Been talk about this being the last update for l2, my two adenas:
Lets see, there isn't enough players left for them to justify the expense of paying programmers to design new hunting areas, instead they cut costs buy rehashing old noob hunting grounds.
Also if they were shutting it down, NCSOFT wouldn't even know, its the Korean head office who handles all the big decisions and they seldom keep the American office informed, that much they made perfectly clear with how little they seem to know about whats going on with the game they are suppose to be running lol. And when I say big decisions and mean everything aside from there employees deciding what to pack for lunch that day is handled by them.
Personally id rather this be the last update for a while so they can divert their expenses to giving us a quality website instead of delivering another "no content" update and raising the max level, id rather them take the time to read the suggestions forum we post in.