I'm one of the contributors and from everything I've seen it's not a sell-out situation. The game is GPL so will be remaining open source, the paid-portion of the game will be developed solely by funds from the publisher (I do server stuff so won't be involved in any of that bit.

▲

redrobein 4 hours ago | parent [-]

I'm curious, why isn't the the free version of the game on steam? It'd be a lot easier to get my friends to try it, and setup parties if it used steam friends.

	▲	NortySpock 4 hours ago \| parent \| next [-]
		Speaking as an occasional contributor: there's a roadmap towards that, but there's a few components that need to finish baking before we release on Steam. e.g. the current lobby protocol isn't capable of handling Steam levels of traffic, so we are working on replacing it. You only get one chance to make a good first impression, and if the server melts on release day, that's not a good first impression. :) The Hooded Horse deal is expected to provide some professional development time to help knock out these blocking items. https://www.beyondallreason.info/development/steam-release#M... https://www.beyondallreason.info/news/beyond-all-reason-and-...
	▲	Teifion 4 hours ago \| parent \| prev [-]
		The current version isn't on steam due to a variety of (mostly infrastructure related) issues, the free version _will_ be on steam in the future though you will still be able to get the free version from the website for those who want to avoid steam.