All right, here's a question for you folks.
We know how many MMORPGs have been closed (15).
But how many either STILL stay open even with a handful of players, and how many were REVIVED after shutdown? That could be a very useful set of numbers for Team Wildcard.
Do you mean how many NC itself has shut down and how many of their games were revived, or are you talking about MMOs in general? Because then, of course, the list gets a whole lot bigger.
Vanguard, originally cancelled by Microsoft, was rezzed, fixed up, and is still owned and operated by Sony Online Entertainment. In fact it just had a relaunch as F2P.
A.P.B. and Fallen Earth both closed down and then were rezzed by Gamers First and are both still running and being updated today.
Saga of Ryzom's original devs went bust shortly after it launched in 2004, and it was picked up by someone else (and I think handed off a couple times, actually) and it still runs today.
Gods & Heroes: Rome Rising was cancelled during late development, then was rezzed a few years later and is still running today.
I know Turbine rezzed their own games, er, saved them from extinction by buying them back from their publishers. Their Asheron's Call was originally published by Microsoft, until around 2004, but I think Turbine itself still runs it today. And Turbine bought back Dungeons & Dragons Online and Lord of the Rings Online from Atari, wasn't it?
And speaking of Atari, they chose to put all their eggs into one basket for a while with Cryptic and Champions Online and Star Trek Online, and well, thank goodness for Cryptic getting bought out by Perfect World International, huh? Or those two games would be dead right now, too!
Hellgate: London (not really an MMO, more of an online hub/lobby with instances but still) went down when Flagship Studios went bust, then the bank they owed millions to actually hired a dev team to finish it and rez it and it runs worldwide pretty much as Hellgate: Global today.
And those are just the ones off the top of my head.