Dungeon Runners shutting down in January

by Shawn Schuster Sep 17th 2009 at 12:00PM

Filed under: Fantasy, Dungeon Runners, MMO industry, News items, Free-to-play

In the No-Surpise-to-Anyone category, we have news that NCsoft's Dungeon Runners will be closing its doors on January 1, 2010. We only say no surprise because of the fact that the game has been running on a handful of devs for quite a long time now, which is a shame, because Dungeon Runners is actually a fun little game.

Staying true to their wonderful sense of humor, Stephen Nichols, DR's Producer and Lead Programmer, released a statement yesterday detailing the closure. He certainly doesn't butter it up at all as he explains that the game just isn't turning a profit, regardless of their efforts over the last year. They're now down to a 3-man team, which is near impossible for any studio to use in maintaining a game.

Luckily, for those currently subscribed to the game, some treats are coming your way, including free City of Heroes Architect Edition and Guild Wars Chapter 1: Prophecies. So if you've never played Dungeon Runners before, you have a little over three months to jump in for free and check it out before the game shuts down for good.

Tags: breakingnews, closure, dr, dungeon-runners, ncsoft, shutting-down, stephen-nichols

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)

JP said on 12:03PM 9-17-2009

While it's a shame, it's no shock. This is an NCSoft title afterall. the leader in shutting down games. GL Aion.

rgoff31 said on 12:30PM 9-17-2009

I've played the game off and on since it came out it. I tried it again 4-5 months ago and it was still running a banner ad for Tabula Rasa.

eugaet said on 12:11PM 9-17-2009

Not too surprising, but sad all the same.

I played during the beta period and just couldn't get interested. Didn't help that at the time I was a long-time Guild Wars player and couldn't help but compare the two. That comparison wasn't favorable towards Dungeon Runners at all.

John said on 12:12PM 9-17-2009

Trying to compare Dungeon Runners to Aion is stupid. Aion is a major release and will be supported for quite some time. Dungeon Runners...while fun...was very repetitive. I tried to love it...but it just felt very linear. Aion will have no problems so implying it needs luck...just shows you have no idea what you're talkinga bout.

ColdCoffee said on 12:19PM 9-17-2009

Tabula Rasa - checkmate.

Dirame said on 12:42PM 9-17-2009

Tabula rasa had major problems of its own on the financial side and I don't think it had a very high korean install base as Aion already does so yeaah....

Jack said on 1:31PM 9-17-2009

Sadly Aion very high korean install base does not matter much for this version.

starzzareblind said on 12:24PM 9-17-2009

Comparing DR to anything they've done is pointless, and Tabula Rasa was boring. People seem to forget they have 3 of the most successful MMORPG's of all time still going very strong, and have been around for years and years. They also have many other games on their roster than other companies do. It's not like they shut down great games, they were games hardly anyone played. Tabula Rasa was an unfortunate situation because it had the potential to be great, but it just was not realized.

Aion is a great game, it will be around for many many many years.

Psychotic Storm said on 1:18PM 9-17-2009

Your personal opinion TR was great and it was closed when it was at its best, when it had finally been streamlined content was added, new player experience was polished and new players were finally coming in/ old players were returning.

And as the numbers showed TR was self sustainable, its closure was internal politics related and not game related.

TommyB said on 12:29PM 9-17-2009

Funny how NCSofts Lineage is still around, as one of the OLDEST MMOs.

They must be doing something right after all, huh.

Tom said on 12:50PM 9-17-2009

DR was a nice effort but was a rather painfully silly game. I just could never get into it. The humor side of the game just got tedious for me early on.

I also did not care for the cartoony look, the character models, and the camera control (or rather the lack thereof).

Tharkis Olafson said on 8:20PM 9-17-2009

I loved Dungeon Runners. Sure it was repetitive, sure the F2P part of it kinda limited you but the game was absolutely hilarious. I loved the old school "Diablo" feel to it. It's one of the few titles I'm going to truly miss.

HexDSL said on 12:57PM 9-17-2009

this is crap. NC shutting another game, yeah the games not the best ever made but really ANOTHER ONE?

Dont they know how to make money out of games?

HexDSL said on 12:58PM 9-17-2009

hold on a chuffing second, didnt this game have an expansion recently?

java.scholl said on 1:04PM 9-17-2009

It's sad really that this game is going.. I played it fer a bit, but after a while it was a grind fest. But one thing I think I'll miss though is the knowledge that there was a game that never took itself seriously, and had a great sense of humor about everything. I loved my cardboard swords, and imp dude that carried my stuff... and the outlandish armor was great as well.

If no one hasn't (and apparently there are quite a few), check out DR.... it's a great romp, and is one super way to pass the time until Aion releases.

PeterD said on 1:10PM 9-17-2009

Even though it's easy to go "OMG, NCSoft shutting down another game, you bastards!" there's really no one to blame but ourselves. NCSoft shuts down a game because not enough people were playing for it to be profitable. If the game was that good and we weren't playing, that's our fault. If the game sucked and we weren't playing, that's the game's fault. If the game was profitable and NCSoft shut it down, then it's NCSoft's fault, but I don't think they've done that. NCSoft is a business after all, not a charity. If a game is draining resources instead of providing income, they're going to shut it down.

Psychotic Storm said on 1:24PM 9-17-2009

You meant to say NC soft closes all games not developed by Korean developers if they do not produce a tremendous amount of money and has last year closed all the development houses outside Korea baring the CoX and GW.

Now all non Korea NCsoft is either only to localise the Korean games or to provide tech support for them.

Sam said on 1:13PM 9-17-2009

Dungeon Runners was a great experiment for the US market - one of the first freemium titles I knew of. I'm sorry to see it go, but if it does, it does. I'm hoping this doesn't discourage NCSoft from trying alternates to subscriptions in the future - Guild Wars, Exteel and Dungeon Runners were all great to see because of that!

This is the price of experimentation in the MMO market, I suppose.

Tyranor said on 1:35PM 9-17-2009

No offense, but it was a little crap :P

Aganazer said on 1:52PM 9-17-2009

This trend makes me fearful for City of Heroes. If they have even a temporary slump due to CO's release then they may be shut down. It honestly wouldn't surprise me if in two months we hear they want to shut down CoX. Its sad really.

I would love to revisit TR every six months or even Auto Assault. I was never a big fan of DR, but I did play it and have family who still plays it.

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