Can you sell a game's source code to AI companies?

Yes. A released game’s original code, its assets and the history behind them can be licensed to an AI lab while the game stays on sale. The lab gets a copy, and the studio keeps the game. Two things decide whether you can sign: who owns the game, and what your engine’s terms say about AI training. Unreal dropped its ban on October 29, 2026. Unity still wants to be asked.

This is general information, not legal advice. The game license check runs these questions on your own game and lists what to fix first.

What an AI lab wants from a game

Patronus AI licenses “the code, original assets and development history behind a released game”. The history is what a store build can’t show: the commits, the art source files and the tasks the team worked through to ship it. Patronus is the only company we list that takes games. The license is non-exclusive, and Patronus pays you directly once it accepts the material.

Check who owns the game

The studio that wrote the game doesn’t always own it. A publishing deal can assign some or all of the IP to the publisher, and a work-for-hire contract usually hands it to the client. Read the contract before you apply, since Patronus’s form asks who owns the code and original assets.

Code and art made by contractors need written IP assignments. A licensed character, brand or soundtrack stays with its owner, so it comes out of the license.

Unreal allows AI training and Unity asks first

Epic deleted two restrictions from section 6(e) of the Unreal Engine EULA on October 29, 2026. One barred using the engine, including its source code, as training input for generative AI. The other barred training AI on MetaHuman characters and animation curves. New users get the new EULA automatically, and existing users accept it on Epic’s acceptance page. Epic says the change gives it no rights to your content or code.

Unity’s terms, last updated June 30, 2026, bar training AI models on “data, assets, or outputs derived from Offerings or generated via the use of Offerings” without “prior authorization” (section 17.2(dd)). Before you license a Unity game, ask Unity or a lawyer whether that covers your build and the code your team wrote.

Godot is MIT-licensed, which lets anyone deal in the engine “without restriction” as long as the copyright notice stays in.

List what belongs to someone else

Patronus asks how much of the game uses third-party assets, and for the licenses of “middleware, music, fonts, asset packs and licensed characters”. Marketplace assets carry their own rules. Unity says Asset Store content “cannot be used to train AI/ML”. On Fab, sellers choose whether their assets can be used for AI training with a “NoAI” tag. Write down each item and its license, so the offer covers the studio’s own material.

Player accounts and chat logs hold personal data. Leave them out.

If the studio is closing

A closing studio is where the history gets lost. Version control, art source files and the task tracker usually sit on paid plans or a server someone switches off. Keep them running, or export them with their full history, until a license is signed. A store build shows the finished game, not how it was made.

If the studio is in administration or bankruptcy, the administrator or trustee signs, not the founders. Read whether a company in administration can sell its data and who can sign for a closed company.

How the license works

1. Tell Patronus about the game. Engine and version, whether the studio changed the engine’s code, the store or release page, platforms and release year. No export or access is needed.
2. Sample and offer. If it fits, Patronus reviews a sample under NDA and makes a written offer: price, scope and delivery checks.
3. Full review. You share the full set, and Patronus has up to 30 days to review it.
4. Payment. Once Patronus accepts the material, it pays you.

Patronus gives a first answer in 2 business days and reviews a sample in 5. If the deal doesn’t go ahead, it deletes what you shared and confirms in writing.

Have these ready

• The publishing contract, and IP assignments from every contractor.
• The engine and its version. For Unreal, the date you accepted the new EULA. For Unity, Unity’s answer.
• Each piece of third-party content and its license.
• The repository or depot with its full history, and the art source files.
• The store or release page, the platforms and the release year.