Starr Long, the Producer of NCsoft's Tabula Rasa announced today that the launch of the game will be pushed back to November 2nd. Pre-Order head starts will begin on October 30th.

Many of you have heard my mantra for game development: "Stable, Fast, Fun. In that order." We need a little more time to make that happen.

To this end we are moving our Pre-Order headstart date to 10/30/07 and our commercial service start date to 11/2/07. This short but critical amount of time will give us time to address several issues including stability and balance as well as allowing our players to test the continent of Ligo (L38+) and our major changes to crafting for a few weeks rather than a few days. Our entire development staff feels this extra time is needed as does our beta community. We feel confident that this extra time will make a difference on launch day.

That said we are excited about launching the game and moving into a "live" environment where the entire future of the AFS is ahead of us. Expect more posts from Richard Garriott, Paul Sage, and other dev staff over the next few days as they discuss plans for elder content and content updates both long and short term. One of us will also be posting to the website every Friday in order to directly address your feedback, which you can submit via the Feedback Form found here on the RGTR.com website.

See you in game as we wrap up this final leg of testing and get ready for the end-of-beta blow out!

Starr Long
Producer

More on Tabula Rasa here.

Although it is pretty fun right now, it is pretty laggy and bugged in many instances. While I am anticipating its release, I think this is a great and very smart move on the part of the developers. Delaying a game for a month is far better than releasing one bugged to death. Hopefully this extra time will allow them to avoid a bad launch because 90% of MMOs have their future decided within 1-2 months after release.

I've been in quite a few beta's since I started online gaming and I must admit I think the dev team made the right choice. Most game launch anyway and launch a bug-infested beast they spend weeks after launch to sort out and get stable. Tabula Rasa is going for quality and are willing to postpone to get it right.

Good job

I pre-ordered the collector's edition, even though I can't wait for the official release, I can wait a little while longer for an improved experience.

So far, game's been a blast. 

Yeah im all for it, its for the good of the game.

They get a from me. Its not ready! =P

30 days is going to make it ready?  Been in the business too long to believe that.  Probably get the most serious bugs and get the rest later.  Does not sound good for Sir Richard.  I think he might end up eatting his words on this one.  A shame really.

Originally posted by Ozmodan

30 days is going to make it ready?  Been in the business too long to believe that.  Probably get the most serious bugs and get the rest later.  Does not sound good for Sir Richard.  I think he might end up eatting his words on this one.  A shame really.

Just becuase they want to add a months worth of polish to it, doesn't mean that it's 'Failing Criticly'  The post says they want to test 'later game' content, and Balancing, and a tweak to the crafting system.. C'mon, think back mr. "I've been in the industry a long ole' time,"  Many of the games that you have 'been around' went gold with out even a thought to 'late - end game' content.  And Crafting Systems... don't even get me started - some games go to press with the promis of 'a major patch to introduce crafting in the near future' or no plans at all for crafing.

I really don't see this as a 'gloom and doom' move by these guys, I take em at their word, they are making the game Great.  Much like Blizzard back in the Diablo / Diablo 2 days - it's done when it's done.

Add to that mr. 'Industry man' the fact that they even MADE this move of pushing it back - Holy Cow! in this day and age with Retialers actualy giving up shelf space to pre-order boxes and the new attention that corporate is giving to meeting deadlines - that was one bold move!  Especialy since in my estimation, had this been one of SOE's game there is no way that they wouldn't have had it out the door already,  happiliy taking in 15$ a month from Subscribers paying to Beta test the game.

anyway - this rant sounds rather hostile twards the OP I'm quoting... sorry about that... I really don't feel hostile, I think I'm just tired and that's how it came out. 

I'll pre apologize, get some sleep, and won't let it happen again.

Peace out -zWolf.

Well after playing the beta for a while i was surprised when the "pre-order" date they were preparing seemed so close. This is better, but i'll be surprised if 30 days make much difference.

I mean the guy even clearly states that they have just made major changes to the crafting, so the 30 days isn't to polish. it is to test the new system... which could work out to be all wrong still, then what? another month? Then they can start polishing?

They're obviously trying to avoid directly competing with AoC and WAR, but i think that is the realistic time scale they're looking at. Don't be fooled into the pre-order without a release date, this is also another "we're scared of Aoc/WAR" tactic...

Good call

Originally posted by zWolf

 

 

Originally posted by Ozmodan

30 days is going to make it ready?  Been in the business too long to believe that.  Probably get the most serious bugs and get the rest later.  Does not sound good for Sir Richard.  I think he might end up eatting his words on this one.  A shame really.

Ok... This guy... Ozmodan may have 'been in the business too long to believe that." as he says, but the guy OBVIOUSLY hasn't been in the business long enough to learn not  to talk about something that he know's nothing about.  To be clear on the matter, here's what I am saying, I would be VERY surprised if he has been in the beta during the last 2 to 4 weeks.  I have, and I can say this game (as far as Beta's go mind you,) is smooth.  It runs great - there arn't many crashes reported,  the game play is fun, Seriously, this game is runnig great. 

