NCsoft might be doing notably well on its big-budget market, but it seems the lesser project won't stay afloat without the proper attention. The casual market for MMOGs isn't as indulging as one might think, and halfhearted games just don't seem to cut it. As such, NCsoft had to let go of five of the Dungeon Runners developers, as well as cancel any plans regarding bringing the title to another platform, rumored to be the PlayStation 3.

The last nail in this MMOGs coffin was hammered last week, when Lead Programmer Stephen Nichols announced that Dungeon Runners would be taken offline on December 31. The game operates as a free-to-play title as well as a micro transaction-supported one, which didn't gain it any good reviews from the critics, and, as it would seem, the idea didn't really work for the fans either. A free-to-play game that allows players to equip the more advanced items only upon depositing a fee in the title's budget seems rather unfair, to put it mildly.

"Dungeon Runners just isn't cutting the mustard," Nichols said in a post on the game's Web site. "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!"

While developers had several ideas to tweak the title and add new features that might increase its profit, they would have cost too much to implement. The loss of the game developers, as well as the needed but unreceived long-time investments, would eventually prove to be more than the little game can handle.

Nichols assured that the subscribers to the game would be compensated. They will receive digital copies of the City of Heroes Architect Edition and Guild Wars Prophecies. Any long-termed memberships will also be taken care of.