This should be obvious by now, but it’s not just the world that is massive in an MMO, the budget is as well. Virtually every mainstream title (sans Runescape) has sucked up millions of dollars in the process of being developed. Not too long ago, it was revealed that Ensemble Studios was working on Project Titan, the fabled Halo MMO, that was canceled under unspecific circumstances. In a recent comment by ex-Ensemble programmer Dusty Monk, the title was canned because of its enormous budget: 90 million. The publisher (Microsoft) decided to pull the plug on the project due to the long distance the MMO still had to go before it was anywhere near completion, and the already high cost.
One only has to look at EA’s upcoming The Old Republic, as well as Age of Conan and Warhammer Online to see just how big budgets can get. So yes, Microsoft, MMOs are expensive, but did you really think that a Halo MMO would do that badly?
MMO Fallout 