Tabula Rasa is not in trouble, says NCsoft

NCsoft has told Eurogamer that Tabula Rasa has a growing player base and is not in as much trouble as recent financial reports seem to suggest.

"Tabula Rasa has a dedicated player base, which is growing month on month," said an NCsoft Europe spokesman.

"Tabula Rasa offers players a different kind of MMO experience, enhancing our portfolio of game titles. The game play mechanics are very different to that of a typical MMO - those who have experienced the game have recognised these innovative features and applauded them.

"A recent European trial promotion was met with great demand; we will be doing a similar promotion later in the year."

On top of this, the spokesman promised that the team was working to a "four-weekly update cycle" based on what the community asked for.

Tabula Rasa was all but missing from money boasts in its May-published financial results for the first quarter of 2008.

Take a closer look and Tabula Rasa commanded just KRW 1.87 billion (GBP 927,422) in those three months.

Compare that to Lineage II with KRW 35.673 billion (GBP 17,689,41), and Lineage with KRW 29.023 billion (GBP 14,392,852), and something appears to be amiss.

Even the four year-old Guild Wars and City of Heroes took considerably more, at KRW 9.481 billion (GBP 4,702,598) and KRW 5.416 billion (GBP 2,685,698), respectively.

"The Lineage brand is certainly the cornerstone of NCsoft's portfolio and continues to perform every quarter," explained the spokesman. "While still relative newcomers, Guild Wars and City of Heroes recently celebrated their fourth anniversary and have well established player bases."

NCsoft reaffirmed that MMOGCHART figures were "not official". The figures show Tabula Rasa somewhere around the 75,000 subscriber mark. We're waiting to hear back about the official numbers.

Tabula Rasa was created by MMO hero Richard Garriott, who is considered to be one of the founders of massively multiplayer gaming for his work on Ultima Online - which, incidentally, is also said to attract around 75,000 regular players.

Garriott told us last year that the game had the potential to beat World of Warcraft in terms of popularity, but wasn't sure where in the region of between one million and ten million sales Tabula Rasa would be.

Despite its somewhat disappointing performance, Tabula Rasa fetched solid critical response, earning 8/10 from Eurogamer for its unique take on the genre.

Head over to our Tabula Rasa gamepage to follow its progress and keep up to date with what the future holds.