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Tabula Rasa: financial disaster
Lence
Member CommonPosts: 109
NCSoft's chief financial officer, Lee Jae-ho, has told The Korean Times that Tabula Rasa has proven to be a financial disaster.
Featuring heavy involvement from Richard Garriott, the sci-fi MMO was supposed to rattle the genre and take it to the next evolutionary step courtesy of the game's real-time combat and battlefield strategy. But it's gone down like a cup of cold sick.
As a result, NCSoft Austin - the company's arm responsible for the game - is being downsized, Lee explained, "We are going to revamp our Austin development organization."
Apparently Tabula Rasa made around £2.7 million (or five billion won) in revenue last year, and NCSoft then projected that it'd make around £8 million (15 billion won) this year. That's nowhere near enough cash though. It's estimated the game's cost NCSoft over £54 million to date.
"Half a year ago I communicated with investors and analysts we had very high expectations for Tabula Rasa", Lee continued. "After six months, I just put down 15 billion won as an annual revenue target and that's very disappointing. But I should admit that the actual result of Tabula Rasa has been disappointing.
"If you talk about our development cost we spent in the past several years, probably we are not making any money from this Tabula Rasa project. That should be the reality."
It's not confirmed how many staff at NCSoft Austin will get the boot, but the Austin studio will retain a workforce large enough to continue to support Tabula Rasa and will continue to develop other projects as well.
Richard Garriott will still be working on the MMO too, in between training to become a space tourist.
source:http://www.computerandvideogames.com/article.php?id=182782
Comments
well i hear the game is nothing special and to easy...they should make a survey for all the players to see what they will like to see in the game...and potential players...then patch it up witl all the hot new ideas...and have a kick ass ad ...and then you will get players...the game has a nice idea...but it wasent made very well...
A nice idea that wasn't made very well is still a piece of crap.
Yet another example of a guy who made a big name for himself back in the days when the industry was a lot smaller, trying to cash in on that name with obsolete ideas, no real talent, and no desire to bring anything new to the table. (Cf. Brad McQuaid)
You don't bounce back from those kind of numbers, and you certainly don't throw good money after bad by trying to market a game that still isn't anything special.
I feel sorry for those guys in Austin. There were probably some very creative people there who just got caught in a bad situation.
The game is annoying, I'm trying to play it but damn.... if I stop playing and I feel annoyed I'm not going renew the subscription.
When will MMO devs start listeing to their beta testers and potential customers? If these guys would listen to what their customers want they might make money.
I think too many businessmen, and not enough gamers are trying to enter this genre. Hey, here's an idea; you let a real game dev team make a game, and I bet you might make money. Instead we have the 100 year old suits trying to decide a game's direction.
When I read that article today... I was thinking "damn that sounds like Vanguard".
Then I realized that wasn't really fair to say. I mean Vanguard at launch... was not even close to where TR is. Yes I played both... I mean Vanguard is just now excited to be adding... Player Helms..
My feeling with TR was .. The mechanics and everything were very well done. Let's just call it the core components.
The problem was there was no actual game built on the foundation.
Crafting needs a total and radical revamp. The classes all just about need to .. well have things that really define them and um... actually work.
I could look at the game and say... "if you took the core you could make a very good game.. but this isn't it.".
Which I thought was sad... why? Well OSI (origin systems inc) made some kick arse games back in the day.. and Richard was part of many of them. So its rather sad to see this kind of game come out with his name stamped on it. (no I don't count U9 because I remember quite clearly it was the fans pushing them to release it and we would deal with the bugs.. they made a mistake and listened).
Regardless... I hope they take the foundation of this game and build an actual game on it at some point.. becuase you can see the possibilities are there... for a very good game.
TR in its current form.. just isn't it.. and yes that's just my opinion.
I guess they can say... "at least we had helmets at launch.."
Replace "billion" with "million."
Maybe instead of posting just what you want people to read from the article you should post the full thing and also the fact that the article is full of biased opinion and inaccuracies.
http://www.next-gen.biz/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=9184&Itemid=2
“We still have problems with this guy,” said NCsoft’s communications director David Swofford in an email to Next-Gen, referring to the reporter who wrote the article.
NCsoft says it isn’t the first time the reporter has penned sloppy articles about the publisher. Most recently, a Korea Times report suggested that the disastrous financial performance of Tabula Rasa was driving NCsoft to implement layoffs at its Austin, US-based studio.
