[game_preservation] What Happens To Code From Failed Projects?

[Andrew Armstrong]

Slashdot has a vaguely preservation related topic; 
http://ask.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/12/06/1431227

This was an interesting response:

"When EA shut down Earth & Beyond, there were the typical calls for the 
server software to be released. Amazingly enough, they actually did get 
a response: that the code for the backend of an MMO represents a huge 
investment by a company, and that they (EA) would not release the code 
for two basic reasons. One, access to the code (source, libraries, 
decompilable libraries, whatever) for a fully functional MMO would be a 
huge leg-up for competitors attempting to enter the field. Two, the code 
represents a base that can be used for other projects, and releasing a 
version of that base could be a liability to those future projects. For 
those two reasons, the chances of EA in any way supporting community-run 
servers would be nil.

Not stellar news (nor surprising), but the one pseudo-official response 
I have ever actually seen. And it does make sense, to me at least."

I don't know of the game myself, so is news to me (but what I'd expect 
none-the-less). Some of the other comments also have videogame related 
responses (the original question was prompted by Tabula Rasa shutting 
down). There is no one answer, which makes it all the better discussion 
to read through, although there are not many "great" comments - it is 
Slashdot after all :)

One option should always be to release the code to a dark archive, 
certainly something to look at in the future to advocate once some 
institutions are setup well for it and can give them some PR for doing it :)

Andrew