Tabula Rasa Shutting Down

November 22nd, 2008, 10:48 Posted By: wraggster

Tabula Rasa, the sci-fi MMO from NCsoft and Richard Garriott, will shut down on February 28, according to an official message on the Tabula Rasa site. The game officially launched in November 2007, meaning that it will have lasted approximately 15 months. This brings to a close the long saga behind the game; it began development in 2001 and encountered numerous delays.

"Last November, we launched what we hoped would be a ground breaking sci-fi MMO. In many ways, we think we've achieved that goal. Tabula Rasa has some unique features that make it fun and very different from every other MMO out there. Unfortunately, the fact is that the game hasn't performed as expected. The development team has worked hard to improve the game since launch, but the game never achieved the player population we hoped for," the post, which was attributed to the Tabula Rasa team, read.

The post went on to add that the Tabula Rasa servers will be made free to play on January 10, allowing anyone to experience it before it shuts down on February 28. The team says that it will "be doing some really fun things... and we plan to make staying on a little longer worth your while."

This certainly marks a setback for NCsoft and Garriott, even though he recently announced plans to leave NCsoft to pursue his interests in space. Garriott, the creator of Ultima and Ultima Online and an early pioneer in the RPG genre, was the sixth space tourist in history last October. He paid approximately $30 million to fly aboard the International Space Station for 12 days.

Tabula Rasa is set on alien worlds, where the last remnants of humanity battle against an alien coalition known as The Bane. Like World of Warcraft, it required a monthly subscription to play.

http://uk.pc.ign.com/articles/932/932708p1.html

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