Tabula Rasa closing in February next year

NCsoft finally admit game is to end

A new message from MMO publisher NCsoft to the Tabula Rasa community reveals what has been speculated for months, namely that the online action title will cease to function in the near future.

NCsoft reveal that live service will end on February 28th 2008, with the firm making the game free to play as a final farewell from the 10th of January.

"Last November we launched what we hoped would be a ground breaking sci-fi MMO. In many ways, we think we've achieved that goal. Tabula Rasa has some unique features that make it fun and very different from every other MMO out there. Unfortunately, the fact is that the game hasn't performed as expected," reads word from the Tabula Rasa team.

"The development team has worked hard to improve the game since launch, but the game never achieved the player population we hoped for."

The team promise incentives for those still playing the game, and hope to make the title's final months "really fun", and reward loyalists.

NCsoft have been batting-off speculation about the game's financial struggles for several months, and it seems the company are finally set to cut their losses on the Richard Garriott designed project, which was heavily backed but simply failed to really hit it off with MMO players.

By Luke Guttridge