While Swofford acknowledged that the game “could have done a little better” and that “there’s a possibility that there could be downsizing with the TR team”, he was keen to counter a number of the claims made.
“The Korea Times English edition story is full of inaccuracies,” he said. “No one at NCsoft said the product is a financial disaster. That came from the writer and is his opinion.
“The TR development did not cost $100 million. I don’t know where that came from. The price tag for the product was much less…a fraction of that cost. Tabula Rasa was not restarted more than twice. It had one overhaul and that came after 2-3 years of development.
“The article made it sound like the TR launch led to some sort of falling out with Robert Garriott. That is so far from the truth. In fact Robert has been promoted to work more with CEO TJ Kim on business development. Yes Robert is out of the day-to-day operations, but he’s still in the office and now travels much more for the company than he did before.
“Yes there’s a possibility that there could be downsizing with the TR team. Some of that is due to the cyclical nature of game development (product is out and the team downsizes). Some is due to the fact that the product could have done a little better. But there is a lot going on with the TR team. They are working on more updates. We are planning a Japan launch later in the year. And the company is planning on investing millions into the product, so it’s not going away and in fact we have plans to grow it.
“The Korea Times story was very inflammatory. The writer is notorious for writing sloppy and sensational articles about NCsoft. Also the Korea Times English edition is not the same as the Korea Times printed in Korean. It’s (the English edition) very low on the totem pole and is not any sort of high standard for journalism in Korea.”
It may have been a bit over the top... but the game was expensive... maybe not 100million expensive, but it was expensive.
Downsizing a staff is never good this short after release. NCSofts counter article is ever bit as much spin as the first article.
"Could have done a little better" that is the understatement of the year.
Another MMO doesn't rattle the genre.
WoW still has 10 million subscribers.
It's like Déjà vu...
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Playing: Age of Conan Trial (trying to at least)
Played: Runescape, WoW, FFXI, Fury
Tried: LotRO, EVE, CoV, PotCO
You say it wasn't made well. to me it shows that people REALLY have no clue in how these type of games are made. In what kind of way do you mean the game is not made well cause honmostly if you not able to see the details that the game has to offer then sorry probebly not one game will satisfied some of you.
Some of you are waiting for AoC and WAR ....LOL...trust me those section will be a disaster, not due to the games, but due to people's expectations, as in all the years of gaming for me it always those who where expecting far to much or in some cases expecting things the game was never meant to offer what will result in people complaining.
Simple fact...look at other games on this forum and you will see that most of the complaints just speak about what is NOT in a game. We hardly see constructive topics that is trying to speak about the current game and propouse good idea's. Yes hte fansites are full of those type of post ...but mmorpg is not about being constructive, it's about who can bring the most dirt to forums to bash games.
Also what i do not understand is that 3 lines under this topic...geusse what.....the same subject...that already was answered. So is this again part of the new trend to just post something without looking if the excact same topic already have been posted.
Nah lets continue to be unoriginal and bash a game as much we can......we have great examples and learn much from the veteran SWG boards as they truly show how NOT to act on forums....but meanwhile they bring in the new trends like copy/paste complaints.
It's official, no matter how you word it. TR is a financial wreck. Whether you call it a disaster, a dissapointment or an under-performer, the fact of the matter is that took a huge financial risk and lost it all. The board and the shareholders are not happy and heads are going to roll.
A quarterly finance report just released by NCSOft show that TR only made up 3% of their total revenue, while the Lineage franchise made up 20%. For a project that cost around 60 million to develop and even more to market, its very unlikely that TR will recover its initial costs.
It's just another example of how old school game developers namely Richard and Brad has lost touch with the gaming community Clearly their fat egoes have outgrown their talent. The market has vindicated those early beta-testers and their warning calls.
Yes, there will always be fanbois out there and yes the game is fun for the first few hours, but through and through it is lacklustre, boring, unimaginative and devoid of any real content that would immerse a player. In essence TR is like a Hollywood flop, enormous budget, huge marketing campaign and hype and no substance to back it up.
I give TR another 6 months at most, probably even less. It's going to become a game that no one talks about and no one wants to talk about ala Matrix Online and will go down in the history of gaming as the next-gen sci-fi MMO that never was.
