developing a game after it goes gold

[nokem]

As a coder I usually find by the time my software ships I'm already sick to death of it and can only think about the next project.

When you start a new project - especially game development - you're working with the very latest, usually pre-release technology. By the end, it's might be 2-3 years out of date and you want to move on to the latest cool stuff.

[drone]

This will depend on the management. They generally don't like paying people's salaries unless there is some point. If the company plans on taking the game further (expansion or engine licensing), they will probably assign some developers to continue tweaking. Otherwise, I think the game gets bug support only.

Developers in their "free time" (after hours) may want to try things out. In this case, the developers must be careful with the Configuration Management process (baselining code), anything they change cannot be checked in. Essentially they will need their own copy of the code and build area. Generally, this is a big PITA, and if they do get the managerial go ahead to check things in, they have to worry about merging files with support patches, testing, etc.

The only reason I can see this happening is if a developer is really attached to the game, and maybe slightly disappointed in the end result.