Tabula Rasa is to end its live service on 28 February 2009. “Unfortunately, the fact is that the game hasn’t performed as expected,” came the statement from the TR team in an open letter to the community, “[Tabula Rasa] never achieved the player population we hoped for.” The move by publisher NCsoft comes as no real surprise as the MMO has been flagging since its release last November. This announcement comes shortly after luminary Richard Garriott made public his farewells to NCsoft on 11 November, stating “new interests” following his trip into space as his reason for leaving.

Before the shut down, servers will become free to play on 10 January 2009. Read NCsoft’s letter here and Garriott’s statement here.