Newsbrief: South Korean publisher NCsoft has posted its first losses since 2006, due to hefty one-off labor costs that came as a result of the company's restructing efforts during the quarter.
The company's labor costs surged by 27 percent quarter-over-quarter thanks to layoffs as it was left to pay huge severance packages. NCsoft also reported weak in-game item sales for a number of its titles, including 2009 MMORPG Aion.
For the quarter ended June 30, 2012, NCsoft posted revenues of 146.8 billion South Korean won ($129.8 million), down 12 percent compared to 166.8 billion South Korean won ($147.5 million) year-over-year, and losses of 7.3 billion South Korean won ($6.4 million), compared to profits of 41.4 billion South Korean won ($36.6 million) year-over-year.
First loss since 2006? Not even the money the lost on Tabula Rasa made a dent in them?
They should really bring that back as a free to play game. I was honestly shocked they never tried that.
I doubt TR would do very well as a FtP game. I don't understand why people seem to consider FtP as a magic panacea. TR would lend itself as well to FtP as Lego Universe did, and probably with as much success.
I think TR would have legs if it had a working in-game economy. With scarcity and less item flooding there would be much more reason to play. Charging for class shifting would also provide a decent revenue stream. This chapter on Virtual Achievement I wrote in 2009 sums it up: http://gameful.org/groups/games-for-change/forum/topic/virtual-achievement/
They should really bring that back as a free to play game. I was honestly shocked they never tried that.