At least the upside of all this is that former big names like Richard and Brad will never get their hands on an MMO again and us gamers will never be cheated buying their products.
Seriously some people need to stop pulling figures out of thin air. The only people who know what the game cost to develop are NCSoft. And they havent put that information in any financial statements - so where do you pull that from.
As for marketing - the only marketing I have seen has been some banner adds on some gaming sites. Hardly budget breaking stuff. ON the flip side - I dont live in the U.S so maybe they ran tv/cinema adds there.
I disagree - just subbed for another 3 months. So your opinion is just that. Obviously a lot of people agree with you - but that still doesnt make it a fact.
Its a totally different kettle of fish to Vanguard - where the big name was sacked, most of the staff laid off and most of the servers merged. None of that happened to TR.
Im not pulling figures out of thin air. The game first went into development around 2004. There were some well documented issues with the project . The most well known is probably the whole fiasco where they had to scrath the entire project and start a new. The TR today was probably made during the last phase of the project after the initial development was scratched.
If you seach for the 2004 TR pitch you'd be surprised how different that was to the product we see today. What happend along the way is up to speculation, but i wouldnt be surpised if it involved some financial mis-understandings between the Austin branch and NC's Korean HQ.
Further i would even go as far as to say the game was rushed. The game had a very 'mis-managed' beta-phase. The beta-signups went up pretty early but nothing really came out, then the game went into a sort of paid CB, you paid $5 to NCSoft for a chance to participate in the CB, and many people did pay up. Then few weeks later they had a OB which lasted another few weeks before pushing into full retail release.
Now the problems of beta are well documented especially if you participated. There were a lot of dramatic changes and many people at the time commented on how un-ready the game was for release. Lack of end-game content was a cosntant concern along with huge amounts of bugs and balance issues. Developers were working aruond the clock and often made huge overhauls to the game mechanic causing a lot of frustration amongst the gaming community. . Classes and weapons were being nerfed and buffed with each patch and most of the changes were ill-conceived and rushed. It caused a lot of beta-testers to question the development team and whether the game mechanic was drawn up in the last minute.
The whole problem with the crafting system is probably the most obivous evidence reflecting the extensive development problem TR had during its 3 and half year in construction. The so-called crafting system was only implmented during beta, and the effects of this are clearly seen.
I mean i could go on but its no point. I'm not trying to stop anyone from subbing to the game, im just giving prospective subs an assessment of the state of TR and the market response to the much hyped title.
I played lineage 2 and saw the ubiquitious bot problem that NCsoft did jackshit about. I will never ever purchase or try another NCsoft product. They are a terrible. They let bots overtake a game that wasn't even instanced so that the bots directly hampered the game play. Absolutely pathetic. Hearing that TR was a failure is music to my ears. How could people think NCsoft could actually make a good game? The more I thought about Lineage 2 the more I wondered why I ever liked it. Zero character customization, totally screwed economy, community that ebayed and denied it all (like US baseball players), the economy basically made you ebay. It had only a few decent features like the castle and seed system. Sure it was a tough game full of ebayers . . . .
Either way, this is me pouring salt on a wound, yes I'm bitter, but any company that claims "they do all they can against bots" when it is clearly obvious they are lying especially when the bots don't allow you to even level, deserves to go bankrupt.
/end rant.
Woohoo. NCsoft sucks. Look at TR an unfinished game . . . Why would anyone respect a company that pushes an unready game.
Cryomatrix
You can see my sci-fi/WW2 book recommendations.
If you want to talk about someone pushing an unfinished game, lets point fingers at SOE, just about every game in their lineup is unfinished or was worse off then how TR launched. I like NCsoft as a company, I really do feel that they try to put out quality, even if it doesn't agree with everyone elses "visions"
LoL i played Lineage 2 for 4 years and i agree with you on the whole bot thing. The games economics did force players to ebay which was sad. Yes i did ebay once upon a time, and as you know, if you wanted to remain competitive in Lineage 2 "you had to ebay".
ON another note there is no use or point arguing with _shadowmage about TR, in these forums you find him defending TR in every aspect. He may not be a little rational at times, but he will go down with the ship (TR) as most captains tend to do. You know i use to be like _shadowmage, but then i woke up and canceled my subscription. I had a lvl 45 sniper, 40 gaurdian, and 30 some thing spy. The game is awesome up to lvl 30 but after that, the game is repetitive and dull and lacks high lvl content. Being that this game does not have a very large player base makes the game even more boring, and challenging at high lvls to the point where you say its just not worth it.
