It will be a loss for Shrapnel, yes, but I also think Aaron lost out on SEIV because of the limits on distribution. It's generally accepted that SEIV is current pinnacle of 4X gaming, and if he had reached a bigger audience, wow. Lexus anyone?
Now, I'm not saying that bigger is better. Give me the chintzy bitmap graphics over flashiness every day (I play War in the Pacific regularly, which features NO graphics).
But let's be honest. He deserves all the success (and capital) that he's entitled to, and a bigger distributor would make that possible. Not to mention the funding it would provide for SE6
I like Shrapnel Games, and appreciate their efforts to help indie developers. Even Electronic Arts operated out of a garage at one time. I'm just wondering if there is something they can do that is more aggressive and would attract a bigger market. I think TheGamingNews.Com will help a bit. Even I would like to see more games like Dominions or SEIV make it mainstream.