I think Van B summarises it fairly. DBPro was created in a different time and kudos to TGC for continuing to offer support. Perhaps this is something we could put into an advantage TGC has over MS, if something dips in popularity and they want to move onto something new, MS will drop support. For example, XNA.
TGC on the other hand, they are STILL supporting DBPro and FPSC, even though their flagship is AppGameKit and they're probably making most of their money from AGK.
But to put DBP into context, when it was created, there weren't many options if you have a low budget or were a hobbyist. I think I pointed this out in another thread. The days when DBPro thrived was when the alternatives were out of reach, which meant DBPro managed to fill a niche, DBPro wasn't the only tool to fill the niche, I remember the flame wars between Dark Basic and Blitz3D users. IIRC Blitz 3D never went over to Direct X 9 and remained in DX7, arguably DBPro won that war, but Blitz3D was still a very good tool. With FPSC:Reloaded, we may even get a Direct X 11 version of DB, which would be neat. I know the Direct X 10 version was a prototype used to create FPSC:X10.
If I wanted to use something like Unity 3D, Torque Game Engine or one of the many alternatives out there I would be looking to pay a heftier prices and would find it harder to get to grips with, which wasn't necessarily ideal. Remember it wasn't that long ago the free version of Unity3D cost money and was plenty more expensive than DBP. Unreal was only accessible to large game studios and modders (with only the ability to mod) and if you wanted to buy a single seat, well, you would have to be extremely wealthy...insanely so. It wasn't until the indie market grew that Unreal decided to monetise off of it by offering a version of their engine, which takes payments in royalties, meaning it's free to use.
Even Microsoft Visual Studio, it wasn't until the 2008 version that people had the option to use it for free. So if people wanted to use C++ or C#, they would need to use tools like DevC++ or Sharpdevelop or other free/open source software. Which wasn't necessarily a suitable option. They certainly lacked a lot of the features MS offered, and engines you might use might not work natively with the free versions of languages. But you'd be able to use things like Irrlicht. (I remember trying Irrlicht in DevC++).
If you wanted an alternative to Visual Basic, well, there's a whole plethora of tools that use some of basic, Dark Basic included. Sure it may lack some of the features, but on release it cost considerably a lot less.
But at least when Visual Studio 2008 Express was released TGC had their foot in the door because Microsoft released it with the free non-commercial version of Dark GDK available for download on their main site. Meaning TGC adapted.
I don't think DBPro is seen as advantageous as it used to be, the competition is much tougher. There are certain advantages it does have. You can see how the change in time has affected DBPro through it's community, it is a fraction of what it used to be and it no longer has the big attention it used to and we no longer have those big competitions.
Times change and naturally businesses adapt, for TGC, they've drawn their attention to the mobile market and AppGameKit, which it's doing rather successfully. But it hasn't meant they've dropped support for legacy software.
I think it's fruitless to try and compare DBP to the current market because it wasn't designed for the current market, but it isn't dead either, because there are people who find it useful, who prefer using it and enjoy it. I think Van B points it out perfectly, it's an example of a programming language that's truly procedural and offers quick results.
Not saying it's quicker to produce results in DBP than it is, say, Unity3D, because you have an editor, most of the code programmed for you and all you have to do is put a scene together and script, so I could get a scene set up with an FPS controller set up much quicker, however, there's code I could produce quicker in DBP. But if you were to try something a little more like for like, like a Direct X wrapper through another language (say, TrueVision 3D, Irrlicht, Ogre or even XNA), because essentially what DBP is, is a Direct X wrapper built into a language based on basic.
