Atari shedding Cryptic StudiosFollow

Isn't that what you should expect from a company that's only making MMOs?

I mean, even imagining they were giving players high-quality games (which I personally don't feel they were, particularly with STO), they are still in a market that's substantially smaller than other gaming markets and is dominated by a few major titles (WoW being the most obvious).

Well, yeah. What I meant is that it was super unwise to have a studio ONLY putting out MMOs. At least with the market like it is now--there are too many big companies to contend with, and too many free-to-play MMOs to allow a new game to break into the market.

It's not that they can't turn a profit, it's that they are a risky proposition. Unless you know you have the resources to invest in them, it's going to be difficult to turn a profit. A studio without any other income is already in a worst spot when it comes to investments.

Since you are looking at a smaller profit margin from them, as Joph suggested, it's unwise to focus solely on them (imo).

My point is that MMOs begin as a low-profit proposition. You're already running a risky proposal with them, because your potential profits are pretty low to begin with.

If all you are focusing on is MMOs, you've pretty much shot yourself in the foot. Is it guaranteed that you'd lose money? No, of course not. But you are looking at smaller profit margins with higher risk for the studio as a whole.

Now Atari wants to sell the studio--the problem with that is that they are still only making MMOs and have lost money in the past. Why would you want to buy them? The studio has only specialized in one thing, which they didn't even do well enough tot turn a profit.

If they had invested money into the safer, console-based gaming market as well, they would have a more attractive product to sell to other buyers, even with the net money loss. And they might have managed to make enough of a profit to stay an Atari studio (granted, probably having to sell the rights to their MMOs elsewhere).

The highest possible profits are extremely high, sure. But the investment cost and probability of your MMO actually becoming popular are low enough that the potential profits you'd consider in a business plan are also low.

Sure, you might end up with 25 million subscribers. You might also end up having to make it F2P just to break even.