[bloviate]

Releasing source code or even binaries isn't necessarily that easy. Source code often depends on licensed code or binaries which you do not have a right to release and other people would have to license themselves to have a right to use. And these costs can be very expensive. Removing these licensed dependencies before the code is released can require a considerable expense, something the company cannot afford.

I have always thought about escrow services, companies could place game assets in escrow and players could play their game knowing there was some recourse if the company went out of business or did not meet some minimum level of reasonable service. Of course there would have to be some process where the dependencies were removed from whatever the escrow service released. There would be a lot of costs involved and who would pay them is questionable. The money this would require from the game developers would take away from the money available to develop the game. I know on the game I worked on, at the time of development the company didn't have the funds to spare for something like this and didn't really for a year or two past release.

But I wonder if assets placed in escrow are a vulnerability. What if the players knowing they had the escrow as a backup worked themselves up into a lather about how the changes the developers made were ruining the game. They would just have to quit until the escrow asset release conditions are met and the developer would have been shafted. Of course, the players would have shafted themselves by no longer having the same quality of service.. but they would find that out in due course.

Personally I'd want the escrow service for non-MMO games. That way when the company no longer supports the game and it doesn't stand up well to the advances of technology, you could get the source code released and do non-hacky upgrades to it.

Anyways..