Uru Goes Gnuru

Myst-MMO, Uru Live, is to go fully open source. The MMO has had a troubled existence, managing the impressive feat of being axed twice, and yet still existing. Having been published by Ubisoft, then picked up by Gametap, Eurogamer report that the third attempt to revive it, developer Cyan World's Myst Online Restoration Experiment (MORE), has also gone titsup. Their response is a rather exciting one - they're turning the game over to the public.

In a new post on Myst Online: Uru Live (as the game is currently known), Cyan explain that their "resources" can't stretch to developing anything that isn't funded by a publisher. They explain the new plan.

"Cyan has decided to give make MystOnline available to the fans by releasing the source code for the servers, client and tools for MystOnline as an open source project. We will also host a data server with the data for MystOnline. MORE is still possible but only with the help from fans."

Explaining that this move is "scary" to them, and saying they hope they will be able to provide new Uru Live content some time in the future, they also recognise this could make the game a little strange for the players, too.

"This is also a bit scary for the fans. We realize that this could turn UruLive into the "wild west" and lead to many fractured and diverse MystOnline servers. But it is our hope that with the help of dedicated core fans that a safe and secure MystOnline server set (many servers from around the world working together as one) can be created that will let people explore and live in UruLive."

Quite how this will work is not clear yet. But Cyan are handing over everything to the users, from game code to server architecture. This is all rather new, so fans are just getting themselves organised to respond. There's discussion on the Cyan forums, as well as a dedicated (but currently quiet) forum for the open source development. Cyan say the source should be released in stages, beginning in the next few days.