It worked already in the past.

Remember the Blender Software. They wanted 100 000 USD for the code and released it as free software.

See the State of Blender today. And money is earned by Tutorial DVDs or support.

When Neoaxis take this step and have big development/ documentation success, so it could be a real competitor to Unity. .....and hard for A8.

"Make a great game or kill it early" (Bruce Shelley, Ensemble Studios)