Really I think it comes down to the number of employees.
Probably they should have had 8-10 people working on development, support,docs etc for more satisfactory progress rather than 3-4.
I guess they should have charged more for beta or made fewer promises for v1.
Even with a decent number of sales to date they cant be that solvent/profitable yet or at least not enough to support as many staff as they need to do the job fast enough or to the standard that's really required.
Seems like they needed more capital 6 months ago and found some in Otoy but with strings attached.
Unfortunately with the take over @radiance would seem to have lost control of his business before its potential could be realised. I guess he still has a job Monday...

Unfortunately too Autodesk are likely to be the ones to reap the rewards of Refractive guys hard labours and from a small opportunist investment.
The good news is that with more resources Octane should move ahead as it needs to however you suspect the 99euro days are over as of now.
Otoy are going to have to pick up the slack of providing proper support for Octane now too rather than reply on the generosity of the community and old relationships as @radiance has done up till now. A company of 40 backed by the deep pockets of Autodesk has no excuses for being absentee landlords.
