While doing some research for my 3D engine I sumbled across this collection of free game development libraries.

http://abattoir.wolfpaw.net/personal/gamelibs.php

Which harks back to my days at university when the list at

http://cg.cs.tu-berlin.de/~ki/engines.html

had, perhaps 100 engines on it.


Then, once I'd recovered from the shock I found the repository of user interface libraries.

http://www.hal9k.com/cug/links/subject35.htm

Knowing the amount of time and money that goes into developing commercial games, it shouldn't be long before some of these engines are combined into one all-encompassing framework. At which point, the game code is free, and so eliminating the need for many programmers.

Then all we need are level designers and artists. Looking at the thriving mod scene this talent should be easy to find, also. So we should be able to create complete new, open source, games without any of the big companies getting a look in. In the short term, console games will still win out. But with the reverse engineering crews and -linux.org websites springing up, the end could be nigh for the games industry.

And then where would we be?