A sad, sad reply
As an amateur game designer, I can't even begin to imagine the excitement of having a large game that you've spent countless hours working on picked up by a publisher and professionally produced. And I cannot remotely fathom the extreme heartbreak that would result from seeing the whole thing get tanked just as it was on the verge of being released. If it feels like a crushing blow for us, I don't want to know what Christian must be feeling.
Like many users on this site, I've been waiting for the "definitive" pirate game to be released, ever since the phantom
Sid Meier's Pirates!: The Boardgame was first announced (and as some of you know, that was a LONG time ago!). A year or two ago, a small group of piratey games appeared on the horizon and looked like they held a lot of promise. One by one they arrived, I read reviews and some rulebooks, and they promptly fell off my radar.
Winds Of Plunder looked like a far too abstract, Euro-style game.
Blackbeard, on the opposite end of the spectrum, bears far too much of a resemblance to those terribly complicated hex-and-counter war games that I've discovered I don't enjoy, and even
SeaRovers, while an absolutely stunning-looking game, seems to employ too many of those Euro-style elements. This left the most promising candidate of all,
Merchants & Marauders, as my final hope for the swashbuckling, sailing the high seas, game of piratical adventure that I've been yearning for.
Do you know what this means? I am now going to have to sit down and spend countless hours designing my own pirate game. While I had started to do so some time ago, I was hoping that all those new releases would save me the trouble.
I am sad, disappointed, frustrated, a little angry, somewhat gassy, and I have no idea what to say to Christian other than, if another publisher decides to pick up his game, you've got one future customer right here.
And as "the bored gamer" pointed out, it is very difficult to thumb this post because I don't want to in any way imply approval for the decision to cancel this game, but I've done so as a show of support for Christian.

Hold it together, Josh, real pirates don't cry.

There, that's better.