Home Gaming Activision Shuts down Fan-Made King’s Quest Sequel

Activision Shuts down Fan-Made King’s Quest Sequel

2 min read
4

DarthKotick

Since 2002, an incredible amount of work has been done by King’s Quest fans in making an unofficial sequel. 8 years later, and that work has been for nought – as the developers have ceased all development on the game, complying with a demand by current King’s Quest IP holder Activision.

The Silver Lining, a sequel to the last King’s Quest – which was released all the way back in 1998 – has an interesting history. Asserting their right to make the game under U.S. fair use copyright law.

Interestingly in 2005, Vivendi – IP holders after acquiring Sierra – granted the team a non-commercial “fan-license"  for The Silver Lining, essentially giving the project an official green light. that licence is now up – and all Vivendi’s property now belong to big, bad Activision. Unsurprisingly, Activision has no interests in renewing the licence – or crafting a new non-commercial licence.

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.

We cannot say enough how much we appreciate the support we have had over these years from our fans. Without you, we would never have gotten this far. There would be no game to develop, and no one to develop it for. You have been amazing and steadfast, and we will always remember that and appreciate it more than we can say.

Sadly, after eight years of dedicated work and even more dedicated fans, The Silver Lining project is closing down.

I understand a company’s right  – and interest – in protecting their intellectual properties, but this is a bit of a low blow, considering that Vivendi gave their blessing before being gobbled up by Activision. It’s made doubly brutal by the fact that Activision have stated that they also have no interest in using the classic Sierra IP’s in the immediate future – striking a fatal blow to the project, and the hearts of point-and-click-adventurers.

Last Updated: March 1, 2010

4 Comments

  1. Macethy

    March 1, 2010 at 14:17

    @ssholes! :angry:

    Reply

  2. RSA-Ace

    March 1, 2010 at 14:52

    Reminds me of http://sq7.org/ but Vivendi didn’t even grant them a “fan-license”.

    Reply

  3. Karlsen

    March 2, 2010 at 20:27

    There is a petition available for fans and supporters of The Silver Lining over at

    http://www.petitionspot.com/petitions/savetsl/

    Reply

  4. ewie

    March 2, 2010 at 22:55

    Boycott them !!!!!

    Until Diablo III release.

    Reply

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Check Also

Make your own Mass Effect: Legendary Edition logo with this free tool

You want all the aliens? You got it! No aliens? You can do that too! The possibilities are…