NCsoft says Tabula Rasa is doing fine

by Alexander Sliwinski { Jun 11th 2008 at 5:00PM }

An NCsoft Europe spokesperson tells Eurogamer that Tabula Rasa has a growing player base and isn't in any trouble. Recent reports suggest otherwise, as NCsoft was apparently too embarrassed by the game's performance to mention it in its recent Q1 financial report. NCsoft states that a recent European trial met with "great demand" and it'll do a similar promotion later this year.

It's no secret that Tabula Rasa's had a slow start, but just how bad is it? If MMOGCHART is to be believed, Richard Garriott's Tabula Rasa has approximately 75,000 players, the same subscription numbers as his decade-old Ultima Onine.

Tags: ncsoft, ncsoft-europe, richard-garriott, tabula-rasa, tabularasa

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

CTC XBL-supapaypamawio PSN-ctclaw @ Jun 11th 2008 5:18PM

Joystiq readers say who cares about Tabula Rasa.

Pralaya @ Jun 12th 2008 6:54AM

I'm a joystiq reader and I care about TabulaRasa.

CTC XBL-supapaypamawio PSN-ctclaw @ Jun 12th 2008 4:38PM

Alright then let me revise my comment.

Joystiq readers say who cares about Tabula Rasa, except for one.

Agathos @ Jun 11th 2008 5:36PM

So when exactly is an MMO a bomb? For isntance if D&D online has around 50k players each paying $10 a month is that much recurring income really mean that the game is doomed? It's at least recurring monthly income verus even say some AAA titles like Drake's fortune or Ratchet and Clank that sold say 200k copies one time is that really that big of a difference or have the 10million WoW subscribers and 10 million GTA4 sales warped our perceptions of successful?

LaughingTarget @ Jun 11th 2008 5:40PM

It's a function of return on investment, it's financial speak. As long as the companies can keep their operating expenses below the revenue, then all is swell. Basically, as long as a single server is utilized for smaller populations, the company can keep the game afloat for a long while. The real issue of success and failure is if there is a worthwhile reason for the company to sink more money into any sequels or other MMOs.

LaughingTarget @ Jun 11th 2008 5:37PM

As long as the servers and support cost less than $1.2 million a month, they should be able to swing it. Terrible investment return for the amount of money sunk into it, but swingable.

double9s @ Jun 11th 2008 5:54PM

People should give it a try. The game has made a lot of progress since launch.

Jess Q. @ Jun 11th 2008 6:08PM

I got the limited edition or whatever for Christmas, and I was SO excited to play it. I love WoW, but I really like sci-fi more than fantasy, so I couldn't wait to play it.

It wouldn't work on my computer, though. So we installed it on the Behemoth, the best computer in our house. With the ABSOLUTE lowest settings, it barely chugged along. It handled SO awfully, it was literally impossible to aim any weapon. I had to stop playing before I even picked up a single quest.

I was also disappointed by the atmosphere in that first area. The characters took themselves far too seriously, and I could tell right away the game didn't seem very interested in being "fun" so much as "anal rape for a monthly cost." (I say this based on what I heard about the beta, where sometimes you won't even be able to turn in a quest because the town will be run by the opposing faction?)

It doesn't sound like fun to me, and sadly I literally couldn't play it enough to even see if it was something I'd enjoy. The best computer we have may not be a gaming rig, but christ, I couldn't believe how horribly it handled. It gave me a headache just looking at it for 10 minutes.

Maybe if I get a better computer I'll try again, but as things stand right now, I'll stick with my low-polygon count WoW. At least it'll run. :\

Haggard @ Jun 11th 2008 6:22PM

Does your Behemoth have graphics as part of the motherboard, or a seperate graphics card?

A lot of places sell computers that claim to be powerhouses because they have good processors and lots of RAM (but no GFX card), and customers assume that this means they can play games on them really well - sadly not true unless it has a decent graphics card installed.

Jess Q. @ Jun 11th 2008 7:49PM

The card is definitely separate from the motherboard. It's an HP of some sort, Media Center edition (XP). I'm not exactly sure what it has, but judging by how much better it works than my personal computer (a Sony VAIO, about 3 years old), I figured the game would be fine, even if it wasn't running with the highest settings. We could probably upgrade the video card, but the point is we never even considered that our newish computer would have so much trouble playing that game. If it was Crysis, I'd totally understand, but I was just really surprised cause I didn't think an MMO would be that graphics intensive.

LaughingTarget @ Jun 11th 2008 8:23PM

You haven't seen Age of Conan screens I take it.

Anyway, you just mentioned the problem - HP. They use substandard equipment in their machines and load them down with useless software.

Jess Q. @ Jun 11th 2008 9:12PM

I don't like HPs, either, but we got a deal on the computer. Like the kind of deal where it was basically free. ;p

Trethan @ Jun 11th 2008 6:30PM

And games like this doing badly make it even less likely to see a UO style clone.

I dream daily of a UO clone, and I haven't played Ultima for... four years.

Anticrawl @ Jun 11th 2008 8:20PM

I would love to play the new game by the famous Ultima Online creator, but I'm not paying a monthly fee. Toss some adds in there and cut the fee bullshit. Guild Wars can pull off the no monthly fee just fine.

I'll just wait for Guild Wars 2. Persistant worlds, multiple races, amazing PvP system, guilds, leaderboards, etc all for one price and no monthly fees. Yeah I can wait for that.