Have you guys decided on a game engine for the MMO yet, i had read something about a year ago about a product called HeroEngine, they have rebranded to HeroCloud and they have free licencing and state they only take a fee once the game is published, it might be something to look into. One of the games that is using the HeroEngine is the new Star Wars: the Old Republic and they had said that using the hero engine was going to take a few months of the production time of the game.
here is a little excerpt from their site http://www.heroengine.com.
"HeroCloud License
The HeroCloud service gives your team a complete system for developing and launching an MMO game, 3D virtual world, or online simulation. With HeroCloud a small team is freed from the chores of managing servers and network and they stay focused on building and creating their product.
HeroCloud includes access to the all of HeroEngine, the leading platform for collaborative online game design. Your team is issued a set of accounts and passwords and you download the HeroBlade toolset to access your very own online world. No matter where your team members are located, whether in the same room or around the world, they meet in your world to work together to build your online world.
Once you are ready to launch your world to your customers, HeroCloud takes care of the details. We provide access to global billing solutions, we give you a console to monitor your usage and performance, and we give you the ability to add and remove servers as needed.
Licensing fee: Free, including access for up to 99 developers. Once (or if) your game is published and begins making money, we keep 30% of revenue.
Hosting: We host your server in the cloud for free. No need to build separate operations team.
Billing: We provide integrated billing options to instantly accept credit cards and other payment options.
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