Tabula Rasa Shutting Down, Layoffs Planned

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Tabula Rasa (PC), the MMO designed by industry pioneer Richard Garriott, will shut down on February 28, 2009.

"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," reads a letter on the Tabula Rasa website.

The team added that the game will become free to play starting January 10 before the game sees the plug pulled at the end of February.

In closing the game, NCsoft will lay off an undetermined number of employees. "We're going to be scaling down the TR team in preparation for the end of live service," said spokesman David Swofford to Kotaku. He added, "We currently don't know how many people will be affected by that."

NCsoft plans to reward the loyalty of remaining players with free time on the company's other MMOs, including City of Heroes, Lineage II and the forthcoming Aion. Players with active paid accounts as of 12:00 PM CST today will be contacted directly by NCsoft about redeeming that time.

"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," promised the letter.

The MMO's death toll may have been sounded earlier in November when designer Richard Garriott announced his departure from NCsoft, citing "new interests" following his return from a space flight.

Tabula Rasa was announced in 2001 and was finally released in 2007 to what Garriott admitted "was a rough launch."

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From The Chatty
  • reply
    November 21, 2008 11:36 AM

    so sad, this game had great potential with its combat system (third person shooting in an mmo) and the pvp, i thought, was fun as long as you could find a guild to fight. fights could break out anywhere!

    • FTY legacy 10 years legacy 20 years
      reply
      November 21, 2008 11:50 AM

      Maybe on paper it had potential and a later levels it was actually fun to play for some minutes, but getting there was the most boring experience ever in a game.

    • reply
      November 21, 2008 12:20 PM

      Potential? Really? Third Person shooting is no where near what this game was, it was WoW reskined with guns for spells and knives for swords. When a projectile from a gun can clip throw walls to hit me, and chase me down hallways like a spell.. its not shooting. Dice rolls don't belong in shooters.. game was trash.

      • reply
        November 21, 2008 12:21 PM

        throw = through, its friday.

      • reply
        November 21, 2008 12:46 PM

        I agree. I could have played a hunter in WoW if I wanted the same experience.

      • reply
        November 21, 2008 1:05 PM

        WoW is a decent enough representation of what's good in most MMO's. It's largely successful as a result. Sheesh. Don't let your WoW blinders fool you.

        • reply
          November 21, 2008 6:18 PM

          WOW is awful. After playing for 70 levels I don't see how anyone could still play after seeing how terrible the endgame is. The game as a whole is just WAY too easy, there is really no challenge what so ever.

          I think because it's so easy is why it has taken off with the mainstream. It's the reason so many non-gamers play it.

    • reply
      November 21, 2008 12:40 PM

      Game was fun... for about a day.

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