Tabula Rasa shutting down on Feb. 28

by Randy Nelson { Nov 21st 2008 at 4:00PM }

We kind of knew that Tabula Rasa's run wasn't going to end all that well. And it will end ... on Feb. 28, 2009. This comes after months of reports concerning the NCsoft MMO's poor performance and, most recently, the departure of creator Richard Garriot.

The news of Tabula Rasa's impending shuttering came today via the game's community site, with the team issuing a formal "Thank you and farewell" message to players. "The development team has worked hard to improve the game since launch, but the game never achieved the player population we hoped for," the statement reads. "So it is with regret that we must announce that Tabula Rasa will end live service on February 28, 2009."

Tabula Rasa will be free-to-play beginning Jan. 10, 2009, through the day its servers power down. Subscribers to the game will be given a parting gift from NCsoft to the tune of three free months of City of Heroes, Lineage II, and access to the Aion beta when it becomes available (plus a free month of Aion once it's released).

[Via Massively]

Tags: breakingnews, ncsoft, richard-garriott, tabula-rasa

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Shmil @ Nov 21st 2008 4:05PM

Am I a bad person because all I can think of is Nelson's "Haw haw?"

RiccochetJ @ Nov 21st 2008 4:07PM

Yes

Courtney @ Nov 21st 2008 4:15PM

Funny, I had Queen's "Another one bites the dust" run through my head.

JontheNinja @ Nov 21st 2008 4:09PM

A clean slate...

of failure.

dabamf @ Nov 21st 2008 4:10PM

Good riddance to bad rubbish...I'm switching over to "Hellgate: London" anyhow.

JCollum @ Nov 21st 2008 4:42PM

I... this makes no sense.

ihateemo @ Nov 21st 2008 4:43PM

@JCollum

IRONY FAIL

ihateemo @ Nov 21st 2008 4:43PM

@JCollum

IRONY FAIL

dabamf @ Nov 21st 2008 4:50PM

@ihateemo

Thank you for that.

doom saber @ Nov 26th 2008 2:52AM

If the comment above wasn't sarcasam then you should know that Namco is also closin hellgate on feb

dabamf @ Nov 26th 2008 12:03PM

It was sarcasm, and I knew that. I think you can even play HL for free until it shuts down.

Diskoboy7 @ Nov 21st 2008 4:13PM

I'm amazed NCsoft hasn't closed it's doors, yet.

First Lineage 2 was major suckage. Then came Auto Assault. City of Villans couldn't hold a candle to it's predecessor. Now Tabula Rusa bites the dust.

Give it up, guys - you were a one hit wonder.

mrelusive @ Nov 21st 2008 4:20PM

I'm pretty sure NCsoft still does well with their non-western stuff and Guild Wars...

Haggard @ Nov 22nd 2008 11:06AM

You know City of Villains and Heroes are both the same game now?

KeenCommander @ Nov 21st 2008 4:14PM

I feel bad for the people who actually bought/played it. Any online game shutting down is a shame, and it's even worse for a relatively recent one...

Even if the game wasn't actually any good.

Amauriel @ Nov 21st 2008 5:47PM

I bought the game on launch day, collector edition and all, and then a second copy for my husband so we could play together...it was honestly a solid game that got a bad rap at first. But then they tried to patch it all to hell to make it appeal to everyone and THAT was when I felt that I might have wasted my money. I got a good six months out of it, and that's more than a lot of other games that I have paid just as much for.

RiccochetJ @ Nov 21st 2008 4:16PM

It's becoming evident that there's Blizzard, then there's everyone else, and they're all fighting for scraps. At least it seems that way in the western market anyways.

SlimPickinz96 @ Nov 21st 2008 4:31PM

Agreed.

*coughs brushing snow off cloak found in Northrend*
sniff*
Shame

Otimus @ Nov 21st 2008 4:39PM

and it has ABSOLUTELY nothing to do with quality.

Infact, most people simply trying to be WoW (which in itself is fairly damned outdated, and was so in 2004) is stifling MMO evolution.

You simply can't beat the name recognition, the roots, the way it's simply grounded itself into society.

Worst yet are the people who act like WoW is the be all end all solution to everyone's MMO wants. No. You're just easily pleased, like the name, or you simply aren't willing to try anything else ever. Or all your friends play WoW.

JoeTheBlow @ Nov 21st 2008 4:18PM

Note to ALL PC MMO developers and publishers:

If you are not WoW, you have not got a chance in hell.
MMO players only have so much time, and WoW has everything they want or need.
Give up.

Dr. @ Nov 21st 2008 4:22PM

Odd then that games like EVE are still running strong after what... 5 or 6 years now?

JCollum @ Nov 21st 2008 4:25PM

Eve blows; it's only for people who don't like WOW because of the "fun". I played Eve for 8 months and I shudder when I think about going back.

Matt_M @ Nov 21st 2008 4:44PM

Sorry, not everyone likes fantasy. While you may love swords, sorcery, elves and dwarves, it does nothing for me.

As long as people like me exist, there will be markets for MMO's other than WoW.

Marmot @ Nov 21st 2008 10:29PM

Well I think you win the award for moronic generalisation.

