The Run Is Over

I think that yesterday's news of CCP laying of 49 more employees, including some working on EVE Online in the Reykjavik office, should end the debate on whether EVE Online is losing subscriptions.  From the marketing department not touting EVE Online growing for 11 years at Fanfest to declining average concurrent user number to deflation in the economy, most of the signs pointed to EVE Online losing subscriptions over the past year.

But as everyone starts to pile on the "EVE is dying" and "CCP is dying" bandwagons, I'd like to take a moment to point out CCP's incredible accomplishment of creating a game that had 10 consecutive years of subscription growth.  The list of games that can make the claim are:

1. EVE Online

That's it.  Even the giant of the industry, World of Warcraft, only managed six years of growth before its numbers started to decline.  Quite frankly, I think 10 years is a mark that no MMORPG will ever equal, at least in my lifetime.