The last servers for puzzling shared world MystOnline: UruLive were shut down earlier this year following a protracted decline that began when Ubisoft dropped the project in 2004. Nevertheless, the game still has a dedicated following and original designers Cyan Worlds renegotiated the rights to the Myst franchise and set about bringing the game back from the dead.
Unfortunately, MORE (Myst Online Restoration Experiment) had all its funding cancelled in November, when Cyan Worlds suffered heavy losses due to the plummeting economy. Now that the dust has settled, Cyan have decided that although they cannot proceed with the project as planned they can at least take advantage of the fans’ enthusiasm by opening up the source code and releasing the game to its community to develop.
“After weighing several options, the only thing that made sense was to get those talented and skilled fans directly involved with MystOnline by opening the source to them,” Cyan’s Mark DeForest told Ars Technica.
With access to the program code and design tools behind the game, fans will be free to continue development however they like. Different versions of the game could arise, extra features could be added – it could even be ported to consoles or handheld devices like the iPhone.
“I’m not sure I can predict where UruLive/MystOnline will be in the future,” said DeForest “But our hope is that it becomes something bigger than even we have ever thought of.”
via Ars Technica
