Tabula Rasa Should Have Went Free to Play
Tabula Rasa was a pay to play sci-fi themed MMORPG published by NCSoft which released in November 2, 2007 and shut down 2 years later in February 28, 2009. Isn’t it a shame that a game that cost NCSoft a whopping $106 million to develop should go to waste? There’s no doubt the game was a financial disaster for NCSoft, as the game only made $6 million in revenue since release, but instead of shutting the game down all together, NCSoft should have released the game the game as a free to play title or at least licensed the game to a free to play game publisher like Aeriagames or Outspark.
Tabula Rasa Gameplay
NCSoft wouldn’t have been doing anything out of the ordinary if they just decided to make the game free to play. Both RF Online and Archlord used to be pay to play games but are free to play today. More recently, The Chronicles of Spellborn and Dungeons and Dragons Online went free to play as well. There’s no guarantee that Tabula Rasa would have been a success as a free to play game, but I’m sure more people would have given the game a chance. After all, Tabula Rasa was largely well received, as it received a 4 out of 5 from GameSpy and an 8 out of 10 from Eurogamer. Aggregate reviews on GameRankings reveal that Tabula Rasa even scored higher by critics than Dungeons and Dragons Online, which has been enormously successful since going free to play. In fact, Dungeons and Dragons Online makes MUCH more money today now that it’s free to play than it ever did when it was pay to play.
Dungeons and Dragons Online Gameplay
In case you never heard of Tabula Rasa, it was a sci-fi MMORPG with unique fast paced combat. The game was largely developed by Richard Gariott, who also played a big role in the development of Ultima Online – the first ever mega popular MMORPG. The game was surprisingly fun, but it only lasted two years before being shut down. It has some interesting PvP options and a nice selection of playable classes.
The Chronicles of Spellborn Gameplay
What do you guys think? I think it’s a huge waste to see a game that cost so much to develop get shut down. If NCSoft didn’t want to run the game, they should sell the license to someone who does as a free to play game. Heck. Maybe NCSoft will bring the game back. Who knows.
Tabula Rasa R.I.P.
By, Omer Altay.
March 21, 2010
#
The game looks interesting, and doing it Free to Play and get a bit of money is allways better than shut down it and get nothing.
March 21, 2010
#1
Not necessarily a bit of money. Dungeons and Dragons Online made A LOT more money when it went free than it did while it was pay to play. Free to play rocks =p.
March 21, 2010
#2
I’d rather have it running making less money rather than have it get shut down. Why?
March 21, 2010
#3
I searched a bit about the game when I heard that a fanbase was making a free private server. The game had like 4-8 servers none of which were ever full. One thing they could first try is to close all the servers and just leave 1 or 2 that would decrease their costs a lot. The final solution of course would be to go F2P if the other idea didn’t work out. As an F2P I aslo believe it would have an enormous success as DDO and other games before it (RF Online, ArchLord). I don’t think NCSoft will ever bring it back cause they won’t forget this disappointment -for them- any time soon. I didn’t know it costed so much it’s like they threw $100 million away. So if they decide to bring it back it will cost them some more money and they fear the second failure.
Plus the game was not sci-fi. It was meant to be, but at the last minute it changed concept to fantasy MMO.
March 21, 2010
#4
Tabula Rasa was a very good game i played it for one year until they shut it down. This game pulled me way from World of Warcraft and Final Fantasy XI cause it did things that hadn’t or still Haven’t been done in MMOs. One example is how you can chain kill mobs that’s will rise the xp gain from 2x to 5x xp gain and when you make a party you don’t get less xp you get 50% more xp per person with a 5 man team xp gain goes to 250% plus the chain kills 2x to 5x xp gain. I can go on and on how awesome this game was it was that good and i wish it make it return someday (P.S. Tabula Rasa is my Favorite MMORPGs of all time period.)
March 22, 2010
#5
I read this on wiki was was surprised it was ended so soon. They probably decided to terminate service entirely cause of low player base, and on top of that had low expectations. I think they rather turn to more potential areas to make profit.
July 7, 2011
#6
@wes they didn’t have a low fan base they where f2p for about 3 months before shutting down and everyone who joined during that time was complaining that it was shutting down not to mention they did combine the servers they had two before they shut it down they got rid of it so they could bring out Aion
March 22, 2010
#7
i agree that looks like such a good game i would love to play it… * sigh*
not all things are meant to be.
