I'm just not sure what their game plan is here. They are releasing in the same year as an Elder Scrolls MMO, an EverQuest franchise entry, and a WoW Expansion.
The combat was touted as the next big thing, and it is not... The leveling and the classes are some of the most bland in the industry...The housing is outclassed by Landmark... The PVP outclassed by TESO... so they had better hope that their raid game is up to WoW's level. Otherwise, I just don't see this going well for NCSoft.
Quaid's prediction: if the game releases by the summer, there will be less than 100k subs by December. *unless I am underestimating the number of weird MMORPG gamers who have hard ons for firefly.