A single player game will never bring as much profit as a masively multi player one that has about 100,000 regular subscribers.
Picture this, origin releases WC 10, and it sells a 700,000 (which is about as much as Prophecy sold) copies. Now, let's say that each of those sells for $35. That will equal $24,500,000 in profit.
UO, brings in $1,500,000 from it's 150,000 regular subscribers, in ONE month. Multiply that over a year, and you get $18,000,000. You get $36,000,000 for two years, and that's not counting the original sales of the game.
Just because you've never heard of Ultima, doesn't mean that it's not a popular game, and a good one too. UO, is probably the best RPG I played. Not because it has the best combat system, or story, but the interaction between the thousands of people makes it a great game.
It is however unlikely that more than 3 UO's could surviwe at the same time (even 3 at one time is a gamble on EA's part IMO).
[This message has been edited by Earthworm (edited October 10, 2000).]