 

 

Just becuase they want to add a months worth of polish to it, doesn't mean that it's 'Failing Criticly'  The post says they want to test 'later game' content, and Balancing, and a tweak to the crafting system.. C'mon, think back mr. "I've been in the industry a long ole' time,"  Many of the games that you have 'been around' went gold with out even a thought to 'late - end game' content.  And Crafting Systems... don't even get me started - some games go to press with the promis of 'a major patch to introduce crafting in the near future' or no plans at all for crafing.

I really don't see this as a 'gloom and doom' move by these guys, I take em at their word, they are making the game Great.  Much like Blizzard back in the Diablo / Diablo 2 days - it's done when it's done.

Add to that mr. 'Industry man' the fact that they even MADE this move of pushing it back - Holy Cow! in this day and age with Retialers actualy giving up shelf space to pre-order boxes and the new attention that corporate is giving to meeting deadlines - that was one bold move!  Especialy since in my estimation, had this been one of SOE's game there is no way that they wouldn't have had it out the door already,  happiliy taking in 15$ a month from Subscribers paying to Beta test the game.

anyway - this rant sounds rather hostile twards the OP I'm quoting... sorry about that... I really don't feel hostile, I think I'm just tired and that's how it came out. 

I'll pre apologize, get some sleep, and won't let it happen again.

 

Peace out -zWolf.

lol, dont pre apologize. You are just saying whats on all our minds. Well said, and couldnt agree more.

This beta is very very fun, however it is NOT ready for release. WAY to many nagging issues ranging from graphics optimization to server stability and EVERYTHING in between needing some polish. Very very happy they are taking the time to do more polish before releasing this. 

Kind of reminds me of many releases that have bugs. SWG's springs to mind, especially due to the number of similar problems. Not ready. And imho 30 days is enough to get it out but still not ready. No pre-order for me. Will check back on TR when the 7 or 14 day trial arrives.

With NCSoft and Garriott backing it, I think people should be happy to wait 30 days, and should expect a wait from professionals that know when an MMO is ready.

Possibly to Tabula Rasa's detriment -- players should also expect a great game for the same reasons.

Originally posted by Ozmodan

30 days is going to make it ready?  Been in the business too long to believe that.  Probably get the most serious bugs and get the rest later.  Does not sound good for Sir Richard.  I think he might end up eatting his words on this one.  A shame really.

30 days  is an extra 30 days. If they feel there is a bit more bug squashing to be done before releasing a non-vaporware game then obviously it's a good sign.

I don't know what "industry" you've been in, but if its negative PR spin or diahhrea of the mouth, I think thats about the only "industry" I'd believe. Anyone with have an ounce of business sense knows that releasing an unfinished project is just ripe with calls of low quality, and is similar to the lead paint issues. Don't cry about money either, as the fact that the game is so close to completion is probably easy to find an extra VC to invest since they have a solid product to show for it.

They need a hell of a lot more than 30 days to fix this one.

30 weeks would be more like it.

I wonder how many of the fan-boys that are playing for free right now are going to be willing to fork up the $15 a month to play this buggy, content short, feature lacking, 'mmorpg'?

Not many, I would bet.

NCSoft would do well to shoot RG into space as soon as possible, leave him there, and take the time to finish this game and get it right.  July 4, 2008 would be a super day to launch this game.

Independence Day,  FTW!

Originally posted by Shoal

They need a hell of a lot more than 30 days to fix this one.

30 weeks would be more like it.

I wonder how many of the fan-boys that are playing for free right now are going to be willing to fork up the $15 a month to play this buggy, content short, feature lacking, 'mmorpg'?

Not many, I would bet.

NCSoft would do well to shoot RG into space as soon as possible, leave him there, and take the time to finish this game and get it right.  July 4, 2008 would be a super day to launch this game.

Independence Day,  FTW!

It'll be ok, just don't play it and let the other several thousand world-wide enjoy without you.

Originally posted by alyndale

 

Originally posted by Shoal

They need a hell of a lot more than 30 days to fix this one.

30 weeks would be more like it.

I wonder how many of the fan-boys that are playing for free right now are going to be willing to fork up the $15 a month to play this buggy, content short, feature lacking, 'mmorpg'?

Not many, I would bet.

NCSoft would do well to shoot RG into space as soon as possible, leave him there, and take the time to finish this game and get it right.  July 4, 2008 would be a super day to launch this game.

Independence Day,  FTW!

Come on, is it really all that bad?  Do you actually lose sleep at night over it?  If not, then chill out!  I doubt seriously you are qualified to make such harsh statements as, "shoot it into space...".  Come on, kiddo, give it a rest.

 

 

It'll be ok, just don't play it and let the other several thousand world-wide enjoy without you.

 

And yes, for a $15 a month subscription game, it is that bad.

Would be ok for a Free to Play game.  But nowhere near meets the current standards for a $15 a month subscription game.

Not even close.

And, thank you for your invitation not to purchase the box or sign up for the subscription.
Invitaion accepted.

ROFLMAO  :   "... several thousand  world-wide...." ????
That >is< a prediction of failure.

What is the basis for "current standards" of a subscription game?  For the most part games which have been debugged for the last number of years while people are paying for it.  So now that they are great games after many years we should automatically base all new things on that?  Is that really something to base "standards" on?