Dungeon Runners to die at New Year

By Oli Welsh Published 18 September, 2009

NCsoft's free online RPG "isn't profitable".

Stephen Nichols, producer and lead programmer of NCsoft's free-to-play online RPG Dungeon Runners, has announced that the game is to shut down on January 1st 2010. Reason: it's not making money.

"Dungeon Runners just isn't cutting the mustard," Nichols confessed. "If she were a ship, she'd be taking on water... The game just isn't profitable."

NCsoft will be compensating Dungeon Runners players with free game time and copies of City of Heroes and Guild Wars Prophecies, as well as upping loot drops and experience gain between now and the game's closure.

Nichols said that although he had ideas how to fix the game, they would be risky and expensive, and too much for the three-man team currently working on the game to implement.

The threat of cancellation has been hanging over Dungeon Runners ever since its development team, based in NCsoft's Austin, Texas office, was cut back in the company's reorganisation of its Western business this time last year.

However - contrary to what NCsoft predicted at the time - at least it outlasted its stable-mate Tabula Rasa. By some distance.

Picture of Oli.

About Oli Welsh

Oli is Eurogamer's acting deputy editor and reviews editor and likes to take things one word at a time. He is among the best dressed people in South London.

Read more articles from Oli by visiting the Oli Welsh archive page.

You may also like...

Comments (7) Latest comment 2 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • penhalion #1 2 years ago

    It also wasn't a fun game to play either.

  • Bazfrag #2 2 years ago

    3 man team! That is indeed a hefty cutback.

  • Eraysor #3 2 years ago

    I'd love to see what would happen to WoW if it were run by three people.

  • WJF #4 2 years ago

    Have we reached the tipping point for free-to-play MMOs? There seems to be so many of them out there right now vying for attention that I wouldn't be surprised to see a few more fall within the next 6 months. The whole business model is really based on 'get as many in' so that the percentage needed to pay the micro-payments decreases, and with too many competitors splintering the market (and the bigger names turning F-T-P like D&D) only a few can possibly survive.

    (And DR was a little crap anyway, so not really surprised)

  • Vuriche #5 2 years ago

    Hrm, never tried it, never even heard of it before now. Got a bit curious about it and downloaded the client, but alas, it appears they've shut down new registrations for the game. A shame that.

  • Sharzam #6 2 years ago

    I tried it for a few days when it first launched, it wasnt a bad game but just not enourgh to keep me intreasted. For dungeon crawling rather have the likes of diablo and titan quest at the time and for the MMO would rather play WoW,EQ etc.

  • Sar #7 2 years ago

    Mythos was better :/