Karkadann wrote:
I might be wrong but I think the main idea behind dropping the old game engine for a new one is so there new software will NOT be easily converted.
Nah, the old engine is/was really dated. The main reason to switch to the new engine (Unreal Engine) is that it's a thousand times more powerful, and also a lot easier to work with for artists. Not being limited by your tools is important when making games, just like having AAA graphics is important to selling it.
The "extra" level of protection is a nice perk but definitely doesn't sound like a deciding factor when it comes to changing the game engine.
Also, converting MystV/Crowthistle &co to Complete Chronicles doesn't hurt Cyan financially - on the other hand, it's a good reason to have people buy the games despite how old they are, because the tools are designed in a way that makes them unusable if you don't own the games. It doesn't mean that Cyan officially endorses it, but so far they are willing to tolerate it as long as it remains respectful.
(Not that Cyan doesn't want us to have fun, but protecting their IP is important to protect themselves - otherwise people would be freely redistributing their games or hacking their server, which would make them lose money on top of hurting their image.)
Bringing Obduction Ages to Uru is another matter though. Whether it would be acceptable/respectful is another debate (what with Obduction being more recent, on another engine, and not related to Myst). However, we can safely say this: converting Obduction to Uru would be a tremendous amount of effort for very little gain (especially given how bad it would look), so it's not likely to be done anytime soon. Let's just focus on improving Uru with custom Ages and engine improvements first...