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I wonder about relatively long-lived organizations like Maxis. Do they hold on to old code, or does it just disappear or fade away into obscurity? All of thos

I wonder about relatively long-lived organizations like Maxis. Do they hold on to old code, or does it just disappear or fade away into obscurity? All of those games, most still playable, and all of that code have to present some value. If two decades later the performance of their new games is worse, however, even in this narrow area, it has to be that they have ignored their past. Is it the right thing just to throw that old stuff away, or to ignore it? Is there any value in looking back at old successes, and even in reusing some of that technology? The people who wrote that code are probably long gone, but that kind of situation doesn't stop big old companies in other industries from still relying on their ancient COBOL systems, for instance.

usea 14y ago
Age of Empires 2 came out in 1999, developed by Ensemble Studios. Age of Empires Online was released in 2011, by Robot Entertainment and Gas Powered Games. A good portion of its code came from Age of Empires 2[1], including its terrible path finding[2]. Modern RTS games actually have pretty good path finding, and even Starcraft (1998) had better path finding than the legacy code used in AoE Online (2011). Microsoft published both games, and presumably they dictated the reuse of the old code. Probably to save money. [1] http://www.quartertothree.com/game-talk/showthread.php?60855-Age-of-Empires-Online&p=3302584&viewfull=1#post3302584 http://www.quartertothree.com/game-talk/showthread.php?60855... [2] http://www.quartertothree.com/game-talk/showthread.php?60855-Age-of-Empires-Online&p=3113438&viewfull=1#post3113438 http://www.quartertothree.com/game-talk/showthread.php?60855...