Slashdot Mirror
King's Quest 9 Lives!
NotFamousYet writes "After having previously shut down the development of King's Quest IX: Every Cloak Has A Silver Lining, Vivendi Universal made a press announcement saying: 'After extensive evaluation, Vivendi Universal Games is pleased to announce that the fan developed trilogy project 'The Silver Lining' (previously known as King's Quest IX: Every Cloak Has A Silver Lining), based on characters from Sierra Entertainment's 'Kings Quest' series, has been given approval to continue development. We look forward to seeing the first of its three upcoming chapters, 'Shadows', completed soon.' Check out this very promising fan made sequel!" Commentary and more linkage at GameSetWatch.
Why don't these fan-made games ever ask for permission *before* they spend hundreds of hours on development? It seems like it would save a lot of trouble if/when the rights-holder decides to shut them down.
Comment of the year
I seriously did not see this one coming, most companies would have buried the project and let it rot for all time. Think bnetd!
Kudos to Vivendi, thanks to them and the people working on these games.
C17H21NO4
1 : Create popular franchise then kill it.
2 : Wait for deprived fans to get restless enough to create their own productions based on dead franchise.
3 : Threaten legal action unless they give you all the content they've created.
4 : PROFIT.
Seriously though why didn't they just change the names/locations/backstory enough to
come off as a separate, original work?
"We are the ants king Antony, we're coming to help King Graham!" Sorry, V was the only one I played, but this is awesome news.
Why not fork?
And definitly not the outcome I'd expected. Let's hope this sets a good precident for fan games to come. Yey for KQ!
Now I just have to hope for a Space Quest continuation...