its blizzards justificaion for "planned obsolescence".
expect it.
its a forced upgrade on consumers. multi-player population dies..so does the game and that allows them to puke up the same game with improved graphics and charge you again for a sequel (ahem, planetside 2)
look at city of heroes. 20,000 petitioners, enough to justify leaving a server up. nope. NCSoft wants those loosers to fork it over and play guild wars 2 NOW.
software as a service, crap service, like diablo.
show rob pardo what you think of "planned obsolescence", buy an indie game today.