Tabula Rasa is not in trouble, says NCsoft

By Robert Purchese Published 11 June, 2008

Is actually "growing month on month".

NCsoft has told Eurogamer that Tabula Rasa has a growing player base and is not in as much trouble as recent financial reports seem to suggest.

"Tabula Rasa has a dedicated player base, which is growing month on month," said an NCsoft Europe spokesman.

"Tabula Rasa offers players a different kind of MMO experience, enhancing our portfolio of game titles. The game play mechanics are very different to that of a typical MMO - those who have experienced the game have recognised these innovative features and applauded them.

"A recent European trial promotion was met with great demand; we will be doing a similar promotion later in the year."

On top of this, the spokesman promised that the team was working to a "four-weekly update cycle" based on what the community asked for.

Tabula Rasa was all but missing from money boasts in its May-published financial results for the first quarter of 2008.

Take a closer look and Tabula Rasa commanded just KRW 1.87 billion (GBP 927,422) in those three months.

Compare that to Lineage II with KRW 35.673 billion (GBP 17,689,41), and Lineage with KRW 29.023 billion (GBP 14,392,852), and something appears to be amiss.

Even the four year-old Guild Wars and City of Heroes took considerably more, at KRW 9.481 billion (GBP 4,702,598) and KRW 5.416 billion (GBP 2,685,698), respectively.

"The Lineage brand is certainly the cornerstone of NCsoft's portfolio and continues to perform every quarter," explained the spokesman. "While still relative newcomers, Guild Wars and City of Heroes recently celebrated their fourth anniversary and have well established player bases."

NCsoft reaffirmed that MMOGCHART figures were "not official". The figures show Tabula Rasa somewhere around the 75,000 subscriber mark. We're waiting to hear back about the official numbers.

Tabula Rasa was created by MMO hero Richard Garriott, who is considered to be one of the founders of massively multiplayer gaming for his work on Ultima Online - which, incidentally, is also said to attract around 75,000 regular players.

Garriott told us last year that the game had the potential to beat World of Warcraft in terms of popularity, but wasn't sure where in the region of between one million and ten million sales Tabula Rasa would be.

Despite its somewhat disappointing performance, Tabula Rasa fetched solid critical response, earning 8/10 from Eurogamer for its unique take on the genre.

Head over to our Tabula Rasa gamepage to follow its progress and keep up to date with what the future holds.

Picture of Robert.

About Robert Purchese

Bertie is Eurogamer's Senior Staff Writer. When he's not hunting down news stories he's often found playing with his kids or gabbling about fantasy games and strange online worlds.

Read more articles from Robert by visiting the Robert Purchese archive page.

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Comments (18) Latest comment 4 years ago

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

  • Dizzy #1 4 years ago

    This is not the bad news you are looking for.

    /waves hand

  • Eraysor #2 4 years ago

    "Tabula Rasa has a dedicated player base, which is growing month on month,"

    A likely story!

    Also it's quite impressive that Guild Wars generates more money despite not actually having any subscription fees.
    Edited by 1 at 11/06/08 @ 14:07

  • Yeevle #3 4 years ago

    That's weird, I quit not long ago.

  • Darkjinxter #4 4 years ago

    I too quit months ago, as my neighbour and a friend.
    I wonder where this playerbase is actually coming from.
    Perhaps Eurogamer could give us yet another update of the state of the game. Anything been done to make this game more appealing? bar being able to play as a potato head?

    lol - A recent patch extols - 'Improved lighting on character select and creation screens' Well worth going back for :D
    Edited by 1 at 11/06/08 @ 14:36

  • Gurgeh #5 4 years ago

    "Tabula Rasa has a dedicated player base, which is growing month on month,"

    He must be eating well.

  • mrsquare #6 4 years ago

    "Compare that to Lineage II with KRW 35.673 billion (GBP 17,689,41)"

    Is that GBP figure missing a digit somewhere?

  • SpyroViper #7 4 years ago

    Poor TR. Lol!

    and yes, it is quite funny how Guild Wars is way surpassing the revenue generated even though being free and almost 5 years old.

