kk so lets break this down 10.8million subs as of their quarter 4 2011 presentation thingy that came out not so long ago...so lets just say 10 million. easier number
15x10million = 150 million...thats as of latest blizzard posting not including the 12+ million of previous years etc. so lets say you were right about the 140000 a day....over what 100+ servers....lets have a look at a 30 day time period of server cost. 140000x30=4.2 million. a month...so in a month of making 150 million the cost of servers being 4.2...lets look at that as a percentage. 4.2/150 = 2.8%...
2.8% of the SUBSCRIPTIONS ALONE go towards cost of running servers. Now in a world where companies rightfully shouldnt pay for bug fixes for their product and yet those free to play models are still very popular, moba's are a fine example League of Legends etc. Its jack shit worth of money to them. And now lets have a look at say 8 months of no new content no more tier shit etc...eg 4.3 til expansion pack. 150mill a month. 150x8=1200million over 8 months of no more tier content etc. Do you comprehend now? Trust us, its nothing to what your assuming.
Now lets look at free to play models. F2P models use microtransactions to produce some income that outside of the original purchase funds them enough. Guild wars 1 which despite popular belief was very popular and still retains decent numbers today. My personal opinion is i didn't really like Guild Wars 1. But clearly there are those that did. They did major content "patches" that we are familiar with in WoW as expansion packs. Which is what it should be without subs. Now lets take a look at another Free to play model that doesnt even require you to buy the game at all. League of Legends...they bring out a new champion every 2 weeks. Which usually has some balancing changes to that patch as well. Their ENTIRE revenue comes from microtransactions that do not make your character anymore powerful than others...you can;t buy special runes with money...it is purely cosmetic or quality of life stuff ( things like more rune pages ). More so you don't NEED to pay for them at all. No one is forcing you. Yet now its one of the most popular moba's out. It can certainly be done.
TL;DR - 2.8% a month is the percentage of cost you are suggesting...its nothing.
---------- Post added 2012-02-19 at 03:30 AM ----------
The truly great thing about this game will be the fact that if the content is great which so far there isn't a single thing about it that doesnt scream amazing and unique. With no sub fee, you aren't being punished for trying it out...It will reel a lot more in than tradition sub based MMO's from word of mouth etc...after the game has been out for say a month or 2 word will spread its free once you buy it. I can see the numbers expanding exponentially.