You need context to understand why a choice is good, and if you just look at the source of some engine and parrot their techniques and idioms, you are hardly learning anything useful.įurther, just because code shipped a game doesn't make that code good (Source in particular is prone to lot of now very outmoded design decisions with respect to C++ and OO, for example). Source code alone only tells you the how of particular design decisions, not the why behind most of those decisions which is often extremely important given that so many choices in software engineering are from among generally equally-valid options.

You may obtain a source license from Valve, but Source itself is not open-source.įurther, it is generally a very dangerous approach to use entire existing engines as learning material without guidance from somebody who was heavily involved in the development of that engine. The Frostbite Engine, in turn, powers popular titles such as the Battlefield series, Need for Speed, some Star Wars games, and the Madden NFL games.No, it is not. In EA’s case, the FIFA series is one of the best-selling video game franchises in the world.

Last year, game developer Valve had also been the victim of a source code leak, which raised fears that hackers would be able to develop malware and exploits for games like Counter Strike: Global Offensive, that are played by millions of players. Their intention appears to be only to sell the data. According to the report, which cites posts on various dark web hacking forums, the other stolen information includes proprietary EA frameworks and software development kits (SDKs), bundles of code that can make game development more streamlined.Īccording to BleepingComputer, the hackers also claimed to have stolen Xbox and Sony private SDK and API keys.

The hack, reported by Motherboard Vice, became known last month. “No player data was accessed, and we have no reason to believe there is any risk to player privacy.” “We are investigating a recent incident of intrusion into our network where a limited amount of game source code and related tools were stolen,” a company spokeswoman said in a statement. Game publisher Electronic Arts, one of the largest gaming companies in the world, has confirmed its networks had been intruded into, after hackers said they had 780GB worth of data including source code from FIFA 21 and from the FrostBite game engine.

Source engine sdk hacking