If 1.2 EVER comes out, it would suprise me this late in DG's "life". They got the ROI in the first 5 months, after that it's a timesink. Small publishers don't make money on improving the games, only initial release numbers, then it's time to move on.
Being as Demigod isn't 6 months old, we're currently within the period where the game will see it's inital returns. After the 6 month window, the support of the developers is directly responsible for future returns - at least in multiplayer centric titles; additional content, bugs and glitch fixes, these kinds of things. Being as the game's most recent update was received less than three weeks ago, and they've already confirmed Modding support and organised Team features are in the works, it's fairly obvious that this game's "life" isn't even close to being over.
As the game is sold via a Digital Distribution network, they'll continue to see returns on it as no retail publishing is required after the initial release; they lose nothing to keep the game available to the public. As the game also requires no servers, unlike client/server model games, it's inexpensive to continue to run and will provide a solid base for any people who decide to continue to play. This was the chosen method for distribution - being as Stardock is a small publisher - and as such will continue to see returns on the game for some time. The Developers, Gas Powered Games, will continue to provide 12 months of contractual improvements to the community via their publishing agreement with Stardock. Publishers not usually improve their games - the people who make them do.
If you think a three month old game is "late" in it's life cycle and as such the third update patch from the Developer won't be received - while they continue to work on the additional content, demo, and modding tools - then I can only deduce that you know nothing about this topic.
