Saturday, February 19, 2011

Sierra Rips Off Q*Bert

Last summer's kerfuffle over the fan-produced King's Quest sequel The Silver Lining was fortunately resolved without legal bloodshed when Activision (current owner of the Sierra intellectual properties) consented to allow its release, after an outpouring of support from fans including Roberta Williams herself. 

UPDATE 02/20/2011:  Of course, now we know why Activision was being all protective, as the episodic adventure publisher Telltale Games has announced an upcoming official King's Quest revival.

If Sierra On-Line were still in business, it might have been easier to resolve the whole matter by bringing up Mr. Cool:


One imagines the gaming community rallying to champion a lovingly produced, non-profit fan effort against a company that once kept its balance sheet healthy with a quickie Q*Bert rip-off (not to mention the Donkey Kong-"inspired" Cannonball Blitz.)

But fortunately it all worked out.  As John Lennon once sang, instant karma gonna get you.

3 comments:

  1. kerfuffle over the fan-produced King's Quest sequel The Silver Lining was fortunately resolved without legal bloodshed when Activision (current owner of the Sierra intellectual properties) consented to allow its release

    Tres timely!

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  2. I know! I was really glad to learn that Activision is actually doing something with the King's Quest rights, and I'm looking forward to Telltale's treatment of the property. The inclusion of the KQ Collection in Telltale's charity bundle last year was kind of a hint, in retrospect. I've recently been playing through King's Quest VII -- it feels more like a Lucasarts game than the earlier KQs, with humor and actual characterization, and I'm hoping that the Telltale series will have a similar feel.

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  3. LOL "Mr. Cool". How fantastically original!

    I'm just glad the legal crap got out of the way. TSL has seriously impressed me.

    I hope that Telltale does the series right. It should be fun replaying KQ through again.

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