Ten Ton Hammer - Taking MMO Gamers to the Next Level!

It is rare when a game comes along that almost everyone who tries it likes it, rarer still is when that game is a free-to-play MMOG. The oft-maligned genre is usually littered with thinly veiled attempts at RMT transaction businesses with an occasional nugget thrown in. Dungeon Runners from NCSoft was both one of those rare nuggets and the rare game that was nearly universally loved, which is why the official announcement of the games closing is a particularly solemn note. The good news is that the game is still available to play until January 1st so go check it out while you still can.

Here is an excerpt from the official announcement:

Now, it's time for the bad news. Dungeon Runners just isn't cutting the mustard. If she were a ship, she'd be taking on water. Yeah, she's been taking on water for a long time now. Are my cryptic references too hard to decipher? The game just isn't profitable. And, the first rule of business is to be profitable! Man, I must have missed that day in business school... but I digress.

We've been trying to figure out how to fix things for some time now. And, that's where things get sticky. We've got some ideas that could work. But, they're expensive to implement and pretty risky. Those two facts, coupled with the recent loss of some key developers, make achieving the success we seek pretty much out of the question.

As things stand now, we're a three man team. Yeah, we lost two of our five man team recently. Not nearly enough manpower to get where we need to be. Rebuilding the team isn't really an option for various reasons. So, where does that leave us? Can you guess? Yes, that's right, we're going to be shutting Dungeon Runners down at the end of 2009. New Year's Eve to be exact.

Discuss the news with us here.