Seems we have heard this song before from NCSoft...

www.massively.com/2008/02/18/tabula-rasa-down-in-the-dumps/

 Wow the Koreans sure don't sugar coat anything do they!

They put the pwnage on TR, and indirectly Richard Garriot it seems

I would hate to see what would happen if they owned/published games that still limp along here in the US

Then again, it is a buisness. I think it is good that NCsoft/Korea is harsh and does not sit idle and let games limp on and say they are going to get better and to keep playing! like some other companys do.

Richard Garriot, John Romero, Brad McQuaid = Teh Leet Crew

Well, that article is from February but NCSoFt released the first quarter report at:

http://www.ncsoft.net/global/ir/overview.aspx

and it's not looking too good.

For comparison , City Of Heroes had sales of 5,416 Million Won VS TR 1,870 Million Won.

We have a 4 year old niche game performing almost 3 times better then TR.

They did not release account usage states for TR but based on usage for CoH and TR earnings, I would guess they have around 46,000 accounts.

Not good at all for a game around 6 months old.

My guess is if earning keep declining , TR could close within a year.

EDIT: should have stated that CoH has around 134,000 acount based on monthly access from that report.

Thats what I like to hear...no suger-coating and let the truth out!

I love Richard Garriot from his fantasy roots of the Ultima Series, but damn he doesn't know Sci-Fi at all and never should have attempted it.  Go back to fantasy where you rule!

Actually I see this as a good thing...maybe Garriot will return to fantasy and start working on a new MMO that would trump Ultima Online...

A failure is a failure and reputation is everything to a high-caliber developer like Richard Garriott. According to that article, RG will be working on Tabula Rasa to improve the service.

That means he has a short leash and won't be hired for any development contracts in the near future by any (smart) publisher. If he has plans to make another "blockbuster MMORPG", he'll be doing it with his own money.

Too bad he's spending it all on a space trip.

It won't be too long before this goes down like Auto Assault did.