Compared to the number of MMOs out on the market, the odds of your MMO shutting down less than a year after release is rather low. Still, having some sort of guarantee by the developer for a minimum amount of support sounds great, especially when the developer is an indie team. I don’t know much about Miner Wars, other than that it is a space shooter coming out hopefully in Q4 2012, but I do know that the guys over at Keen Software House have guaranteed at least two years of operation, directly on the preorder page.
We guarantee at least 2 years for the game to be supported on our servers (2 years from the initial release of the MMO). In case there comes a sequel (ie. Miner Wars MMO 2), we guarantee MMO 1 to be supported on our server for at least 1 year (from the release of MMO 2), but still at least 2 years from the initial release of MMO 1. However, these are “minimum” support times, the game may be supported for even longer!
Makes the twenty dollars I sent Keen Software House feel that much safer. The game looks great, and Keen Software is releasing a single player version which can be bought for $20, and allows players access to the pre-alpha version now while the game is developed. The MMO will feature no subscription fees, and is referred to as an expansion to the single player game on the store.
Granted this likely does not preclude the MMO shutting down due to sudden bankruptcy, but guarantee is still a nice touch.
(Source: Miner Wars Store)
MMO Fallout 