The problem with that is IP.<p>Take a game like Star Wars Galaxies, for instance. Sony didn&#x27;t own the rights to Star Wars; it was licensing them. When it shut down the game, turning the code over to the public would have been a violation of their license and would have gotten them sued.<p>Now let&#x27;s take an example of a game based on original IP. Even then, the publisher presumably wants to maintain its control over that IP. It wants to preserve the option to sell new iterations on that IP at some point in the future.<p>Even in the case of a publisher&#x27;s going bankrupt or shutting down, it will attempt to liquidate its assets (IP being a key asset) in order to pay off its creditors. (For example: this is how the Terminator franchise keeps surviving in various iterations, despite the bankruptcy of its original IP holder. The rights were auctioned off at fire sale prices, rather than simply committed to the public domain.)<p>Intellectual property is the entire basis of the entertainment industry, be it movies or games. It is, accordingly, very fiercely guarded.<p>[Note: this is not a comment about the ethics or the morals of IP, nor a comment on what game companies <i>should</i> do. It is merely an observation.]