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Tabula Rasa goes AWOL from Q1 NCSoft financial reports
When the financial reports for the Q1 performance of NCSoft hit the Massively offices, fingers were quickly pressed to pages with one intent -- finding out what was going on with Richard Garriott's Tabula Rasa. Already this year, we've heard dour reports on the status of the game, which were then rebuked by NCSoft, but those reports still planted seeds of doubt. Our hope was that the financial numbers could shed some light on what was happening with the game and perhaps reveal the game's direction. Was the game going uphill, or was it careening toward Auto Assault's junkyard?But finding financial information about Tabula Rasa was like trying to track down Deep Throat. In the whole of the Q1 financial reports, TR appears twice. Even when most of NCSoft's major properties are listed and statistics are given, TR does not get mentioned.But where Tabula Rasa does briefly appear, things do not look good at all.
NCsoft fires one back across the bow
A few days ago I wrote about an article in the Korea Times that took aim at NCsoft's 2007 fiscal report by calling Tabula Rasa a "financial disaster." The ensuing explosion both here at Massively (the comments section) and abroad (a direct reply from the Korea Times writer himself) was akin to the Bane dropping a mortar round smack dab into the middle of our little virtual compound. Other sites reported on the Korea Times article in the same manner. And Amy "Critters" Crider, TR's official Community Coordinator, even issued a public warning about said reporter and said article. But NCsoft didn't stop there. David Swofford, head of NCsoft's North American PR department, fired off a response via a statement given to the gang at Crispy Gamer. It's a doosey! Swofford said, "The Korea Times English edition story is full of inaccuracies... No one at NCsoft said the product is a financial disaster." He comments on a great may things, including the cost of the sci-fi MMO: "The TR development did not cost $100 million... I don't know where that came from."Ah... justice is served. If you've been following this situation here you owe it to yourself to click on over to the Crispy Gamer site and check out their full article. It's got more searing rebuttal from Swofford (kudos to them for scoring this by the way). Then come on back here 'cuz we so want to hear what you have to say about this!
Tabula Rasa down in the dumps?
According to a report from The Korea Times, NCsoft's MMO Tabula Rasa has done so poor financially that it's causing the Austin Studio to be reshuffled. The staff reporter on this piece (Cho Jin-seo) states that the Austin Studio "has inflicted a massive loss to the parent company by failing in a six-year blockbuster project." All of this seems to stem from NCsoft's 2007 fiscal report released on February 13. Jin-seo reports "the Tabula Rasa game has proven to be a financial disaster." During a conference call on February 14 NCsoft's CFO Lee Jae-ho stated that, "Because of this disappointing result, some downsizing in Austin is inevitable."This is very, very bad news -- and sad news to me personally because I enjoy the game so much -- if it indeed turns out to be correct. We have passed this information along to our sources at NCsoft for further comment, and we'll report back to you the moment we hear anything further. Until then, be sure to read the entire article for the complete lowdown on this developing situation.Thanks to one of our readers (JohnnyP) for making us aware of this news!
