The classic video game series King’s Quest has many fans. I played a version of King’s Quest 4 that my high school had when I had the chance to get into the computer room to play it. It’s a lot of fun.
Some fans were inspired to make their own unofficial sequel to the game, but the current IP holders have nixed that. This is where things get tricky, though.
King’s Quest is an adventure game series created by the American computer game company Sierra Entertainment. It is widely considered the classic series of the golden era of adventure games. Following the success of its first installment, the series was primarily responsible for building the reputation of Sierra. Roberta Williams, co-founder and former co-owner of Sierra, designed all of the King’s Quest games.
The King’s Quest series chronicles the saga of the royal family of the Kingdom of Daventry through their various trials and adventures. The story takes place over two generations and across many lands, including Daventry, Kolyma, Llewdor, Tamir, Serenia, Eldritch, Etheria and the Land of the Green Isles. (Wikipedia)
Sierra Entertainment passed through a bunch of hands until they finally reached Vivendi Entertainment, now merged into the Activision empire. Enter Phoenix Online Studios, a bunch of the game’s fans, who wanted to make their own unofficial sequel, a fan game. However, Vivendi was less than happy with this, and in 2005 insisted Phoenix stop the game, as they felt it would infringe on their copyright. After a fan backlash, the company allowed Phoenix to continue on the game under a “non-commercial fan license”. If I understand this correctly, that means they couldn’t make money off of it.
This has apparently changed until the reign of Activision (which gamers will recall began when a group of Atari’s game developers weren’t pleased with how the new management treated them and formed the first “third party” game developer for the Atari 800), which is now Activision/Blizzard, and owned by Vivendi. Here’s where the confusion starts. Activision/Blizzard has opted against allowing Phoenix Online Studios to continue the game, which has been in development for 8 years. (This is, after all, a fan project that I’m assuming is done in their spare time.) So this message has been posted to their website.
February 28th, 2010
To Our Fans:
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.
This isn’t sitting well with the gaming community, some of whom were looking forward to the game, and some who, like me, don’t understand why a fan-made game that (again, if I understand the license) was not going to be for profit. Well, maybe I do, if they actually plan to continue the franchise or re-release the old games. However, according to Wikipedia (question the source) there is talk about Activision/Blizzard selling the Sierra license. Could that be a factor? Are they concerned that they couldn’t find a buyer, or that the buyer would take stronger action? I don’t really know.
See, I’m kind of working from two minds here. And no, the fact that they’re about to produce what I’m hoping will be an awesome Transformers game has nothing to do with it. 🙂 On the one hand, Activision/Blizzard, formerly Vivendi before merging with Activision and Blizzard, has the rights and therefore had the right to protect their copyright. On the other hand, I don’t see how a fan game would cost them money if they’re not planning to DO anything with the franchise.
Then again, I don’t see why Phoenix Online Studios can’t simply rework the game, removing any King’s Quest-related terms and character/sprites and replacing them with something original, thus making The Silver Lining into its own game franchise. The guys behind Homestar Runner.com have a game in the same style, which may be a parody but it’s not like other such games weren’t produced around the time King’s Quest was produced, and by companies other than Sierra. An homage to the “point and click” days of old with maybe a nod to the King’s Quest games should be perfectly fine to sell, much less release as a free downloads.
And that’s why I’m not sure who to root for here, or if anyone is even the “bad guy”. Both sides are right, and both sides are wrong.
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