Can anyone tell me why Stars! Supernova Genesis made by Crisium broke off with Empire Interactive shortly before going retail in November? They are sans publisher still. I know they were still in beta in November and had not announced anything about being close to going gold even though the game was due. Suddenly, POOF! Game still in beta but pushed back and no publisher. It reeked of either the game turning out bad, a mad publisher at missing the deadline, or possibly a cranky designer not being satisfied until it is perfect even if they lose money (this is a possibility with the Stars! guys).
It is still in beta now and I read they had trouble with the game and server software compatibility. Anybody know what's up?

I think the developer made the decision to break with the publisher. Tom knows more about it than I do. The incident did seem kind of strange.