14 DAY TRIAL // Cyan Worlds announces that its MMO Myst Online: Uru will become an open source title, with the game code available to all those interested in the game. Players will also be able to modify the code and then create game servers that can run the modifications they want.
Initially, Myst Online was the multiplayer component of Uru: Ages Beyond Myst. Ubisoft was set to publish the title but it got canceled as it was readying to get out of beta stage. GameTap, the digital game distribution service from Turner, approached the developers and picked up the title, which was finally released to the public in February 2007.
Unfortunately, not a lot of players were interested in it, and, after one year, the MMO was closed down. Cyan talked to Turner and managed to buy back the rights to the videogame, with the intention of re-building some of its aspects and then publishing it. In October, the company announced that this would not happen because of the fact that the necessary resources were not available.
Tony Fryman, the Chief Executive Officer, now says that “Cyan has decided to 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.”
The first data related to Uru Live will be launched shortly and the company is still hoping that, at some point, it will be working on a commercial release for “the next Uru Live,” as Tryman puts it.
It will be interesting to see whether the game will attract enough interest and whether fans will be able to create a workable and sustainable server base allowing real MMO play.