The publishing giant was ”not interested” in extending the license to the project, asked them to ”cease production” immediately; they complied.
Vivendi/Sierra granted a non-commercial licence to the project years ago, but Activision has since bought out Vivendi and closed down Sierra. King’s Quest is a classic collection of PC point and click adventure games, involving puzzles and fantasy.
”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,” read a Silver Lining statement, reports Eurogamer.
”As before, we must and will comply with this decision, as much as we may wish we could do otherwise.” The first of five episodic releases from the team were due for release this spring, compounding the tragedy of the fan project all the more.
”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,” they added.
”Sadly, after eight years of dedicated work and even more dedicated fans, The Silver Lining project is closing down.” Activision doesn’t come off too well from this…
The moral of the story? Don’t start a fan dedicated project of any Acti IP.
