The Historian

After successfully fighting a cease and desist order by Vivendi Universal five years ago, the unofficial continuation to the King’s Quest series has been shut down for good. In 2005, fans successfully convinced Vivendi to allow the indie team behind The Silver Lining to continue development, thanks in part to a letter writing campaign. The original deal would see the game’s authorized release as part of a non-commercial fan license; however, current King’s Quest IP holder Activision has decided (after “talks and negotiations”) it is not interested in entering a similar agreement with the indie team. In 2008, Activision said it didn’t have any immediate plans to utilize the classic licenses (including King’s Quest) it received in the infamous $18 billion merger with Vivendi.

What concludes is eight long years of development by a dedicated fan base. On the fan project’s official site, a letter from the development team thanks fans for their continued support and shares its disappointment in the decision…

Now I realize that the Activision of today is not the Activision founded by former Atari programmers David Crane and Alan Miller, and Jim Levy of GRT Records. That Activision was the first Independent Developer. Before the formation of Activision in August 1979, software for video game consoles was created and published exclusively by the makers of the systems for which the games were designed. It was the programmers aggravation at not getting financial rewards for games that sold well, and not receiving credit for their games that set them on the path to becoming the first 3rd party developer.

And let’s not forget that it was a “Mom and Pop” shop that were the creators of the “King’s Quest” series. Sierra Entertainment was founded in 1979 as On-Line Systems in Los Angeles, California by Ken and Roberta Williams after Ken, a programmer for IBM, bought an Apple II which he planned to use to develop a FORTRAN compiler for Apple computers. At the time, his wife Roberta was playing text adventure games for the Apple II. Dissatisfied with the adventure games that existed at the time, she realized modern computers could display graphics and had the potential to do more than presenting text descriptions on the screen. Again an Independent Developer started by a fan of the genre.

Here is an IP which you were not and have no plans to use. IP that was so loved by fans that they worked for eight years to keep it alive and you shut it down, just because you can.

Activision, you screwed this one up.

Activision shuts down fan-made King’s Quest sequel via Joystiq