Dont get me wrong, im not trolling, or bashing the game, im stating facts that are drawn from my extensive game experience in TR. I dont even give TR 6 months until it turns into a vangaurd, or D&D online, or Lotro. I give TR at most 3 months.
The game is fun in the beggining, but dont expect the fun to last for long.
______________________________
Currently Playing: Tabula Rasa
Waiting to play: Aion
Games played: Lineage, Lineage 2, WoW, Guild Wars, City of Heroes, Archlord, Espa Grenada
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System Specs: Windows Vista Home Premium (x64)
AMD X2 5200 (OC-2.8ghz)
4gb Corsair XMS2 ddr2-800 mem.
Crossfire 2 x (ATI 2600xt HD)
Hey Jermell,
yeah i'm bitter and i'm being a bitch but I just can't respect a company after what they pulled on Lineage 2. I also didn't ebay and spent more time playing the market on lineage 2 than leveling so i could afford my A grade gear legitimately. Too bad no one believed me because everyone else ebayed . . .
Either way, AIon probably does seem like a good game, but I won't trust any company like NCsoft again. I just think they are out for profit and I don't like that. Companies need to make quality first and foremost. The half-assed attempts at copying WoW is a dumb idea from the get to. It's human nature to stick wiht what is comfortable and it is human nature to be resistant to change. So good luck taking a huge bite out of WoW. If you want to play a game like WoW, play WoW, not a cheap imitation.
Anyway, I hate NCsoft with an irrational (and sometimes whiny and most often-times bitter) passion. I just can't see how you can lie through your teeth about the bot problem. Wow probably had more bots than lineage 2 but they didn't hamper your game play at all, therefore, WoW allowing bots = not a big deal, Lineage 2 = allowing bots = criminal.
Cryomatrix
You can see my sci-fi/WW2 book recommendations.
Same here, I should have learned with Neocron, Lineage 1 and 2, GW, Auto-Assault and now TR. No more NCSoft games for me.
FUNCOM - putting the FUN in disFUNctional !
it's just that they still haven't accepted that you can't "out-wow" wow. If LOTRO couldn't do it with the Tolkien name brand, what makes other companies think they can do it with some half-assed world invented by some game dev?
didnt they prove that WoW was padding the crap out of its number and that it was like half that?
genius inside insanity
Yes the game we play to day was mostly made from 2004 to 2008. The figure you pulled out of thin air is the $60 million you made up as the development cost.
Unless you have a link to a NCSoft release where they say it cost $60 million to develop.
Im sure glad my new years resolution came true! Now, im more than sure the same will apply to WAR and AoC as PoTBS (Pirates of the Burning Sea) has already started to show its core run of the mill level based grind fest and will soon die as TR is.
I sure hope all these cookie-cut development wanna-be companies take note and learn that we the "masses" are tired of boring level based grind fests.
Yes the game we play to day was mostly made from 2004 to 2008. The figure you pulled out of thin air is the $60 million you made up as the development cost.
Unless you have a link to a NCSoft release where they say it cost $60 million to develop.
Well depends on how far back we go with development.In 2001, NcSoft bought TR for $33.4 million.
The projected cost for TR in 2006 was $25 million.
Now add in all of the non-development expenses...
TR was expected to break into the million mark of users... which if it is down in the 100 thousand mark, is disappointing.
And that is why...
Conservatives' pessimism is conducive to their happiness in three ways. First, they are rarely surprised -- they are right more often than not about the course of events. Second, when they are wrong they are happy to be so. Third, because pessimistic conservatives put not their faith in princes -- government -- they accept that happiness is a function of fending for oneself. They believe that happiness is an activity -- it is inseparable from the pursuit of happiness.
Is that not the cost of buying Destination Games - and the money paid to the Garriott brothers?
Personally I wouldnt count that as a TR development cost as the game had barely begun development in 2001.
NCSoft's 2007 Fiscal Report - http://www.plaync.com/us/news/2008/02/ncsoft_announce_27.html
Report on cost of TR - http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/nation/2008/02/123_19134.html