Tabula Rasa to be shut down, could Age of Conan be next?
It hasn’t been great times for some MMO developers of late, as the year finally takes its toll in the most brutal of gaming markets. Tabula Rasa is one casualty, living out a death sentence until the end of February 2009 when the servers will be turned off for good. Age of Conan is showing some signs of cracking too, with supposed confirmation that 70% of Funcom’s US workforce has been laid off.
When Richard Garriott announced his departure from NCsoft a few weeks ago, he blamed the transcendental experience of being in space. While this would certainly be a reason to change, it was also no secret that Tabula Rasa had failed to grab an audience. Initially, his trip to orbit was a Tabula Rasa PR stunt, but it had become obvious for some time that Garriott wasn’t mentioning the game much.
As an apology, NCsoft is offering subscribers a package, including the following:
3 free months of City of Heroes including digital client
3 free months of Lineage II including digital client
Aion beta access (coming soon)
Aion pre-order access (available in 2009)
1 free month of Aion including digital client (available in 2009)
It’s not too bad, but in reality, if you are one of the Tabula Rasa hardcore, then it’s probably poor compensation.
Information is only really just coming out about the Funcom happenings. The story broke as a rumour on MMO site Ten Ton Hammer, and the site is now taking the following upbeat marketing spin as confirmation.
We did have some staffing cuts at Funcom this week as well as new positions opening in the organization as part of our ongoing cost based efficiency and performance initiatives that are vital to any business.
There will certainly be more news to come on this one, especially as the next few months provide a litmus test to see if the obvious waves of people returning to WoW for Wrath of the Lich King stick around or spread back into the wider MMO community. It will be incredibly interesting to see the effect on subscriber numbers for Warhammer Online when next EA talks financial stuff.
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