Make Shogun Open Source

[Marcus Caelius]

I don't see that the sales would be a big problem. Just because it's open source doesn't mean that people wouldn't buy it. Look at its price now anyway. It's under ten bucks.

Linux is opensource, but people still buy it. They could sell the CD with the source code included, and just about everybody here, modders and modder wannabes like me, would rush to buy it. Well, maybe that wouldn't happen, but anyway. Certainly there are whole generations of people who came to the TW series long after STW and have no reason to buy STW unless it gives them something extra, as this idea would.

Anyway, it's not without precedent, is it? I believe Half Life sold the source code openly, at no noticeable loss to themselves. In fact, it reinforces the links between the product creator and the user community, with one assumes, improved sales of new products in the future.

I think that CA would stand to gain a great deal if the AI, diplomacy, unit sizes, number of units and armies on the battlefield etc. were opened up to tinkering, and they'd be able to pinch the good ideas and develop them for future products just as much as anyone else can. Let's not forget, their group will always remain far at the top of the tree and will continue to create the benchmark new products, but this way they can keep a closer eye on how their beast evolves in the hands of the long-term users, and what features could be incorporated in future.

The MTW issue mentioned above shouldn't make much difference, but they could make that open source too later. The RTW engine claims to be a total reworking, so it doesn't make any difference if the public who are still buying MTW (which was bundled free with M2TW recently) do know some of the inner secrets. They are not likely to decide to go back to the STW engine ever again. If they decide the RTW engine has reached it's limits, they are more likely to go for a completely new 3G engine.

So in short, I think it makes good sense for them to do that. Given that the biggest complaint by long-termers against CA is the diminishing returns on the creative vision, what CA, or Sega, would be doing, is essentially cost-free outsourcing of a part of their creativity research onto the TW community. Which leads to future profits.