    That's a burn right there. **Sizzle Sound**

  • MrChuckles #8 4 years ago

    I have inside knowledge that NCSoft Brighton had plans for expanding in the last month, but that got knocked on the head from Korea as recently as last week.

    Shame, i like what NCSoft is trying to do (Tabula and City of Heroes are 'trying' to be a bit different), tbh, i'd be quite happy to work there :-)

  • riz23 #9 4 years ago

    "Tabula Rasa is not in trouble, says NCSoft" Eight (well nine now) comments on the story after being posted for four hours suggest otherwise. Apathy reigns...

  • SixFootHalfling #10 4 years ago

    "Tabula Rasa is not in trouble, says NCSoft" Eight (well nine now) comments on the story after being posted for four hours suggest otherwise. Apathy reigns...
    10 comments!

    "debtsgrowing month on month".
    fixed

  • SpyroViper #11 4 years ago

    Trust me, you would not want to work there.

  • sneetch #12 4 years ago

    Well, I bought it a few months ago for about €25 in GAME and could never even connect to it. It always timed out the furthest it ever got got was when it once managed to connect to the character creation section but to be honest I couldn't even be arsed trying to figure it out. I'd played in the beta with the exact same setup so I don't think it was my side and I don't have time or inclination to be chasing them up on this crap. Besides, my friend, who's with the same ISP as me, spent ages trying to sort out the same problem as I was having and they kept insisting that there was nothing wrong on their side and it must be our ISP, our ISP insisted there was nothing wrong on their side and it must be... well you know how it goes. In the end he had an increased phone bill, elevated blood pressure, more grey hairs and a strong desire to "return" his copy of the game to Richard Gariott anally. I simply wrote the €25 off as a bad debt and moved on.

    And that's why you should never run with scissors. Oh, sorry wrong moral, but still a cautionary tale for you all. ;)

  • Kropotkin #13 4 years ago

    Tabular Rasa will soon join Auto Assault and Asheron's Call 2 in the big blue sky of dead MMO's...

  • lancelot #14 4 years ago

    Richard Garriott's Tabula Rasa was developed in Austin, Texas. Why is it left to the European office to talk up the product? Why aren't the Garriott brothers out reassuring the public and taking some responsibility?

    As for "month over month"--RGTR's revenues went down 63% from quarter over quarter, accding to the quarterly. And according to the conference call, the game needs $10-15million in 2008 just to break even with 2008 expenses (to say nothing of the original investment)--and at present rate of revenue generation, the game won't clear $7 million in 2008.

  • Pirotic #15 4 years ago

    It's rather sad that all MMO's eventually die, while I very rarely touch an old game, It's still nice to know I can wire up the PSone and give final fantasy 7 a quick bash, but to think that in 10 years time I won't be able to walk around orgrimmar and reminisce is quite depressing.

  • hiddenranbir #16 4 years ago

    That's sort of good to hear. If it is going to get continued support I just may pick this up, I enjoyed a bit of the beta process.

  • 4thVariety #17 4 years ago

    In the first three months the game will cost 70€ (regular retail box + 60day subscription).
    The following three months will cost 39€ in fees.

    If the 1.1 Million Euro were all generated by new players, then the number of people is 17.000
    If the 1.1 Million Euro were all generated by subscribers, the number of players is around 30.000
    The truth is somwhere in between I guess.

    Games these days can easily fail to sell even if they are really good games. For games that do not exceed at gameplay it's even tougher. For games that ask premium prices on top of that it's extra tough. MMO is no longer a feature so exciting that companies can charge anything for including it into an otherwise mediocre game. MMO will be a good copy protection scheme and it will be an everyday feature. People will expect to play the games with their friends, not pay for that. In the space of strategy, RTS and shooters that is already the norm, only RPGs are trailing behind.

    In times where most publishers are happy to rake in 50€ from each buyer, RPG makers somehow think they can get squeeze around 160€ out of players.
    Edited by 1 at 12/06/08 @ 09:08

  • Nithron #18 4 years ago

    All is good in Tabula Rasa, for we still posess the Immortal Disco Squid