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img src=”http://bulk2.destructoid.com/ul/165491-KingsQuest.jpg” alt=”Activision ends King’s Quest fan game screenshot” width=”468″ border=”0″ /
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pI’m pretty bummed about this./p
pPhoenix Online Studios, a seven person indie game company, has been working on an unofficial sequel to the iKing’s Quest/i series for eight years. In the vein of the recent iSam & Max/i and iMonkey Island/i games, iThe Silver Lining/i was going to be a 5-part episodic adventure game./p
pIn 2005, after receiving a cease-and-desist notice from Vivendi (who owned the rights to iKing’s Quest/i after they bought out Sierra), Phoenix Online worked out a deal where they were granted a non-commercial license from Vivendi, meaning they could continue work on the game. Some small changes were made (like removing “King’s Quest” from the title), but basically Vivendi was cool with the release of this fan-made game./p
pThen Vivendi was bought out by Activision. And, as they are legally allowed to do because they’re the new owners of the IP, Activision sent another cease-and-desist out, and officially killed the project. Eight years of work completely down the drain, after originally getting approval, for a game series that very likely will never see a new installment because most large game companies are unwilling to make new adventure games because they don’t make enough money./p
pNow, granted, maybe I’m being cynical. Maybe Activision has decided that iKing’s Quest /iis a wonderful IP that should be revived, and maybe they’re working on a brand new iKing’s Quest/i game. If that’s the case, then I suppose I understand the cease-and-desist. If they canceled it just for the sake of canceling and we’ll never see a new iKing’s Quest/i game, they’re certainly allowed to do that, but they get a big thumbs down for it./p
pBack in 2005, Vivendi granted Phoenix Online the non-commercial license because of an outpouring of support and anger from the gaming community. Feel free to send similar letters of support for the game a href=”mailto:support@activision.com”to Activision/a. Assuming the project stays dead, I hope we see iThe Silver Lining/i in some form, even if it means removing all the references to the iKQ/i games./p
p[Thanks Anjo!]/p

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