March 27, 2010
#8
For a few months before its closure it was F2P
March 28, 2010
#9
Correction Esivo, Tabula Rasa was a Sci Fi game. It was originally to be a fantasy game and then it’s concept was reworked. Much of the development costs for the game were squandered by Richard Garriott that rebuilt the game from it’s fantasy base. During that time, he hired some of the best MMO people out there only to fire them because they could not work as a team and were creating a crappy game. So who knows how much money he wasted there. I am betting that probably only a quarter of the money spent to make Tabula Rasa went into making the final product. Plus Richard Garriott made at least 20 million dollars to fly to the ISS with. Where he was promptly fired!
April 17, 2010
#10
Being one of the many people that played, not only from the Alpha, but all the way through to the server switch off, I feel anger for those at NCSoft that stood against the project from the beginning, YES they should bring it back, that is the least that they owe the gaming community that has made all of them wealthy. Tabula Rasa was fast paced, PVE + PVP , solo and group that has some kind of resembalance to a real battaefield and the struggle to survive, giving players the feeling of being invovled as their actions changed the battlefield in real time, yes I miss the game and it should come to F2P – it would be a smash.
June 19, 2010
#11
omg my bro bought me tabula rasa a few years ago for my bday i didnt know how to use the game cuz i was young and didnt know how to use computers well. im so pissed off that they shut it down i feal like an idiot cuz i was just installing it
October 16, 2010
#12
Ya,why would they shut it down NCsoft has been shutting down a lot of their games lately why? They aren’t smart enough to even put on free play until the very end of the time you get to play Global Agenda for example went free to play and they are making millions! But sadly Tabula Rasa was free to play for the last month you could play it. I loved Tabula Rasa and couldn’t they give it to another developer and share it? That is what i have to say.
December 21, 2010
#13
Marketing Tabula Rasa for F2P would be awesome. I personally would still pay the monthly fee for it. We need a petition made to make TR f2p!!
February 8, 2011
#14
The reason why it’ll never go F2P is because it’s a bad blemish on NC Softs record.. NC Soft hates Garriot and were worried about the MMO way before he even scrapped it and started rebuilding it.. Then afterwords when he went to space on money they paid him! The game all together only raked in 6million while Garriot spent more then that getting into space lol..
They’d rather erase the memory of Garriot and his game (TR) rather then make it F2P and maybe recoup a little bit of their losses, but being able to make another $100million + to get back in the black with the game would be out of this question.. They loss money with TR no matter how you look at it, unless ofcourse they decide to actually start working on it again down the road.. TR is a good game just needed another year in developement.
July 21, 2011
#15
No Josh, that’s not really what happened and if you’d spent 3 minutes on Google doing just a little research, you’d have found what actually happened. NCSoft literally destroyed Destination Games to avoid paying out of country taxes in setting up a base of operations in the USA. In the process, they tanked the only game that Destination ever put out and illegally “fired” Garriot while he was at the space station. Garriot was already a multi-millionair, he did not need “the money that NCSoft already paid him” to fund his trip the space station. Garriot has since turned around (well before your idiotic post) and sued NCSoft for lost stock option that could literally be in the hundreds of millions.
Even under the subscription model, TR could be seen as doing “ok” by today’s standards. They were light on their subscription, but not to a point of needing to close down. Going to a free-2-play model would have made 10x that. But none of that has *anything* to do with why NCSoft shut the game down. They did it to plant their flag in the USA at a lower cost. Period.
October 8, 2011
#16
NCSoft sucks thats all, i was a Tabula Rasa player since Launch and i can say, it was worth it playing. But NCSoft just fucked everything up like angry Childs about the actings of Richard Garriot (i bet they where jealous that he got more reputation out of this) now they deicded to shut the game down cause they didnt do enough advertise the game so many former players thinks now they calculated it from the start cuz at some time the planned to get AION up soon and why not shut down a game that doesnt fit in their policy like Tablua Rasa to get space for their retarded Grinder Games? Im still sad that Tabula Rasa is Lost if i just find a private server that works i would play it and support it…i miss the unique game so badly
November 17, 2011
#17
Hi
Yes please someone bring back Tabula Rasa on free to play im sure it would work,If they can bring back hellgate as a free to play why not Tabula as its a much better game!!!