If you shut down game servers in a way that renders the game unplayable you should be legally compelled to release the server source code.
I want to see them to get the servers working 100% then have Ubisoft sue them. Then they goto court where Ubisoft will (should) lose their ass and set the precedent on what happens when you pull this shit.
In most jurisdictions this project wouldn’t have any problem, when it’s a “clean room” implementation - meaning they figured out by themselves how the server works.
Several jurisdictions even allow reverse engineering and such to ensure compatibility / supporting an product that hasn’t any official support anymore.
Others simply don’t care.
It’s all in the details, but they might not get sued that easily.
Not having a good case will not stop a team of highly paid lawyers from moving forward and forcing the mod team to pay for lawyers as the corporate law team pull every string they can to cause delays and try and wait until the mod team runs out of money to pay lawyers.
Even in jurisdictions that have laws to deal with SLAP suits, you have to come up with the cash upfront to fight the case.
Edit: fixed autocorrect mistake
This is one of the best things about PC gaming. I already have played two other “revived” games from my childhood extensivley in the past - NFS World and Battlefield Heroes.
My god maybe that “open source games” lemmy community got one thing right
It’s just a joke how e.g. tf2 players beg a megacorp to fix their game every year now. I like tf2 but the power dynamic between the publisher and the player is crazy
I mean, if you want to play a game made by volunteers, that’s where Team Fortress came from.
There originally was the Quake-based Team Fortress mod.
There was Weapons Factory for Quake II, which was similar.
The TF team was hired by Valve to do the confusingly-named Team Fortress Classic for Valve’s Half-Life, itself based on Quake II.
And Valve did Team Fortress 2.