Just because it is the most popular game in it's genre does not make it the apex of it. The fact that LOTRO is releasing an expansion pack pretty much shows how much you know, not to mention the staying power of other MMOs and WARs addition to the genre. If you're going to make statements like that then you may as well start celebrating the joys of Runescape.

wickedpheonix @ Nov 22nd 2008 6:09PM

@JCollum: I doubt you would've played EVE for 8 months if you considered it a crap game that entire time.

I started playing EVE at the beginning of August, and the game stays successful as it is because it caters to its hardcore customers. 250,000 active subscribers is no easy thing to do, let alone have an increasing population which, other than WoW, is just not seen in the MMO market. Being in the same server as everybody else, having real, hard consequences for your actions both on yourself and on other people in the game, free expansions twice a year... EVE is the king of MMO's.

To paraphrase a guy on the EVE forums a while ago, if you want a MMO to hold your hand while you enjoy the amusement park rides, play WoW. If you want a MMO that truly lives up to the premise of the genre, leaves the players to their own devices so that they can decide how to have fun in the game world and play the way they want to play, then play EVE.

Top Cat @ Nov 21st 2008 4:20PM

Guess the slate has been filled

Park Zero @ Nov 21st 2008 4:21PM

Wasn’t Tim Cain of the Fallout series involved with this game?

Dirty @ Nov 21st 2008 4:33PM

I think the problem with most MMO's is that they are not appealing to the right group of people. Seems like they want to do a lot of MMO's with guns, when all chicks wanna do is be sexy night elf healers.

Im not an MMO fan, I like shorter action based titles, just because you put action into a MMO doesnt mean I will like it, I aint got the time bro. Stop coming after me, I wont play your game..... idiots.

Jess Q. @ Nov 22nd 2008 1:08PM

I'm a girl and I've never played a night elf or a healer. :P I also got the collector's edition of Tabula Rasa for a Christmas present last year and was very sad when I saw the reality of what looked like a totally badass game. In my case, I thought it took itself too seriously and came off as being corny and cheesy because it couldn't laugh at itself, and at the time, even the lowest graphic setting made it completely impossible to play on our best computer.

Yes, I'm one of those people (girls) who plays WoW and never played an MMO before it. And yes, I like that WoW is fun. But if a new MMO could have the same sort of gameplay (a UI that isn't hideous, clear objectives, forgiving game mechanics), but had a serious tone, took place in space, and had modern-day graphics (that hopefully I could run), I would be on board.

I hope that Star Wars MMO ends up being good, because I'd much rather play in a sci-fi world than a fantasy one. But I played a Galaxies trial (after it got nerfed), and I even got into the beta for the LOTR MMO, and I didn't like either of them. Although, the LOTR MMO was WAY better than Galaxies. It just felt unresponsive.

And actually, my biggest complaint about Galaxies was simply the way you move your character around. It was awkward and felt unnatural (your mouse is your camera; point the way you want to go and walk that way).

So it's just simple nitpicks keeping me playing WoW. And there are plenty of things I don't like about WoW, but for the most part it's enjoyable to play, so I stick with it. It's also *fun*, which a lot of MMOs don't seem to be.

StuScotsLazyEye @ Nov 21st 2008 4:49PM

I guess I'm the only one here who actually enjoyed playing this game? Reminded me a bit of pre-NGE SWG *sniff*...

I never really have the time to play MMO's anyways, which is why I stopped playing Tabula Rasa after a couple months. Now that I look at it, MMO's are meant for teenagers with shit loads of time on their hands (I was one of them when I played SWG), or for people who can't find a social life and sit in front of the computer instead of going out and chilling with their friends.

FSK405K @ Nov 21st 2008 4:57PM

I enjoyed playing it until I discovered that all the quests were the types I hate: collect eight entrails, take this letter to someone for me, and kill Grand Master Flash. In other words, about a day. Tabula Rasa was previewed as having tons of instances with Diablo-like quests, but somewhere on the road to release they took a turn down Samey-town Road.

Levi @ Nov 21st 2008 6:25PM

I tried the free trial not too long ago. It seemed like a cool idea, but was still far too similar to your standard MMO. I had high hopes it was going to play more like a shooter, and was let down when enemy shots still flew around corners and such.

Guess it's more waiting around for Huxley. *Sigh*. It's been 4 years now that I've been waiting.. Why has the MMOFPS idea not caught on yet...

obo @ Nov 21st 2008 8:11PM

Planetside's failures scared everybody off. Balancing pseudo-realtime combat when the average client lag is +100ms is hard enough.

Not saying Planetside was bad. It could be fun. But having true, full-time combat in an MMO is a pain in the ass to design and implement.

Levi @ Nov 21st 2008 9:56PM

I don't see how it should be much different than any coop or large scale mutuplayer game really

Kiwi KJH @ Nov 21st 2008 6:57PM

They forgot to thank everyone for paying for Richards space flight vacation.

Christian Walters @ Nov 21st 2008 8:54PM

I cant say that I am happy to see a non Blizzard MMO die, but I cant say that I am surprised either. TR was DITW before it was even released. I played it for about 6 months, and just got the massive "meh" feeling from it, just like the one I get from Guild Wars every now and then.

WoW is cool and all, but I want an update to Phantasy Star Online personally. I still play it almost everyday, and its got to be one of the best abandonware MMOs ever.