While the engine and game source code have been released under a free and open source license, the original assets (3D models, textures, sounds, etc.) were not. ET: Legacy still relies on the original, proprietary assets covered by the original EULA. We are thus legally unable to put it on Steam without prior legal agreement, or without replacing all the assets with our own work to make ET: Legacy entirely stand-alone first.

After receiving a response from Bethesda support saying that all decision power lies within Activision, we have put up an open letter to Activision asking for the release of the original game assets under a license permitting use, modification and redistribution.

Dear Sir or Madam,

Thank you for taking the time to review this request. My name is Cedric (aka kemon) and I am writing to you today on behalf of the Enemy Territory: Legacy development team. Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory was developed by Splash Damage, supervised by id software and ZeniMax and published by Activision in 2003. After contact with official representatives from Splash Damage we were pointed in your direction for help regarding publishing and licensing rights of the original game assets.

ET: Legacy is an open source project based on the code of Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory which was released in 2010 under the terms of the GNU General Public License v3. The main goal of this project is to fix bugs, remove old dependencies, add useful features and modernize the graphics of the game while still remaining compatible with the ET 2.60b version and as many of its mods as possible.

Under the wing of ET: Legacy the Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory community came together to continuously update a now 16 years old game, which despite its considerable age is still home to hundreds of concurrent players a day. Thanks to the official release of the source code under GPLv3 and with the help of the still active ET community, our open source project has come a long way. Although the source code of Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory is released under a public license, the assets are still protected by the original EULA. This fact is proving to be an immense bottleneck for a game that is continuously kept alive by its still dedicated and for its age surprisingly thriving community.

Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory, a game whose development you supervised well over a decade ago, is still active and has a highly dedicated community, which when set in perspective with other comparable titles, is a quite unique achievement. To properly honor the success of this wonderful game, we would kindly ask whether it would be possible for you to release the original assets of Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory under a license that would permit use, redistribution and modification in an open-source community project. For example CC BY 4.0 or CC BY-NC 4.0.

On behalf of the Enemy Territory: Legacy development team and the entire ET community, I would like to thank you for taking your time to review this matter. If we can be of any further help regarding additional information to either our project or the current state of the game, please feel free to reach out to me.

Warm regards Cedric Easton (aka kemon) ET: Legacy development team www.etlegacy.com

Thank you for contacting Bethesda Customer Support!

• Question Subject: Inquiry regarding publishing and licensing rights of the Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory game assets
• Question Reference # 190504-003469
• Date Created: 05/04/201912:49 PM
• Date Last Updated: 06/03/2019 01:03 PM
• Product:
• Status: Read Answer Provided

Message Log:

Bethesda Customer Support response on 06/03/2019 01:03 PM

Greetings, Your request is greatly appreciated. As it rums out, we here at technical support do not have the information needed to properly respond to your request. Please send your inquiry to press@bethsoft.com. That would be the best way to receive an appropriate and accurate answer.

Best Regards, Madison Bethesda Softworks

Greetings!

Thank you for contacting the Bethesda Customer Support. My name is Cody and it is my pleasure to be helping you today. After further reviewing this matter, it appears that Wolfenstein Enemey Territory (2003) was not published by ZeniMax but was published by Activison. Having that said in order for you to provide any feedback for the game, You will need to reach out directly to Activison since they are the publisher of this game.

If you have any further questions or concerns, please do not hesitate to reach back out to us. Thank you for your continued interest and support!

Warm Regards, Cody Bethesda Customer Support

Dear Sir or Madam,

Thank you for taking the time to review this request. My name is Cedric (aka kemon) and I am writing to you today on behalf of the Enemy Territory: Legacy development team. Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory was developed by Splash Damage, supervised by id software and published by you, Activision in 2003. After contact with representatives by both Splash Damage and Zenimax (now Bethesda) we were pointed in your direction for help regarding publishing and licensing rights of the original game assets.

ET: Legacy is an open source project based on the code of Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory which was released in 2010 under the terms of the GNU General Public License v3. The main goal of this project is to fix bugs, remove old dependencies, add useful features and modernize the graphics of the game while still remaining compatible with the ET 2.60b version and as many of its mods as possible.

Under the wing of ET: Legacy the Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory community came together to continuously update a now nearly 16 years old game, which despite its considerable age is still home to hundreds of concurrent players a day. Thanks to the official release of the source code under GPLv3 and with the help of the still active ET community, our open source project has come a long way. Although the source code of Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory is released under a public license, the assets are still protected by the original EULA. This fact is proving to be an immense bottleneck for a game that is continuously kept alive by its still dedicated and for its age surprisingly thriving community.

Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory, a game that you published well over a decade ago, is still active and has a highly dedicated community, which when set in perspective with other comparable titles, is a quite unique achievement. To properly honor the success of this wonderful game, we would kindly ask whether it would be possible for you to release the original assets of Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory under a license that would permit use, redistribution and modification in an open-source community project. For example CC BY 4.0 or CC BY-NC 4.0.

On behalf of the Enemy Territory: Legacy development team and the entire ET community, I would like to thank you for taking your time to review this matter. If we can be of any further help regarding additional information to either our project or the current state of the game, please feel free to reach out to me.

Warm regards Cedric (aka kemon) ET: Legacy development team www.etlegacy.com