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Ask Slashdot: Can Closed Source Software Transition To the GPL Successfully?
colinneagle writes "Open Source guy Bryan Lunduke has experienced the difficulties of migrating a successful closed source project to an open license first-hand, but still believes — or at least wants to believe — that it can be done. He writes: 'Occasionally, someone makes a go of it, to take a good piece of closed source software and release the source code under a nice, open license. In fact, I did just that about a year ago. I tried to take a software development tool (along with some video games) that I had developed (and was earning a good living from) and migrate them to the GPL with continued development funded via donations. The results were...disastrous. Within a very short period of time of going Open Source, the total funding for the projects fell to less than 20% of what was being brought in via sales when the software was Closed Source, which almost completely impeded the ability to fund continued development. Luckily, I was able to recover and get things back on track, but it was definitely not a fun experience.'" How viable is migrating a closed source project to something open?
I assume the author didn't GPL the entire product, but just the game engine. The art, music, video, and sound assets were probably not put under the GPL and would still be under copyright, and the author could continue to sell their games while allowing contributions to the engine. If ports were made to other platforms then the author could monetize their product on those platforms as well and that would offer more avenues for revenue. That's kind of what happened with Wolf3D, Doom, Quake 3, etc.