from the POV of management, a leak of the source might prevent a future re-release, which cuts into future potential profits!
It does cut on future dumb re releases :)
> from the POV of management, a leak of the source might prevent a future re-release, which cuts into future potential profits!
In the aftermath of the backlash from their shoddy legal engineering project, they decided to not remaster other games: https://kotaku.com/gta-iv-remastered-red-dead-redemption-can...
Alternatively, you could LGPL the building blocks, still allow the end products to not need to be GPLd, but require development on the building blocks to be open sourced.
Copyright assignment + gpl so you can charge for a different licence too only works if nobody wants to fork. Doubt that’s the case for this sort of thing.
Alternately, appreciate the hard work by making interesting mods for the game. GTA5 has already had an extensive modding scene for the 10 years it’s been out, but now I assume mods will become easier to make and more powerful, benefiting Rockstar’s customers who paid for the game. And who is hurt? Not pirates, who could obtain the game starting shortly after release. Potentially people playing against cheaters online, except I’ve heard they’ve had free rein for a long time.
Companies should release their own games’ source code. Other software too.