Tabula Rasa to move, Dungeon Runners to die

Rumor is going around that NCSoft is going to close its Austin game development studio and lay off all staff there. Tabula Rasa is said to be handed over to Seattle-based Arena.net (Guild Wars) and Dungeon Runners apparently just couldn't run fast enough. This comes as a bit of a surprise overall, because Tabula Rasa got a mention in the Q2 reports - something generally considered a good sign.

Future development of Tabula Rasa will reportedly be handed over to Seattle-based Guild Wars creator Arena.net, with Massively reporting that the title may meet a similar fate as Dungeon Runners if it "fails to turn the tide of subscribers and expectations." It has also learned that any future collaboration between NCsoft and Tabula Rasa principals Richard and Robert Garriot will be "limited in scope," due to a souring of relations with the Korean management team over their title's lackluster performance.

With regard to City of Heroes, a source at NCsoft's Bay Area studio confirmed with us that its development staff will be completely unaffected by the events transpiring in Austin, saying that the title's status is "sound.&

As 2007 comes to a close, I think its well worth discussing what a great year it has been for the company, and using that success as a platform for 2008 and beyond. We’ve had many exciting things happen this year, with much of it providing building blocks for even better years ahead of us.

First of course is the release of Richard Garriott’s Tabula Rasa in November, which is a big event in the history of this company and the fruit of much labor by many current and former employees worldwide...

Also in November we had even more exciting news. We absolutely love City of Heroes and we really wanted greatly to re-invest in the franchise; the question was how to do it in the best way possible...

In August we released Eye of the North, an expansion pack for the extremely popular Guild Wars franchise. Eye of the North was a bit different from our previous Guild Wars releases in that it wasn’t a standalone product; you had to own one of the three Guild Wars titles (Prophecies, Factions, or Nightfall) in order to play,

The future is looking great for NCsoft North America. I’ve mentioned quite a few plans we have for 2008, and in addition we

Once upon a time, gamers had the choice of either high fantasy or alternate fantasy if they wanted to play a massively multiplayer online game. And although it is certainly the case that the fantasy genre still dominates the MMOG market, several new games released this week aim to add a bit more spice to one of the fastest-growing sectors of gaming.

On the family-friendly front, Disney Online has released Pirates of the Caribbean Online. Inspired by the Jerry Bruckheimer-produced summer blockbusters, which themselves took root from the classic Disney theme-park attraction, the MMOG lets aspiring swashbucklers captain a ship, steal booty, slay undead, and otherwise build a legend as the most well-intentioned knave on the Seven Seas. The game is available for both the PC and Mac. Players can play for free in a limited-access, ad-supported version of the game, with full access being granted for a first-month fee of $ 4.95 and a $ 9.95 charge each month thereafter. It is rated E10+ for Everyone 10 and Older.

Playing off of the ghoulish frightfest that is (or at least used to be) Halloween, Flagship Studios has opened up Hellgate: London this week. Hellgate seeks to join first-person sh

There are (6) available prize packages.

NCsoft announced this morning that Richard Garriott's Tabula Rasa has gone gold and will launch in North America and Europe on October 19, 2007. The game first began development in May 2001.

The massively multiplayer (MMO) game places players in a near-future storyline as they fight off hostile aliens while trying to gain control of the universe. New advancements to attract current MMO players include a Character Cloning System, which allows players to play different character classes without having to create a new character and a new battlefield system that depicts the combat of an ongoing war.

"It has been a heck of a journey," said Richard Garriott, the game's executive producer and creator of the fabled Ultima series. "The fact that we are getting ready for the final stretch towards launch feels great, but it is also just the beginning. I think we've managed to do something truly unique and I hope that the gaming community likes it as much as we do. Now, I am looking forward to a really fun 'end of beta event' for our incredible testers, and focusing development on new planets and innovations for future expansions of Tabula Rasa."

Let's take a look at the full list of goodies available in the Collector's Edition:

-a special character emote
-unique dye recipes that will grant characters otherwise-unseen armor colors
-an in-game pet
-a debriefing from General British, played by the game's creator, Richard Garriott -- we're assuming this one's in-game, though it'd be cooler if he came to your door.
-classified maps and a special "Field Guide" to the game's world
-Tabula Rasa dog tags and a "challenge coin"
-a special edition poster
-a Making Of DVD

Quite the impressive stack of stuff. The only questionable entry that NCSoft boasts about is the inclusion of a free month of gameplay. Anyone who plays many MMOs knows that it has become an industry standard to include a month of paid play with the regular boxed edition of any MMO