I don't think the game was shut down out of spite. The deal for paragon studios feel through because of some personal problem. They aren't going to shutdown a whole game because they are upset at somebody. However, it doesn't mean they will fight for them when the time comes though. Which can make a big difference.
we know what we have compiled from the various sources that Nexon did have something to do with the shutdown, we know it was about profits to company shares ratio. But we do not know for certain if that was the only consideration NCSoft observed to shut down the game.
For example in psychology they teach that the main fail of most psychological research is that the researchers are looking for 1 thing that causes a particular mental state, in reality it could be any number of things, and most likely is a combination of many different factors.
I feel the same is true here, if it was just about money NCSoft could have easily netmarbled and kept city running if even in maintenance mode. I suspect that personnel issues were 1 of the considerations that NCSoft observed when making their decision. However, that's not to say it was a major consideration, nor is it to say it's the only other consideration.
Long ago, I joked about it being a conspiracy theory by government ideologists in effect to stop a form of media that was teaching morals and mental skills (such as heroic teamwork to stop out of control corrupt government agents ex; evil longbow, axis america, malta[too close to a federal swat team in operations and looks]) that the ideologists didn't approve of. There could have been an off record memo received "Stop City of X, we don't approve of it's teachings for citizen teamwork against corruption. failure to comply will result in us manufacturing a scandal and shutting down your company - USA Government. P.S. if you go to the public about this we'll deny it and make you out to be loony, because legally we never sent this message."
yeah, it doesn't fit in a normalcy theory (it's a dramatic tangent) which means it has a probability of 0 divided 0 squared (yeah, I just divided by 0, eat that math). but with our circus of a dramatic and scandal filled government, I honestly don't know any more. Heck anythings possible, I've been saying for a while now that the worst real conspiracies form when no one believes that conspiracies can be real, it's like the final part of "the boy who cried wolf", when there really is a wolf no one believes it.
Point of fact is, We Do Not Know what all the reasons were for City's shut down, YET.. something tells me when the game is back the real villains will materialize again to try and shut it down again (I blame Nemesis, Disconnect and Lag). Heck they could already be pulling something, could explain the long wait.