NCsoft will close down the servers for sci-fi MMO Tabula Rasa on Feb. 28, 2009.

The news was posted on the game’s Web site, along with plans for the game to be free between Jan. 10, 2009 and the day of its closing. The post by the Tabula Rasa team promises “some really fun things” will happen in the game before it ends.

Designed by Ultima creator Richard Garriott who recently left NCsoft, Tabula Rasa did not attract enough subscribers to keep it going. The title, released in November 2007, accounted for only 2 percent of the South Korea-based publisher’s revenue in 2008’s third quarter, which saw the company’s profits fall by 50 percent.

Subscribers with accounts active as of 10 a.m. on Nov. 21, 2008 will receive three free months of play for both City of Heroes and Lineage II, plus beta access and one free month for NCsoft’s upcoming MMO Aion. Players who pre-paid for subscription time beyond Jan. 10, 2009 will have their money refunded.

The notice alerting players of the game’s demise said the team still believes Tabula Rasa was an innovative experience and are disappointed to see it end:

“Last November we launched what we hoped would be a ground breaking sci-fi MMO. In many ways, we think we’ve achieved that goal. Tabula Rasa has some unique features that make it fun and very different from every other MMO out there. Unfortunately, the fact is that the game hasn’t performed as expected. The development team has worked hard to improve the game since launch, but the game never achieved the player population we hoped for.”

GigaOM reports two MMO players and net neutrality advocates will lead President-elect Barack Obama’s transition team for the Federal Communications Commission.

Last week, Obama appointed Kevin Werbach, assistant professor of legal studies and business ethics at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, and Susan Crawford, a teacher of communications and internet law at the University of Michigan, to co-chair his FCC transition team. Among other duties, the two will provide advice to the president-elect on the government’s internet policies. READ MORE

Variety reports  many ex-employees from Midway say the company’s reliance on the licensed Unreal Engine weakened the struggling publisher/developer.

“The mistake we made was, instead of just taking the base Unreal 3 engine that Gears of War was made on and building games off of that, we let our tech and product development guys try to really modify the engine to add all these different things,” an ex-employee told Variety’s Ben Fritz. “It was a ton of new technology which they just weren’t capable of doing. It put all the games way behind schedule.”

Midway had to alter the UE3 engine, licensed from creator Epic Games, for every project individually, meaning its developers didn’t benefit from having shared resources. Many of Midway’s titles were delayed as a result.

Strapped for cash, Midway was forced to release games like Blacksite: Area 51 before they were ready, leading to very negative reviews and poor sales.

Released on Tuesday, Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe is Midway’s best hope for significant income during the holiday season. The game has received mostly average reviews so far. Football game Blitz: The League II was released in October to mediocre reviews. Wheelman, based on a Vin Diesel action movie, and open-world game This is Vegas are scheduled for release in early 2009.

Midway posted a $75.9 million loss in its 2008 third quarter. Chairman Shari Redstone resigned and the company laid off some employees from its Chicago studio. Earlier this year, Midway laid off employees from its Austin studio and closed down its Los Angeles one. 

Along with Mortal Kombat, Midway’s biggest IPs include Rampage, Gauntlet and the rights to games based on TNA wrestling.

In an interview with Forbes, Nintendo of America president Reggie Fils-Aime says third-party publishers still don’t know how to take advantage of the Wii’s success.

“I will be able to say our licensees ‘get it’ when their very best content is on our platform,” he said. “And with very few exceptions today, that’s not the case.”

Fils-Aime told Forbes that while third-party publishers are taking advantage of the Wii’s motion controls in their games, they aren’t making games that satisfy the Wii’s diverse audience. He said Wii players want the same games that are popular on other consoles, but publishers haven’t been bringing them to the Nintendo system.

In the interview, Fils-Aime also said he expects production of Wii consoles will have a “good shot” of meeting demand, while admitting that Wii Fit units will likely sell out. He hinted at future plans for community features on Nintendo systems, as well. “The issue is that we define community differently than our competitors,” he said. “Our consumers do want a sense of community and we’re going to deliver that, but in a way that is unique to Nintendo.”