[moklianne]

I partially blame the stock exchange. Companies that are privately held have more leeway, where as public ones have to meet stricter quarterly projected figures. An MMO has to be released by a certain date (even if its complete fail) to drive up stock values. Even if the game itself is complete garbage and fails in 3 months, they can reuse the entire engine and some art and release another MMO a few months after. They can keep doing this until a game 'sticks'. Even if the game fails quickly, they've also made their cash grab with an ingame store that they can post with their quarterly figures.