Sadly it's already dead. Even if it would become open-source nowadays (which won't happen due to some licensing issues about Lite-C compiler), it's not going to catch up with leading engines, because it's too outdated and lacks a lot of features compared to them. And users which were about to invest their time into acknex development are already gone (switched engines or working on their own ones). Back in the days, it may have made more sense, but now it's too late. The only way to bring some life into the acknex is to make it free or make it, even more, cheaper (for symbolic pricing). Even for a price like 300$, it has no chance against other tools that are free (Godot) or semi-free (Unity). These are just my two cents.

Greets!