I'm going to give this latest appearance a bit of time - one week really isn't that long, especially if they're wanting to release something more substantial to assuage our doubts. Whilst I don't think we really reacted out of form, I imagine they didn't get the reaction they were expecting either - no one enjoys posting into lots of negativity.
The thing is though that he took down the website, what reason would he have for doing that other than because he quit?
I hadn't realised. That's...not a great sign. Still,
Well, you know what they say.
Sometimes it's easier to ask for forgiveness than permission. (At least in the real world, that shit is HERESY in 40k.) And with GWS's licensing wing these days, they'd greenlight a game written in BASIC as long as it printed a reasonable enough rendition of the Imperial Aquila to the screen
I'd say copyright is one of the very, very few times when the opposite is true. Companies almost
never grant retroactive copyright, as the whole thing with copyright law is that you have to be seen to be defending your rights - if the company started allowing retroactive copyright for games/things that were 'good', then everyone would be able to claim 'well I was violating the copyright, but I believed my thing was good enough that they'd license it'.
Copyright is all about setting precedent. It's why you see all those ridiculous claims from game companies - they don't believe it either, but they have to show they're defending their copyright, otherwise the next time round the judge might say 'you obviously aren't bothered, so we're not going to rule' - it sounds bonkers, and it is. Once you've been given that Cease and Desist or a ruling has been made against you, you have to stop EVERYTHING to do with the product - no sly releases or putting out source code etc. If there is even a hint that you've been involved after that then it gets really messy. You can't un-ring the bell on it, so it's better for it never to happen.
Something to make very clear:
They can't sue you immediately unless you've made serious profits/you were trying to sell counterfeit goods etc. whilst the line varies, none of that would be an issue here. You'll get that C&D warning first, and they have to say exactly what you've violated. They can't just say 'idk space marines or something' - they'll have to say what and where you've violated their copyright. If you change it, you can go back to them and say 'here it is, does it violate anything now?' and they can't just say 'no but we don't like it so stop'. Many people just stop because it's not worth the hassle for them to change things, which is why I've kept on banging on about making it something that can be modded easily and uses different lore/assets/etc.