kind to them. They are the big kids in Asia, but what plays there doesn’t tend to translate well over here.

They tried, and tried hard. Now they’re taking what’s left of their toys and heading home.
Merkwurdigliebe
November 22nd, 2008 - 11:38

“Would it not have been viable to merge all the servers, and just keep running one with no further updates? Clearly some people still wanted to play.”

Would be nice, but I guess they don’t feel the cost of running the servers is worth it. Other option is to sell it to someone who thinks it is. Intellectual property rights probably gets sticky at that point Other issue maintaining a CSR staff (but you could cop out of that by selling the product “as is” and say caveat emptor and force majeure in perpetuity throughout the universe).
Vetarnias
November 22nd, 2008 - 12:53

It always amazes me that when such games go down, their makers always assume that the players will keep on roaming the servers until the plug is pulled, even though it’s a death sentence and no player is going to waste time on a game whose days are numbered. Still, more honest than “We shut down at the end of the month, kthxbai.”

I never really looked into TR (I don’t particularly like science fiction), but I must say I’m surprised it went down this quickly. Certainly I suspected the game was in trouble when Garriott left NCSoft (sort of like Gaute and Funcom), but I would never have thought that this would happen.

MMO’s just seem to fail more quickly these days. Barely a year and gone already?
Zelmor
November 22nd, 2008 - 16:01

It was not a good idea to begin with.
etherealwolf
November 22nd, 2008 - 17:37

help us bioware. you’re our only hope.
Klaitu
November 23rd, 2008 - 02:44

I played Tabula Rasa for the trial period simply because RG’s name preceded the title.. but then I discontinued play because.. well, it wasn’t a very good game.

I wanted it to be good, especially since it’s the only game Garriott’s made in like 10 years. Alas, it was not to be.

Bring Back Abyss!!!
Triforcer
November 23rd, 2008 - 03:25

Geez, is there ANYTHING on the horizon besides SWTOR? We are looking at a couple year gap for AAA MMOs other than WoW…
VPellen
November 23rd, 2008 - 05:43

Steve walks warily down the street,
With the brim pulled way down low
Ain’t no sound but the sound of his feet,
Machine guns ready to go
Are you ready, Are you ready for this
Are you hanging on the edge of your seat
Out of the doorway the bullets rip
To the sound of the beat
Arkenor
November 23rd, 2008 - 10:07

“Geez, is there ANYTHING on the horizon besides SWTOR? We are looking at a couple year gap for AAA MMOs other than WoW…”

Does Funcom count these days? They’re still working “The Secret World” so far as I know.

SOE has The Agency and DC Universe Online coming up too.
dmosbon
November 23rd, 2008 - 12:02

@ Arkenor – Stargate Worlds could be a possible hit but for something different I think SOE, as you mentioned, will do well.
Chris F
November 24th, 2008 - 11:53

On one hand, I do feel bad for anyone whose job may be affected by this.

On the other hand, the developer “heroes” of old are 0/2 on new titles, proving that the same old doesn’t work anymore

On the other, other hand (I have three, yes, makes me LEET in FPS) it says alot about releasing crappy MMO-clones into the marketplace. The game probably would have played, and fared, better as a single player game – all they had to add was a storyline.

Notes to devs – tacking on a monthly subscription does not an MMO make.
Vaxhacker
November 24th, 2008 - 16:20

I can’t believe someone missed a perfect opportunity to break out “on the gripping hand”… For shame.
Sifter
March 1st, 2009 - 22:36

I think it always stinks when you have less options in the game market. This is why I hate exclusive rights to the NFL for Madden and so on because the more the competition the better the games will be. That being said, I thought this game was a major disappointment. Richard Garriot is know for his progressiveness and originality and this was just another run of the mill game. So while I hate the fact that we have one less game to choose from, the good news is is that the market weeded out a game that was status quo. Can we put together something that is not WOW in space please?
Sifter
March 1st, 2009 - 22:38

@dmosbon
Renaissance looks promising.