Bad forcecast for Tabula Rasa and Dungeon Runners
Everytime the rumor about how bad TR is doing crops up, people try to squelch it. But honestly lets face it it is not doing well, and you can see that by just looking at the lack of press and the horrid server populations. I wanted the game to work but it was just missing something in the end. I think that it is now starting to become evident that the game is indeed in trouble.
http://www.massively.com/2008/08/12/rumor-ncsoft-austin-to-be-shut-...
A well-placed source with the company reported the studio’s position to Joystiq, confirming similar information provided to Massively by a trustworthy third party. According to our sources, any or all of the following may be in the works:
- NCsoft Austin will be closed, with work on Tabula Rasa to be moved to the West coast. Dungeon Runners is apparently to be closed. Los Angeles is home to the development-in-the-dark Carbine Studios effort, while the San Francisco area is home to the City of Heroes development team. Seattle, of course, plays host to Arena.net and Joystiq reports that’s where TR will be headed.
- This shakeup is only affecting Austin; the City of Heroes and Guild Wars teams are unaffected, as are the teams based out of the Korean offices.
- Future collaborations between NCsoft and the Garriott brothers will be very limited in scope, a sign of the frustrations between the Korean executives and the sibling-lead NCsoft North American office.
- Tabula Rasa may see closure by this time next year, if the team fails to turn the tide of subscribers and expectations.
http://www.massively.com/2008/08/12/rumor-ncsoft-austin-to-be-shut-...
A well-placed source with the company reported the studio’s position to Joystiq, confirming similar information provided to Massively by a trustworthy third party. According to our sources, any or all of the following may be in the works:
- NCsoft Austin will be closed, with work on Tabula Rasa to be moved to the West coast. Dungeon Runners is apparently to be closed. Los Angeles is home to the development-in-the-dark Carbine Studios effort, while the San Francisco area is home to the City of Heroes development team. Seattle, of course, plays host to Arena.net and Joystiq reports that’s where TR will be headed.
- This shakeup is only affecting Austin; the City of Heroes and Guild Wars teams are unaffected, as are the teams based out of the Korean offices.
- Future collaborations between NCsoft and the Garriott brothers will be very limited in scope, a sign of the frustrations between the Korean executives and the sibling-lead NCsoft North American office.
- Tabula Rasa may see closure by this time next year, if the team fails to turn the tide of subscribers and expectations.
13 Comments
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Comment by Sandown on August 13, 2008 at 8:18am - I haven't been in game much this week but when i have the TR severs have seen real busy, compared to say a month ago. Didn't NCsoft just release a retail boxed version or Dungeon Runners? I don't think they would have spent the cash on that release if the on-line sales didn't give the impression it would make some money.
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Comment by Hudson on August 13, 2008 at 8:26am - Usually when rumors like this surface, they come true. ALA hellgate. People fight them for a week then the hammer falls. I havent seen a busy TR server in months. Maybe the few people that have level capped on a certain server, mainly the euro server, hang out but the low end game is a graveyard unless some high level is botting around a friend with a free play for a week account.
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Comment by Shuttler on August 13, 2008 at 8:38am -
The fact is sites like massively reporting the unconfirmed rumours dont help the situation and put potential gamers off.
This post is all about massively getting traffic!
I just find it a little weird/unfair that NCSoft let them (massively) into the building to see new instances and report on them and then they report an as of yet confirmed rumour as the next TR related Blog post!
NCSoft are a great company to deal with as far as community involvement, whether or not the rumour is true they should get solid facts first.
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Comment by HeathenStorm on August 13, 2008 at 9:15am -
Massively, the only MMO blog to feature daily spin articles promoting Star Wars Galaxies. Starting with that smug twat Turpster's "Come play SWG. It's not that bad really." video, and descending into the obsequious depths of yesterday's "You too can have a Space Wheelchair." blogvertisment.
That should tell you where their priorities lie.
Best way to deal with these cancerous articles is to view them with adverts blocked, so the sites don't get any revenue from their obvious flamebait.
Trouble with shoddy rumourmongering on blogs is that folk don't research enough, and believe everything they read on the internet to be true. Now there's going to be lots of corroborating websites linking to this story, spreading the muck.
Although, to be fair, someone needs to rein Garriott in before his Spaceman/Peter Pan fixation gets him into trouble with kids.
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Comment by Mephfistus on August 13, 2008 at 9:54am -
I am loling sooooooooooooo hard.
Massively doesn't need an article to tell people that Tabula Rasa is/has been dieing since it launched. Maybe it would be in a better state if the development team had gotten it right the first time instead of starting from scratch at least 3 times on the project.
For fucks sake it has been clawing at the sides of it's pit trying to get new players in game gimmicks rather then concrete corrections to game play and new content. Stupid shit like boxing, human models with alien skins (instead of actually putting forth the effort to make sure everything works with alien models) and then the icing on the cake is the immortality drive which is just an embarrassment personally and I am surprised that the scientific community is actually even letting him put that shit up in the ISS.
I don't know, Tabula Rasa was one of those game I was looking forward to but it completely shit all over it's self to the point where I couldn't even subscribe after the first month (played in closed beta as well). The weapon selection/ balance was awful... I think hellgate london had a wider selection of guns then Tabula Rasa did. The PVP was so care bear and imbalanced when the game launched it was sad. I think i remember my guild declaring war on every other one and not one accepted. And the game had battlefield objectives that had nothing to do with PVP LAWL!
Honestly I am surprised Play NC even let them launch.
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Comment by Hudson on August 13, 2008 at 11:39am
- Well not sure which way this will turn out, but man i wish Garriott was more hands on his little project instead of jet setting around the universe. Thing is I really like the game but its just too solo oriented.
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Comment by Attis on August 13, 2008 at 12:33pm - Critters has been quoted as this is pure rumor.
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Comment by Hudson on August 13, 2008 at 1:12pm
- They always say that though. This rumor is a little scary though. It seems kinda plausible
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Comment by Free Play Gamers on August 13, 2008 at 2:02pm -
Just because a rumor doesn't mean it's likely, we though Hell Gate London was finally going bankrupt, yet Namco Bandai came to save the day...
The only reason the rumor has strength is because we keep promoting it...
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Comment by Attis on August 13, 2008 at 2:28pm
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Massively: NCsoft Austin Sheds Staff
See, it was a rumor. Instead of the total dismantling of the staff, they did the sensible thing: lay off unneeded staff.
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