A substantial number of people will leave this game and I can't imagine any new players replacing them when they are being asked to pay for a game that will be so radically different from the new version. A declining player base will send out some very bad signals to the gaming world, and may do far too much damage to the reputation of the game before its relaunch for it to recover. A lot of people will take the wait and see attitude and plan to play when the new version is launched, but if the server populations have dwindled and the games reputation has sunk even lower then how many of people will rethink that one and decide not to bother?