Tabula Rasa is safe, says NCsoft

Following yesterday's rumours of cancellations and job cuts at NCsoft's European office, the MMO company has announced that it is to merge its European and American operations under the name NC West.

In the wake of the move, David Reid, NC West's president of publishing, told Kotaku that the final decision had not been made on the European cuts, and that contrary to reports, the company's sci-fi MMO Tabula Rasa would not be affected by the reorganisation.

He said that it was not major subscriptions titles like Tabula Rasa, but "lighter" free-to-play games like Dungeon Runners whose future was in jeopardy. The company would be "moving away from" that game, although there were no announcements about it just yet.

"This transition is really about ratifying a completely dedicated business to the triple-A titles," Reid said. "We would consider ourselves in the class of five-ish companies in the world that can be successful in this market.

"We are a leader here and we are doubling down in those efforts. If you are successful in this business, you are fabulously successful."

He also added that the company was moving ahead with its deal to produce PlayStation titles for Sony. "You can expect us to be a big player in the console space," he said.

Reid confirmed that 58 jobs have been identified for cuts in Europe, but it's yet to be decided how many will be made. These would all come from an unannounced title in development.

There will be 12 further job losses at the company's current US headquarters in Austin, as NC West establishes a new head offices in Seattle before the end of the year. ArenaNet, developer of the successful Guild Wars, will be unaffected.