[scrapser]

Open source projects are a good start. Software companies by definition would not be attracted to them, though. I'm thinking of something like this...

A company announces a new title, owns the copyright for the story and any other aspects that make it unique intellectual property, and fronts the money and developers for initial development. Once that is completed and enough debugging cycles have been completed (or the startup finances are used up), the title is released with readme notes identifying the major issues. At the same time, a small group of people who have been identified and validated as legitimate and trustworthy pick up where the initial developers left off and continue the debugging process using feedback from everyone who now has the sim. They could be issued a special license, binding them not to release the source code they are working on. The company retains ownership of the original source code and any additions to it made by this team. They continue to collect on future sales of the title and pay a small royalty to the freelance team that's essentially finishing the code.

I think if something like this were made known to the general public, even more sales would be realized. You could buy something and feel confident most if not all issues would be addressed in time. Maybe even get to participate. With the current modding atmosphere, this is almost being done already.

Look at what happened with Falcon 4 (accidently) when someone illegally released the source code and someone named eRazor started examining it and reporting his findings. Eventually, a whole underground of developers started improving the game...not for profit but simply because the sim screamed for completion. I think SH3 and 4 are another example of quality "almost" realized and deserve the finishing touches. I know there are people here who would love to take on the work for the love of the task and nothing more.

If I remember correctly what happened with Falcon 4, Hasbro eventually met with a group of financiers and a representative of the underground dev team on neutral ground. The title was sold and the new owners formed a binding relationship with the underground dev team and together they continue to improve Falcon 4 to this day under a new name. That may not be exactly correct but it speaks of what's possible.

What does UBISoft stand to gain by freezing the development of the SH franchise when there is so much positive energy here waiting to be tapped? It just seems amazing to me that a new method of developing game software has not been hammered out. The landscape has changed so much over the years and yet the basic way software is developed from start to finish has not.