The Warhammer 40k team is small and very experienced, so they have the advantage of skipping a lot of expensive trial-and-error, moving straight to building the game right.
In a recent conference call, THQ's CEO Brian Farrell pointed to the relatively low investment cost of the Warhammer 40k MMO as the reason that they don't need to aim for huge numbers: "We don't need the kind of subscriber levels that people throw around, like a million subscribers, to make a lot of money on this title. If we get anywhere near that level, we'll be making a lot of money."
Given the enthusiasm shown by fans of the title, they just might hit those numbers anyway.
