"Does it compete with Unreal 3, Hero or Bigworld? No not at this time"
The main problem is that it doesn't even compete with Torque or Unity , which are now the 2 indie leading game engines. If it continues down this road , nobody will even consider gamestudio anymore. Gamestudio's appeal has ALWAYS been , great and powerful engine , good scripting language , NO NEED TO BE A PROGRAMMER TO MAKE GAMES. And if you ARE a programmer , you could get the sdk and CREATE YOUR OWN DLLS DIRECTLY WITH C++. So , it was BEAUTIFUL , it was perfect , for everyone. But now , it's a pile of garbage , and is turning into a programmer's tool I guess. Who knows , but with it's same old tired interface , half implemented features , limited platforms(just windows actually), more and more programmer oriented, no realtime tools , I really can't see anyone in a year or 2 from now even considering purchasing this engine , other than people who already use it and are fond of it.

But like I said , who knows , maybe they have a trick under their sleeve with A8 , but I truly doubt it .