If I estimate properly if there are 1 million subscribers who bought the game for about 50$ that would mean they made 50,000,000$ already, I guess they are done, they made there money. No need to fuel that hard earned money into a dying game at this point, imho. They can take there earnings and walk away happy.

Minus development costs; server infrastructure; CD printing; distribution; marketting; legal services; etc... they're nowhere near 50 millions.

I also didn't include lifetime subs, collector editions, deluxe editions, and there is no way this games development cost are anywhere near 10 million.

Technically; why even make an MMO then? You can make a single player game; and don't have to worry about maintaining a server cluster; deal with angry customers; pay for bandwidth etc...

MMO's don't really make their benefit margin from the sales; but from the game's upkeep over time. There are a few exceptions though, Guildwars, and free mmo's.

Actually, it's 15 million before marketing and they've been buying TV spots on Sci-Fi.

Also, retailers get a huge chunk of box sales as I understand it.

The whole release screams Tabula Rasa.

Err ... no. Tabula Rasa was a scam from NC Soft vs Garriot

That figure is incorrect. Many people are cancelling their games and handing them back, like myself so the number is far less. Also since there is no death penalty in a month that number will have died down to a fraction.

All the people who spoke up against death penalties without a proper reason, which would encompass all of you, remember this one month from now when your game is dead. Have fun!