No-one can really say, hand on heart, that this was a surprise.
While the games media was very quick to pile in whenever Tabula Rasa looked shakey, and perhaps over-zealous in their declarations of its impending death, the truth is the game was never in that good shape subscriber wise. It never did as badly as Auto Assault (which had problems beyond the game itself), but it was never called a ‘hit’ internally. At least, not with a straight face.
For me, personally, it was symbolic of the last attempt by NCsoft to do something a little bit different. At least, it was when I joined the company in 2004 - when it was still ‘unicorns in space’, and before it became Starship Troopers. Having said that, a year after the reboot, I really liked what I played in 2005 (and still maintain that if by some miracle it could have been released then, it would have been a hit) but by 2007 it was never, ever going to be serious competition to… well, anything really.
I know some people will use this as an opportunity to spout craziness like “Sci-fi MMOs don’t work!” but in reality, the truth is the same as it’s always been: not-so-great games don’t work. They can do okay, for a while, but they’ll never be hits at launch.
Nope, you need to give those not-so-great games some time; whether it’s in development (assuming you know what you’re doing and just need more time) or in public release (assuming you listen to your community and know what you’re doing).
Sadly, Tabula Rasa didn’t get it.
