Update: NCsoft has shot down multiple claims made about its sci-fi MMO Tabula Rasa in a "sloppy and sensational" Korea Times article, but admitted potential layoffs may be in the works following the game's lackluster performance.
Read the full story over on Next-Gen.NCSoft's chief financial officer, Lee Jae-ho, has told The Korean Times that Tabula Rasa has proven to be a financial disaster.
NCSoft's chief financial officer, Lee Jae-ho, has told The Korean Times that Tabula Rasa has proven to be a financial disaster.
Featuring heavy involvement from Richard Garriott, the sci-fi MMO was supposed to rattle the genre and take it to the next evolutionary step courtesy of the game's real-time combat and battlefield strategy. But it's gone down like a cup of cold sick.
As a result, NCSoft Austin - the company's arm responsible for the game - is being downsized, Lee explained, "We are going to revamp our Austin development organization."
Apparently Tabula Rasa made around £2.7 million (or five billion won) in revenue last year, and NCSoft then projected that it'd make around £8 million (15 billion won) this year. That's nowhere near enough cash though. It's estimated the game's cost NCSoft over £54 million to date.
"Half a year ago I communicated with investors and analysts we had very high expectations for Tabula Rasa", Lee continued. "After six months, I just put down 15 billion won as an annual revenue target and that's very disappointing. But I should admit that the actual result of Tabula Rasa has been disappointing.
"If you talk about our development cost we spent in the past several years, probably we are not making any money from this Tabula Rasa project. That should be the reality."
It's not confirmed how many staff at NCSoft Austin will get the boot, but the Austin studio will retain a workforce large enough to continue to support Tabula Rasa and will continue to develop other projects as well.
Richard Garriott will still be working on the MMO too, in between training to become a space tourist.
Serves them right for looking at WoW with greed and rushing out some bland pap to try and get a slice of the pie.
I feel sorry for the lowly workers that'll lose their jobs over this. No doubt the suits that forced them to make it will be getting bonuses or a new car to sooth the pain.
Serves them right for looking at WoW with greed and rushing out some bland pap to try and get a slice of the pie.
I feel sorry for the lowly workers that'll lose their jobs over this. No doubt the suits that forced them to make it will be getting bonuses or a new car to sooth the pain.
I came here to say the exact same thing. Hopefully this and the likes of Vanguard: Saga of Heroes will serve as a warning to would be MMO developers. DON'T COPY WORLD OF WARCRAFT - THERE ARE OTHER AVENUES TO SUCCESS...
No surprises here. Just throwing money at a concept because it has a name behind it doesn't guarantee success. You also need to make a good game to make money in the MMO market and sadly, despite all Richard Garriotts boasting, Tabula Rasa just isn't the revolution that was promissed.
The main thing for me was I just didn't enjoy playing it, whereas WoW held my attention for a good 9 months before I lost interest and Guild Wars a good 2 years - sadly Tabula just never gripped me.
On a lighter note i'm still enjoying Pirates of the Burning Sea
Tabula Rasa seemed ok, from what I played, but massive technical problems with my machine rendered it virtually unplayable. If you're aiming to pull off a fast-paced action MMO like that, you need to make sure it runs respectably. The reason the likes of WoW are played by so many? It runs just fine on the average desktop PC.
You've got to wonder if there is still any real money to be made in charging a Sub for an online game. Guild Wars has proven that success can be achieved without it. Only Wow and LOTRO have really a hope of making any true money. Everquest, Eve and City of Heroes/Villans could get by but they will never make the money Wow has. The problem is the suits and investers see Wow and think, I want a piece of that. Unfortunatley you can only invent the wheel once. Sad news for all who toiled hard on the game. I got to say the beta was plagued by lag even on empty servers.
I can't believe developers are still making MMOs with the hope of making profit.
The subscription model is definitely on it's way out, and that can only be a good thing. Although I'm not sure that Pay2Play is such a great idea either.
I'd be fine with suitable in-game adverts too. Not the targeted spyware versions though! I can imagine it'd work fine if you ran past Coke billboards in Battlefield 2 or something. And it can't be that hard for the companies to redesign them for fantasy or futuristic settings either. That's what marketing guys get paid for.
I can't believe developers are still making MMOs with the hope of making profit.
The subscription model is definitely on it's way out, and that can only be a good thing. Although I'm not sure that Pay2Play is such a great idea either.
I'd be fine with suitable in-game adverts too. Not the targeted spyware versions though! I can imagine it'd work fine if you ran past Coke billboards in Battlefield 2 or something. And it can't be that hard for the companies to redesign them for fantasy or futuristic settings either. That's what marketing guys get paid for.
QFT
I hate the idea that I pay for a game then I can't play it because I need to continue to pay for a subscription. I understand that they need the money to maintain servers and the like, but it's just not right. Guild Wars has managed without a subscription. Why not other games?
TR's huge loss was the fact the game changed at least twice during production, from fantasy style sci-fi to milirtary and then 6 months before release the gameplay changed to suit a different market it orginally wanted then back again after release.
The game idea is very good it was just very badly implemented and the devs spend time potting about with new ideas instead of making up their mind were current features were heading leaving most of it half bottomly done. Thankfully theres other MMOs on the market that are doing the same idea with combat (one of it's key good points) but have far more focus on were the game is going past the quick cashcow phase which like TR many devs and MMOS are still stuck in
Once that has fixed itself and the quality comes back in over cash then MMOs will start becomming as they were before Warcraft hit just with a much much larger playerbase and tastes to deal with, which then will deal to a wider choice of online gaming avabile to us
Just as a matter of interest Sony Online Entertainment has a multi million dollar turnover and all of its games except The Matrix Online and Planetside are well populated. Even the crusty original Everquest still has a decent player basem and lots of players returned to Star Wars Galaxies recently.
WoW merely proves that if you make a very easy game that appeals to the lowest common denominator and will run on a wired up bucket and put marketing muscle behind it then it will sell. It's the Sims of MMOs.
Regarding Tabula Rasa, if it hadn't been for the incredible amount of lag I would still be playing it. It isn't a WoW copy, for the infomation of the bloody nincompoop above: the lore and gameworld are entirely different and the interface relies on targeting, firing with one mouse button and triggering abilities with the other, and WoW was hardly the first fantasy based MMO itself for that matter. In fact, TR should have a pace that would leave WoW's millions of drones gasping, but the lack of servers has let it down.
Design Games + Listen to Aircool = Lots of Fun for Gamers + Money for Devs & Publishers.
Design Games + Ingore Aircool = s**t Game + Financial Ruin.
Does Aircool just have an uncanny knack for seeing into the future, or does he have a time machine?
Ok, cancelling my TR account for the second time now. I like the game but if the dev team is about to get an axe taken to it, it isn't going to be worth hoping for a brighter future now.
Everyone listen to Aircool. I don't have any friggin idea how he does it.
Just as a matter of interest Sony Online Entertainment has a multi million dollar turnover and all of its games except The Matrix Online and Planetside are well populated. Even the crusty original Everquest still has a decent player basem and lots of players returned to Star Wars Galaxies recently.
What about Vanguard? When I left they were bleeding subscriptions left right and centre. Have they managed to pull it around? It was a complete mess when I left, about 9 months after release.
Only Wow and LOTRO have really a hope of making any true money. Everquest, Eve and City of Heroes/Villans could get by but they will never make the money Wow has.
Eve has been running for years now, and I think they are doing fine.
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