COCOS 4 Is Here, Fully Open Source

BEIJING, Jan. 4, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — COCOS, the globally renowned provider of game engines and development tools fully acquired by SUD, today announced the full open-sourcing of COCOS 4.

Scope of Open Source

The following repositories are now publicly available:

1. Engine

Repository:

https://github.com/cocos/cocos4

2. Cross-Platform Code

Includes all native platform compatibility code. Compatibility support for mini-game platforms will be released progressively.

Repository:

https://github.com/cocos/cocos-cli 

3. COCOS CLI

Repository:

https://github.com/cocos/cocos-cli 

4. Full IDE Headless Mode

The original Cocos Creator is equipped with extensive editing capability, tightly coupled with the engine. Core editing functions will gradually transit to Headless Mode, accessible via CLI, and will be part of the engine core functions.

Repository:

https://github.com/cocos/cocos-cli 

5. MIT License

COCOS 4 is released under the standard MIT License, a permissive, non-copyleft license granting unrestricted rights. All commercial-related clauses originally included in Cocos Creator have been removed, making it fully open source.

COCOS 4:

https://github.com/cocos/cocos4/blob/v4.0.0/LICENSE

COCOS CLI:

https://github.com/cocos/cocos-cli/blob/main/LICENSE

Directions for Iteration

COCOS 4 is an evolution of Cocos Creator 3.x, with a long-term commitment to forward compatibility. It strictly follows SemVer boundaries, respects compatibility commitment periods, and maintains a deprecation-to-removal cycle of minimum six months. Long-term development will focus on the following six areas.

1. AI Native

JavaScript and TypeScript remain as the primary languages, with all iterations prioritizing AI friendliness and new features designed to be AI-native. Feature delivery will favor MCPs or Agents over traditional libraries or frameworks. For instance, UI components won’t be provided as call-and-use libraries, but as fully deliverable Agents.

2. Lightweight

Faster, smaller, more efficient, and highly modular, designed to run on any device with a screen and to perform reliably even in highly complex scenarios.

3. Cross-Platform

Gradual support for previously unsupported native platforms (such as Steam), alongside progressive unification across all mini-game platforms.

4. Reliability

A deliberate and patient focus on fixing long-standing bugs (such as Spine-related issues) and optimizing performance in key areas such as rich text and lists.

5. Completeness

Systematic enhancement of essential capabilities, including terrain systems, real-time multiplayer networking, tutorials, and sample projects.

6. 3D

A steady, patient approach to strengthening 3D capabilities, beginning with fundamental features, such as increasing the maximum number of rendered polygons, rather than rushing to implement advanced rendering features in the short term.

Motivation for Open Sourcing

1. Best Path to AI Native

Open source is the most effective way to achieve fully AI Native. It allows AI to better understand the engine, and guides the engine to evolve in a direction that AI could understand easily.

2. Activating Pull Requests (PRs)

The more pull requests (PRs) submitted, the more developers are engaged. The more developers involved, the more PRs are generated. More PRs lead to a stronger and better engine.

3. Global Activation

Many international developers are highly capable and deeply committed to open-source values. COCOS aims to attract both game and AI developers worldwide into a unified open-source game engine ecosystem.

4. Ecosystem Activation

By offering powerful and flexible underlying capabilities for Agents, MCPs, Kits, and Extensions, COCOS enables every tool vendor and developer across the production pipeline to thrive.

5. A Complementary Strategic Approach

SUD has set no direct commercialization targets for COCOS 4 or PinK. The focus is instead on whether they can reach more developers and stimulate the creation of more game content which is critical to SUD’s long-term business success. Therefore, SUD is strongly motivated to support developers effectively. Full open source, free from commercial constraints, is the fastest way forward.

At the same time, SUD provides advantages in product quality, services, user traffic, global reach, and commercialization all fully integrated into the engine and IDE to benefit developers. This makes the engine easier to use, games more reliable, traffic more accessible, and revenue generation more efficient.

A free, powerful, stable, and easy-to-use open-source universal game engine is the optimal solution for developers. SUD firmly believes that enabling developers to achieve financial success ultimately drives SUD’s own success, which forms a long-term, healthy, scalable, and proven business model.

Key Questions

What is the relationship between Cocos Creator and COCOS 4/PinK?

Cocos Creator refers collectively to the engine and editor, covering versions 1.x, 2.x, and 3.x. To enable full open-source access and comprehensive AI support, the engine and editor have been separated—a significant and necessary change. Moving forward:

COCOS will exclusively represent the engine, with its major version upgraded to 4, COCOS 4. Cross-platform components and core editor functionalities will be converted into CLI tools and integrated into the engine core functions, representing a major addition in this open-source release.

PinK will evolve into a fully featured IDE, offering coding capabilities and functioning as a complete production pipeline with a rich set of tools. It promotes an open ecosystem and will gradually reintegrate with most of the visual features from Cocos Creator. Built-in Agents will drive these capabilities, specifically designed to support COCOS development.

2. What is the attitude toward secondary development?

Encouraging. Developers are free to modify any engine or component to serve their own projects—even to create an entirely new engine. High-quality contributions are welcome to be submitted as pull requests and then channeled to the main branch.

3. What is the stance on secondary packaging?

Encouraging. Developers are free to create and package any tools or features based on COCOS 4 and COCOS CLI, including creating an alternative version of PinK. Premium secondary packages are strongly encouraged to be contributed back to the PinK open ecosystem.

In addition, COCOS has unveiled a brand-new logo. Open source is unstoppable. This is only the beginning and the future will only get better.

About SUD

As the world’s leading GI (Gamification Interactive) platform — also known as an in-app game distribution platform — SUD provides services to more than 2,000 top-tier traffic platforms worldwide.

For more information, visit  www.sud.tech/en 

About COCOS

As the world’s leading lightweight general-purpose game engine, COCOS boasts a complete workflow including an IDE, along with a global community of over 1.7 million game developers. COCOS holds an absolute leading position in the in-app game space.

For more information, visit  www.cocos.com/en 

Media Contact
Mona: [email protected]  

SUD Communications Team
General Inquiries: [email protected] 

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SOURCE SUD