MMO game publisher NCSoft released their fiscal 2004 results today and announced their game release plans for fiscal 2005 but the long awaited Richard Garriott created game Tabula Rasa was not mentioned in those plans.
The Korean based developer reported that their overall revenues for fiscal 2004 reached $246 million, an increase of 48 percent over the previous year's numbers. Net profit for the developer/publisher for the year came in at $77 million. For 2005, NCSoft plans to launch Guild Wars, the fantasy multiplayer action-RPG from developer ArenaNet, on April 28 in the US and Europe and in Korea in the first half of the year. City of Villians, the expansion pack to developer Cryptic Studios's super hero MMO City of Heroes, will launch in the US in 2005, according to the press release, as will AutoAssault, the car combat MMO from developer NetDevil. City of Heroes is also scheduled to finally launch in Korean in 2005.
However, the press release did not mention Tabula Rasa at all in NCSoft's 2005 plans. The MMO game from Garriott, the creator of the Ultima series of RPGs that also included Ultima Online, was originally scheduled for release in late 2004 and was shown at E3 last May. However, Garriott posted up word on the game's official web site last September that due to "due to some noteworthy modifications and refinements we intend to make to the game", Tabula Rasa would miss its schedule release date and "likely won't be ready for some months beyond that." The absence of the game in NCSoft's financial press release for 2005 may single that the game won't be released until 2006 at the earliest. When speaking to Computer Games Magazine today, a spokesperson for NCSoft confirmed that Tabula Rasa would likely not be released this year but they do plan to show the game again at E3 this May.
News source: CGOnline
