Tabula Rasa in October

NCsoft has announced that Tabula Rasa will be available to play on 19th October in North America and Europe. Those of you pre-ordering the game will get a three-day head start.

The news first emerged during a special pre-launch party held at creator Richard Garriott's Britannia Manor in Texas. Here new details of the game were also forthcoming. Apparently player versus player clans will support up to 200 people, while maps are designed to hold 300 to 400 players and up to 2000 computer-controller characters.

"It has been a heck of a journey," said Richard Garriott. "The fact that we are getting ready for the final stretch towards launch feels great, but it is also just the beginning."

"I think we've managed to do something truly unique and I hope that the gaming community likes it as much as we do. Now, I am looking forward to a really fun 'end of beta event' for our incredible testers, and focusing development on new planets and innovations for future expansions of Tabula Rasa."

You'll be able to pick up the standard version of the game for around GBP 29.99 / EUR 44.99, and a collector's edition for GBP 49.99 / EUR 69.99. Both include one month free of charge. After that, you'll be asked to chip in GBP 8.99 / EUR 12.99 a month like everyone else.

Head over to our Tabula Rasa gamepage to see why Richard Garriott believes Tabula Rasa can compete with the biggest games on the market.