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NCsoft Corp. plans to downsize its Austin operations because of disappointing sales for its "Tabula Rasa" game, which was released during the 2007 holidays.

NCsoft North America spokesman David Swofford acknowledged that the game "wasn't flying off the shelves," but he said that downsizing after a game launch is common.

Swofford said the number of layoffs at the South Korean company's North American headquarters in Austin has not been determined, but about 300 people are employed here. He said employees on the "Tabula Rasa" team will be most affected.

The game brought in $5.4 million in sales for the fourth quarter of 2007, below expectations, and the company has predicted $15.8 million in sales for all of 2008.

"Just half a year ago, I communicated to investors and analysts that we have a very high expectation of Tabula Rasa," Chief Financial Officer Jaeho Lee said during a conference call with analysts last week. "But just after six months, I put down ($15.8 million) as our annual revenue target, and that is very disappointing."

When considering the millions of dollars it cost to develop Tabula Rasa, "we are probably not making any money" from it, Lee said, so "some downsizing is inevitable."

Swofford said there is still a rebound opportunity for Tabula Rasa, a massively multiplayer online game that generates revenue from box sales and monthly subscriptions. "We're still adding people to the service," he said.

Tabula Rasa isn't the only game developed in Austin to fall below expectations. Midway's "Blacksite: Area 51," released last fall, received several bad reviews, and the company subsequently laid off employees.

During the conference call, NCsoft North America President Chris Chung said he regretted releasing Tabula Rasa during the highly competitive holiday season.

"Launching a new (game) in the fourth quarter is probably not the best thing to do," Chung said.

Chung took the reins of the business side of NCsoft North America late last year, when then-President Robert Garriott left for a new business development role at NCsoft. Richard Garriott, Robert's brother, is known as the creative visionary of NCsoft's North American operations and was responsible for the development of "Tabula Rasa."

Richard wasn't available for comment because he is in Russia, training for a space trip that will cost him millions of dollars.

NCsoft also is gearing up for a release of "Aion," its next big game, which was developed in South Korea.

One analyst asked whether the company planned to keep this year's launch deadline.

"The lesson we learned from the launch of Tabula Rasa is that sometimes it is more appropriate to take more time to have a final touch before we launch our product into the market," Lee said.

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