Unofficial patch

An unofficial patch, a.k.a. community patch and fan patch, is a software update created by a third party, such as a user community, without the involvement of whoever is considered the official maintainer of the software (i.e. original developer). An unofficial patch generally does not change the intended use of the software, in contrast to other third-party adaptions such as mods or cracks.

An unofficial patch is typically intended to repair bugs and provide new capabilities such as support for newer operating systems, increased display resolutions and new display formats. While unofficial patches are most common for the PC platform, they can also be found for console games e.g. in context of the emulation community.

A fan translation is an unofficial patch that adds natural language support to software. Fan translations are most common for Japanese role-playing games which are often not localized for Western markets.

A slipstream like patch combines multiple official patches into one unofficial update package as a convenience to users when individual patches are only available online or as small incremental updates.

A common motivation for creating an unofficial patch is lack of technical support from the official maintainer which may result from:

  • The software reached the maintainer's defined end-of-life
  • The software was superseded by a successor product
  • The software was originally designed to operate in a substantially different environment and may require improvement/optimization
  • The maintainer went out of business
  • Support is not economically viable (e.g. localization for small markets)
  • A fast solution for a time critical problem (e.g. security holes) when an official one takes too long
  • The official maintainer is unable to cope with the problems
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