I believe that is completely accurate. If we added 10,000 new installs today, I suspect it would spin up another 50 core worlds and instantly double the persistent cost of those servers.
I could be wrong (I often am) but being able to better control the elasticity of the universe is going to be an important thing to solve before we start adding tons of new players.
I mentioned that James was very patient with my exhaustive bad ideas. One of the ideas that I want to explore is making the sanctum a small “pocket world” that helps the player learn the game before taking that first big step into the shared universe.
With some thought – and careful design – we could also soften some of the more difficult concepts for new players (e.g., beacons, plots, block regeneration, etc.).
But it’s all speculation until we really get immersed in the technology and design of Boundless.