Nor does losing subscribed players...
Reguardless:
500,000 * 10usd == ~ 3,000,000/month (being very generous elsewhere)
Even if F2P were 2/3 of the player base, that's still at least 1,000,000usd per month
Even with the best servers, and the best internet connection, it's more like 1,000,000 per year, rather than per month.
This is how MMO's can survive as long as they do, as long as they are not mismanaged.
No player run server will ever come close to those operating costs.
I seriously doubt the server cost has anything to do with the merge.
Player retention due to a more populated world probably does have a lot to do with it.
If I owned the Saga of Ryzom outright, I would be very concerned about the retention of F2P players, as well as the retention of willing open source programmers--considering the only thing keeping them is the good will of the company.
Reguardless:
500,000 * 10usd == ~ 3,000,000/month (being very generous elsewhere)
Even if F2P were 2/3 of the player base, that's still at least 1,000,000usd per month
Even with the best servers, and the best internet connection, it's more like 1,000,000 per year, rather than per month.
This is how MMO's can survive as long as they do, as long as they are not mismanaged.
No player run server will ever come close to those operating costs.
I seriously doubt the server cost has anything to do with the merge.
Player retention due to a more populated world probably does have a lot to do with it.
If I owned the Saga of Ryzom outright, I would be very concerned about the retention of F2P players, as well as the retention of willing open source programmers--considering the only thing keeping them is the good will of the company.