from their site
" The team has recieved a lot of interests from other companies for licensing the engine. In february 2006 they licensed the OE to Red 5 Studious for an coming MMO, but they are looking into more licensing options with other developers. They are being very selective on whom they license it to though, as it is important for them to believe in the company and the game they are developing. "

That doesnt really sound like an engine that's priced at 1k-2k for anyone to buy , however , I'm not sure where I read the $500,000 , maybe it was an estimate or something , but they dont even mention the engine in their webpage anymore , so it's easy to see it's not something for most people , so I'm sure it's really expensive , or they would be advertising the price , the only people who hide the price is for the really expensive engines.