Matt
Hmmm. AT-43 is beginning to look mighty inviting just now. I say that as a gamer who has spent a sackload of cash (well, to me anyway) on BF:E and was very happy with it. When the hiatus was announced I viewed it with a reasonably open mind, pleased that Mongoose was able to recognise a problem and had the cojones to deal with it in a way that would make the fanbase pretty grumpy in some corners. I continued to expand my forces, buying both Mongoose products where I could find them, and proxy stuff (just had my spiffing BTR80's arrive this morning, in fact).
Now, however, we find out that there will be no new product until Q3 2008, when we may get bare metal minis. Prepaints won't be back until 2009, maybe.
I realise that my whining about the situation isn't going to change anything. You clearly have a business and development plan with party X, a plan which is going to take some time to put in place and execute (I would suggest, as a project manager, that you review your timescales in light of how long it's taken to sort out the NDA stuff - you need to be working on realistic, even pessimistic, estimates of timescales).
My concerns are twofold, really. Firstly, with such a long delay between product, even with continued support in S&P, you are going to lose any inertia the brand built up with the launch. The initial "debates" around the pre-paint quality generated a certain ammount of buzz about the game, and you have clearly built up a dedicated fanbase, as a brief look at the boards will show. So, you run the risk of losing those fans to another game, and potentially having to re-launch the whole brand.
My second concern is that BF:E was, at the time of launch, the only real high-profile, professionally produced (sorta - my rulebook still dosn't close properly) modern skirmish rule set that I am aware of. With a 6-9 month hiatus, you run the risk of somone pipping you to the post with a nice set of rules to use, say, all that Dragon and FoV armour in 1/72nd. I've heard rumors of a modern skirmish mod for Cold War Commander, for instance, that could gobble up the market for rules.
But, I guess you know this business, as a member of it, better than I, as it's market (said without sracasm or irony). We shall see.
G.