The history of the gaming industry is littered with the corpses of companies that rose high with a brilliant game or two, only to later collapse into a shell of themselves and then into dust. It’s almost a predictable cycle, and few are the companies that escape this fate. Check out the article for a recounting of how four great studios fell into ruin. 1UP has the story.
If you want to save your game studio, it looks like you’ll need a few things. Good management who supports your project, but doesn’t bet the company on it, goodwill from the player population, a popular title or two that brings in the money, and a steady flow of new projects that aren’t the same thing over and over, yet also aren’t so ambitious to be beyond the powers of your company.
Once you have all that, just get very, very lucky, and you’re set.