Quote Originally Posted by Betelgeuzah View Post
Upkeep costs are laughably small.
In upkeep, I do include anyone working in the project salary. I am not only talking about server upkeep cost. (which are negligible yes). But paying the dev team, the translators, the community team, the support team, the business dev team, PR and Marketing teams etc. That's another story.

Actually, there is a history. in the offline game world, of start-ups asking developers to forgo paychecks in exchange for profit share in the event of a success. So this kind of things can be done by companies with little capitol investment as long as they have a dedicated team. ex. Harmonix Music Systems did this for Rock Band
It's not like everyone can live off nothing. I tomorrow my employer tells me : ok for the next year, no income, but if the game is a success you'll earn profit in share. Well then I'm screwed. Cannot pay my rent anymore etc.