What happened?

the community is pretty active... mostly because more people talk about the game than play it. 

Truth. 

says hedgie who does exactly that

some of us are still playing dg and loving it. 

I find its best to browse the forums before making posts from time to time though:  http://forums.demigodthegame.com/400626

http://forums.demigodthegame.com/400748

It was full of connection bugs. It was painful to try and play and favour points kept getting wiped. As a result all the initially interested players were dropping away as fast as joining, and before long faster, never managed to achieve critical mass, and the game never took off as a viable multi-player sensation as it could well have been. Only the most committed stardock fans stuck around. 

I note that Stardock went and did it again with Elemental. Under resourcing and cutting short the testing regime post production. In an effort to game the game on sale a little earlier they forfeit their success and definitely their credibility. It is a game I would love to play but won't go near. Not at £35 for an unstable beta. 

Its such a darn shame, because Stardock is one of the best game producers out there as in terms of fun and longevity. But they just can't seem to get their act together in testing. I appreciate they lack the resources of a larger publishing house. But they need to embrace open betas or some other method of utilising their loyal fan base to augment their resources weakness.

I have to wonder if they are going to survive after two major FUBAR releases. I hope they do, but would not be surprised if not. 

They also need to position Impulse as a steam alternative and sacrifice margin to gain user base. But that's another issue. 

I think GPG pretty much financed Demigod themselves, or at least in large part.  So I don't think Stardock took a huge hit on DG, but obviously both companies would have benefited financially from a more stable release.