There still aren't any plans for a retail release. In addition to the cost effectiveness issue that Stabbey mentioned, a retail release requires a lot of work leading up to the release of the game (thus interfering with work on actually completing the game), and once deals are made with retailers and production starts, there is much less flexibility in changing the release date (for last minute updates, to speed up or delay release to avoid conflicts with other game releases or events, etc).
