Well it is not that it "starting to die" as the game was dead from the start becuase Pterodon never paid any attention to what the testers had to input.
Pterodon as a company closed it's doors shortly after the release of VC2.
The publisher (Take2) screwd alot of developers and even other publishing companys they own...has gone through alot of Federal Court cases...is still involved in Federal Court cases...been in trouble with the FTC and even had some of it's Board Members still looking to stay out of prision.
Game developers need to wake up that they no longer have a need to deal with a "publisher" and just stop entering contracts with them altogether.