There is no contractual relationship with the game on live. SOE could shut down the servers tomorrow if they felt that it was profitable to do so.
Yes, there are fewer 'key man dependencies' on live. SOE is large enough that a single person getting sick or hit by a bus won't mean the end of EQ Live, but other than a 10 year track record, there's nothing to guarantee that Live will continue to exist from day to day. In fact, server mergers indicate that Live is getting closer and closer to decommissioning.
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-Bumamgar
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