I think this is sad news. I have never been an XG user myself, but having a commercial product available is important for the backgammon community (even when an open source project exists).
I think the price indication of the IPR is a bit high. (I guess Xavier reads this)
I'm estimating a bit. If someone buys the IPR for say $1m and goes to a bank to get a loan for this amount he/she will probably have an interest rate at 5% (at least).
If he/she then annually pays $50k to cover the interest, these $50k must be covered by sales of a product based on the IPR. Before he/she can do that, some development must be done (development = expenses). Then there are some marketing costs etc. Can the sales of such a product reach $50k annually, just to cover financial expenses? If a licence is sold for $100 (a price increase from today's $60 pr. installation), he/she must sell 500 licenses each year. I don't know the figures Xavier has today, but since he has developed this he doesn't have financial expenses for the IPR.
-Øystein