I'm not sure why you're being so rude. Maybe you don't maintain or release your old games or software and you're offended. But in that case you're not making a strong argument for your position through veiled insults.
The rest of your argument is resting on the view that not maintaining or releasing legacy code is perfectly ok regardless of the circumstances, not arguing for it.
Your claim that people playing their old games for nostalgia would meaningfully cut into sales of new games is completely unfounded, and frankly absurd. If that's a real issue for you, then your new game probably just isn't as good. By the nature of the pace at which video games improve, newer games inherently appeal more to younger generations.
The idea that releasing code is so much work is mostly due to licencing quirks. If instead your licence was set up specifically to do this, you could even have it happen automatically.
And let me remind you that often the biggest developers are the ones who don't do this, and smaller ones are the ones who do.
As for your veiled insults, let me just say that I'm not sure what you think a "demand" is, but you might want to look it up.
I’m not saying it’s so much work, I’m saying it’s more work than not doing it. Nobody owes you that work, especially not when you offer nothing in return.
What you are doing is qualifying the work someone else has to do as easy and not a big deal, but when you have to do something it’s just too hard. The concerns of others are petty and invalid and you know better, only your concerns are real.
The rest of your argument is resting on the view that not maintaining or releasing legacy code is perfectly ok regardless of the circumstances, not arguing for it.
Your claim that people playing their old games for nostalgia would meaningfully cut into sales of new games is completely unfounded, and frankly absurd. If that's a real issue for you, then your new game probably just isn't as good. By the nature of the pace at which video games improve, newer games inherently appeal more to younger generations.
The idea that releasing code is so much work is mostly due to licencing quirks. If instead your licence was set up specifically to do this, you could even have it happen automatically.
And let me remind you that often the biggest developers are the ones who don't do this, and smaller ones are the ones who do.
As for your veiled insults, let me just say that I'm not sure what you think a "demand" is, but you might want to look it up.