Tabula Rasa - Closing in February

[woges]

Message from the team (http://www.rgtr.com/news/latest_news/message_from_the_tabula_rasa_t.html) confirms servers to close early next year.
To the Tabula Rasa Community,
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. 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.
Before we end the service, we'll make Tabula Rasa servers free to play starting on January 10, 2009.
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. For more details about what we are doing for Tabula Rasa players, please click here (http://www.rgtr.com/news/latest_news/information_for_our_subscriber.html).
Stay tuned for more information. We thank you for your loyal support of the game and encourage you to take us up on the benefits we're offering Tabula Rasa players.
The Tabula Rasa TeamMore information. (http://www.rpgwatch.com/show/newsbit?newsbit=10803)

[pibbur]

Seems a bit early to throw in the towel to me. How many subscribers are necessary to keep a MMO game going?

And I'm not particularly impressed with the offer to play for free only the last 6 weeks or so.

Edit: Ok, I see that current subscribers will be offered free clients and 3 monhts of free play to other NCsoft games.

[GothicGothicness]

I guess this confirms why MR Garriot lord of brittish decided to pursue other interests.

[xSamhainx]

"In many ways, we think we've achieved that (groundbreaking) goal."

Unfortunately, the one way to really break some ground is getting lots of people actually playing your game!

[wolfing]

Seems a bit early to throw in the towel to me. How many subscribers are necessary to keep a MMO game going?

And I'm not particularly impressed with the offer to play for free only the last 6 weeks or so.

Funny, that's about the average time an MMO keeps me interested nowadays

[Alrik Fassbauer]

I'd be interested if it had been an solo RPG. I mean single-player.

[Ionstormsucks]

Seems a bit early to throw in the towel to me. How many subscribers are necessary to keep a MMO game going?


Well not all too many... it must be really bad if they are shutting down the servers. I guess what we're seeing here are the effects of a more competitive market than we had it a few years ago. To be honest - I'm not sure if I like that.

[zakhal]

Tabula rasa and hellgate - I got 2-3 months to play them. I guess I gotta start right now.

[Yeesh]

These announcements make me sad. If a PC game doesn't sell so well, at least copies of it are still floating around somewhere, and all the work that went into the game can still be enjoyed or endured by somebody who for whatever reason likes it despite the game's dismal sales. But when one of these MMOs goes belly-up. it's like all that hard work all those devs did, all that content, all those ideas are just wiped away. And of course, all the work players put into their characters is gone too.

[Zloth]

GameSpot said they only sold about 60k copies and I'm sure a lot of those aren't subscribing now. Add to that the fact that this game had some big names on it, especially Lord British. Add to that the fact that this game took a very long time to develop (it was originally a fantasy themed game).

NCSoft has been beefing up the staff for City of Heroes and (I think) Guild Wars. I wonder how many ace programmers they can get for the price of Lord British's salary?

[hishadow]

Maybe you shouldn't do a MMO as massively-instanced as NCsoft and Funcom?

[Hedek]

Maybe you shouldn't do a MMO as massively-instanced as NCsoft and Funcom?

Guildwars (NCsoft) is massively instanced and very successful. The pricing model was very smart though.

Regarding TR, I'm surprised they decided to totally close it down. Was the subscription base so low that it wasn't even enough to keep one server running? I mean the game has been developed and everything, wouldn't 1k subscribers be better than nothing at all?

Or is this the start of a new trend in MMORPGs? They are now designed to have the same lifespan as solo games: a month or two, with most of the expected revenues coming from initial sales rather than subsequent subscriptions.
Publishers just choose this method because a) even if it doesn't turn out to be a successful MMORPG it's a very effective antipiracy measure for a solo game and b) if it does succeed as a MMORPG they'll be getting lots of subscriptions revenues.

If that's how publishers see it, then it's a win-win situation for them provided development costs are low enough to be covered by initial sales.

Judging from how fast Mythic developed WAR (3 years) and at reduced costs (they used their in-house DAoC engine) I'm betting that even if it fails as a MMORPG, the initial sales will be enough to make some profits.

[Ionstormsucks]

Regarding TR, I'm surprised they decided to totally close it down. Was the subscription base so low that it wasn't even enough to keep one server running? I mean the game has been developed and everything, wouldn't 1k subscribers be better than nothing at all?


It probably was. I guess TB did not really earn them any money. The game was fairly high priced... I always had an eye on it, but I thought that 49.99 was just too much. They kept the price up until very recently when they suddenly lowered it to 19.99, but I bet at that point in time to decision to close down the servers had already been taken.
In my opinion the right thing to do would be to compensate the remaining subscribers... maybe with a free subscription to CoH or something like that (for several months). 2 months free play for a game that's about to die anyway somehow doesn't seem right o me.

[Squeek]

This is a shame. I just checked out the official Web site, and it actually looks pretty cool. There's lots of established clans and plenty of fan fiction. Some folks really got into this and are probably very disappointed right now.

[Alrik Fassbauer]

That's the difference between MMO and Single-Player RPGs :

SP might live on, but MMOs die as soon as the servers are turned off.

[txa1265]

It is not bad ... in my review I called it average, and I know they had done a bunch of stuff. I had been contemplating heading back andtrying it again. Guess I'll do that in January ...

[Greymane]

Sad, but predictable. Lord British 'should' have made UOII, and kept his Tabula Rasa in the closet with the rest of his mushrooms.
And I am sorry for those who invested good effort into the game, and those who actually play it and like it.

[zakhal]

Maybe you shouldn't do a MMO as massively-instanced as NCsoft and Funcom?

NCsofts guild wars is massively instanced too and its one of the most popular mmos after wow with over 5 million sales.

Im having great fun playing hellgate and TR looks good though. I really cant understand why people dont like these. I guess all they want is traditional sword&sorcery rpgs with elves&orces. Cant have too much of those.

[blatantninja]

massively instanced

What does that mean?

[Alrik Fassbauer]

One instance for every player/character, I think.

[Squeek]

They may deny it, but all male MMOs secretly wish they were massively instanced.

[kalniel]

Maybe you shouldn't do a MMO as massively-instanced as NCsoft and Funcom?

DDO is still going strong after a couple of years. Also massively-instanced.

[Zuko]

NCsofts guild wars is massively instanced...
What does that mean?
This should help explain it: http://guildwars.wikia.com/wiki/Instance