thestandard definition of success for an MMO is 300k subs. will STO make that mark? sure, will it retian that mark? prbably not considering, if we look at recent games, Tabla Rasa, War, Conan, and a few others have shown that flashiness does not equate to success in the long run.
Tabla rasa just closed the servers, Pirates of the burning seas reduced the number of active servers by 75% within 6 months of launch, War's great launch of over 750k subs in the first month suddenly dropped to less than 200k in the third month. I's a new market now, with the economy in shambles across the globe, these companies can no longer just pump out trash, hype it up and expect the players to come running. now they have to start thinking long term, how do they retain the customers and build funds to finance new titles.
it's no longer a Flavor of the month, pump out a MMO every 4 months deal, i expect that we'll start seeing 1 title every other year as companies start to enhance and improve what they need in games before they ship them out. they'll be spending the appropriate time and staff on producing higher and higher game play quality to put them in the market.
I think the economical crash is going to affect the game world in drastic ways, bad companies will crumble, the good ones will fight it out and fight for our money with a tenacity never seen before.
