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Activision kills King's Quest: The Silver Lining

Jason

chasing a bee
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Fan-made King's Quest project <b><a href="http://www.tsl-game.com/" target="blank">The Silver Lining</a></b> received a recent kick in the teeth courtesy of Activision.
<blockquote>In 2005, Phoenix Online Studios received a Cease & Desist letter from Vivendi Universal, the owners of the King's Quest IP, in regards to our work on The Silver Lining. We complied with the request, and over the months that followed, we were able to work out a non-commercial fan license with Vivendi that allowed us to continue our work on the game.

We have spent a lot of time recently reworking the material of The Silver Lining into episodic releases, with the first out of a planned five episodes completed, and submitted for review, and had hoped we would be able to bring our game to you, the fans, in the Spring of 2010.

Recently, however, ownership of the Sierra IP changed hands and became the property of Activision. After talks and negotiations in the last few months between ourselves and Activision, they have reached the decision that they are not interested in granting a non-commercial license to The Silver Lining, and have asked that we cease production and take down all related materials on our website.

As before, we must and will comply with this decision, as much as we may wish we could do otherwise. </blockquote>
They've been working on this for eight years.

Spotted at: <A HREF="http://slashdot.org/">Slashdot</A>
 

Zeus

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I know this gets thrown around a lot--during differences in opinion, etc.--but I can think of no better time than now:

:rage:
 

MapMan

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bobby-kotick.jpg
 

Pliskin

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And if they haven't finished it by now, odds are that they never would have.

All involved probably breathed a sigh of relief that they have a legitimate excuse to call it off.
 

Zeus

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I know companies have to shut this sort of thing or risk losing the rights to their games, but you don't have to be a jerk and wipe out their forums.

This is why I like Nintendo. When they shut down a Zelda fan movie, they gave the people who made it until the end of the year (plenty of time to seed, in other words). And despite being directly interviewed about the Mother 3 translation every time a wide-eyed Earthbound fan gets within microphone distance of Reggie, I haven't heard any rumors of Nintendo sending out cease and desist letters.

I wonder how George Lucas gets away with it. I've never heard of him busting a single fan project, yet he seems to be in no danger of losing the rights to Star Wars.
 

Ebola1717

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What exactly do you mean by "lose the rights?" Do you mean they'd legally lose the rights, or just implicitly?
 

Zeus

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Ebola1717 said:
What exactly do you mean by "lose the rights?" Do you mean they'd legally lose the rights, or just implicitly?

I mean legally. As far as I know, if a company doesn't enforce and protect their IP, they risk losing the exclusive rights to it. And if Link: The Faces of Evil for the Philips CD-i taught us anything, it's that we don't want anyone but Nintendo (and possibly Capcom) making Zelda games.
 

burrie

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Truth be told, I had very little hope for this project left, so as Pliskin typed, they may be slightly satisfied with this result. They can call it off, and it doesn't look like it was because they had given up on the project.
 

Arcanoix

Scholar
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Dec 12, 2008
Messages
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Darth Roxor said:
Bobby Kotick (jew)

Wikipedia said:
Kotick is a controversial figure in the press and gaming community. This is in part due to advocating a business strategy focused on developing intellectual property which can be exploited over a long period, occasionally to the exclusion of creating new, risky or niche titles.[6] In responding to why Activision Blizzard chose not to publish certain games following the Activision/Blizzard merger, he stated that focusing on franchises that "have the potential to be exploited every year on every platform with clear sequel potential and have the potential to become $100 million franchises" has "worked very well for [Activision Blizzard]". Kotick described this business strategy as "narrow and deep" and cited it as key to attracting development talent who may not be drawn to "speculative franchises".[7] This strategy has received a hostile reception from gamers and members of the gaming press who see it as anathema to widely anticipated small-studio developments such as Brutal Legend, originally to be published by Vivendi but dropped after the Activision Blizzard merger. Geeks.co.uk discussed the strategy under the headline "Activision's Bobby Kotick hates developers, innovation, cheap games, you".

Bobby Kotick on Games that require pricey controllers said:
"If it was left to me, I would raise the prices even further." While some news services took the comment at face value,[10] other outlets thought the comment was a joke, but (as Gamesindustry.biz put it) could be seen as "insensitive at a time when consumers are likely to be feeling the economic pinch".

Wikipedia said:
During a speech at the 2009 Deutsche Bank Securities Technology Conference, Kotick received significant criticism from enthusiasts and the media for stating, "We have a real culture of thrift. The goal that I had in bringing a lot of the packaged goods folks into Activision about 10 years ago was to take all the fun out of making video games." Kotick later stated he tries to promote an atmosphere of "skepticism, pessimism, and fear" in his company and, "We are very good at keeping people focused on the deep depression."

No racial intended, but Yids like Kotick are the exact reason I'm not in the industry. So I'm going to create an amazing game, storyline, characters, and innovation just to have this shit eater shut me and my studio down because he didn't make a little more than his usual $800k+ take-home pay off of MY intellect? I think not.
 

ghostdog

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Yeah, so I guess it would be extremely hard to drop all references to the King's quest franchise and just make their own game. Because the lore behind the KQ series is so rich and distinct :roll:
 

Zeus

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Arcanoix said:
Zeus said:
(and possibly Capcom) making Zelda games.

And then Zelda would turn into an "extreme-combat" game.

Hah! Believe it or not, Capcom already handled quite a few Zelda titles.

Excluding Link's Awakening, Capcom devloped/ported all The Legend of Zelda games for the Game Boy Color and Game Boy Advance.

Their games were very well reviewed, on par with Nintendo's portable releases. Of course, Links Awakening is my favorite. I didn't care much for Minish Cap, though. Felt like they turned the whole world into one big segmented dungeon, and instead of exploring and adventuring around, I was hitting roadblocks left and right, forced to solve puzzles.
 

Suppression

Novice
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Feb 26, 2010
Messages
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Actually I never heard of this Project before and don't even know if it sucked - but I'm gladly taking the opportunity to bash Kotick, that guy makes me wish there'd be another video game crash...
 

SuicideBunny

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Serpent in the Staglands Dead State Torment: Tides of Numenera
doesn't vivendi own activision?
this sounds kinda weird.
 

Luzur

Good Sir
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Swedish Empire
Hoaxmetal said:
Fuck the system, release your game, pussies.

this.

why not leak the stuff and play ignorance? if i had coded on something for 8 years i would be pissed off enough to do it.
 

JarlFrank

I like Thief THIS much
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Steve gets a Kidney but I don't even get a tag.
Fuck, and I actually was looking forward to that project.

This wouldn't have happened if the Reich had won the war. Damn Jews.
 

KazikluBey

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PC RPG Website of the Year, 2015
Morgoth said:
SuicideBunny said:
doesn't vivendi own activision?
this sounds kinda weird.
No. Activision and Vivendi merged, but during that process Vivendi and Sierra got more or less destroyed.

Activision has now the say.
Um. Vivendi Games merged with Activision, sure, but parent company Vivendi SA owns 52% of Activision Blizzard.
 

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