Activision, now taking the fun out of EVERYTHING.

 "Activision, after acquiring Vivendi, became the new copyright holder of the classic King's Quest series of adventure game. They have now issued a cease and desist order to a team which has worked for eight years on a fan-made project initially dubbed a sequel to the last official installment, King's Quest 8. This stands against the fact that Vivendi granted a non-commercial license to the team, subject to Vivendi's approval of the game after submission. After the acquisition, key team members had indicated on the game's forums (now stripped of their original content by order of Activision) that Activision had given the indication that it intended to keep its current fan-game licenses, but was not interested in issuing new ones."

Activision is gay. Nothing new.

Wow that is pretty stupid, I can see why someone would shut someone down if they were using your IP. But you fucking LET them use it, now when they are almost done, take it away. The sad part is Bobby is probably laughing his ass off.

Lame.

They should just tell them to go fuck themselves, remove any connections to King's Quest, and release the game themselves.

Fuck Activision, I still stand by my word that I will not purchase there games ever again (Unless Bobby Kotick gives me some cash)

Saw this eailer, fuck you Activison

makes me sad. they had such potential. fuckers.

Nice, You know how long I have been waiting on this game? Fuck you Activision.

The new EA.
 
Yeah, this doesn't make me want to buy Activision games.

Who cares.

that's fucked up just because they were permitted to work on it before.

" Who cares. "

Let this be a lesson, never try.

Well, no more Kings Quest

" Okay, i never was into King's Quest that much, but i do sympatize for the people that eagerly awaited this new title. I'm sorry, dud(ette)s. "

Activision makes the old EA look like a pushover.

" @GunnBjorn said:

" Okay, i never was into King's Quest that much, but i do sympatize for the people that eagerly awaited this new title. I'm sorry, dud(ette)s. "

and sorry for the people who worked on it for 8 YEARS! "

I hope Activision get a molotov thrown into their office.
 
I don't even care about the game, but god damn. That's as bad as drowning puppies!(Which is probably what Bobby does in his spare time)

Activision needs to be shut down.

8 years all for nothing?

I welcome our new Activision overlords!

It saddens me to NO END constantly hearing about these old classic Sierra titles being butchered and sold and acquired by new companies who had nothing to do with them... all in the name of money, as ownership of the companies licenses trades hands.
 
A Fan-Made game would have been awesome, because it would have served as a tribute to the series, made by people who understand why those games are great, and its just totally typical that this kind of thing would get shut down. YET Vivendi allowed the release of 2 horrible Leisure Suit Larry games, made by development teams and under direction who had no regard or involvement in the series.
 
Seems to me the fans were doing those booger eatin' retards a favor, and showing them what the fans of those titles truly wanted. Most likely they'll try to revive the series on their own, with a development team too young to know what a point and click adventure game even is.

" Who cares. "

Another spam thread, great. Try adding some personal inflection, instead of just copy pasting info ><

And I continue my boycott of their games.

Adventure games aren't really my thing but this must suck to the people giving their free time to the project and for the people who were waiting for it to come out. What does Activision have to gain from this? its not like its taking sales away from the other games (which are so niche by this point they can't be making anything at all from that series). They really are a pretty ruthless company.

Wait, this can't be right?!  I thought Bobby Kotick said he wasn't really a dick?  I guess he and I apply different definitions to the term.

" Another spam thread, great. Try adding some personal inflection, instead of just copy pasting info >< "

I don't own one single Activision game for any of my consoles. I'm glad I don't support them in any way.

" I welcome our new Activision overlords! "

Achtung! Achtung! 
 
Seig heil! Meinen Activision Fuhrer! Vould you like some polish for ze new moustache you have cultivated, Herr Kotick?

Its unfortunate that IP rights have spiraled so out of control.  For any fans, be sure you know what you're doing when you sign a fan IP use agreement, as they typically contain the one fatal clause that allows termination of IP rights by either party at any time for any reason.  This means if you make something spectacular you plan on releasing as fan work for free, they will pull the plug and back you into a corner to try and buy the project or profit from it in some other way.  Alternatively, in this case it seems like they want to sell the IP, and don't want any frivolous agreements floating around that could diminish that value.   Its crazy, and it may seem morally questionable, but the only thing the corporate guys see is the money.  There's a loophole designed in the contract, they can use that to make more money in some way, and since its perfectly legal and can make them money and takes virtually no effort on their part, they'll use it.   And the contracts are probably non-negotiable from the beginning.  Use the IP for your fan project, we can terminate for any reason at any time, if you dont like it, here's your C&D.
 
Letter writing may help, or Activision may offer to buy or publish the project at less than ideal terms, or the guys making the game will have some work re-naming and re-packaging the product to not infringe on the IP.  Such is the risk you take with a fan use IP license, if you're working with IP that is not your own you can expect to get taken for a ride.  I think the entire IP legal use system needs a severe rework considering how things have changed over the years.  It simply favors the large corporate entities that can buy up IP rights and sit on them.

Activision is the new and improved Evil Avatar.
 
I don't ever think even EA ever promised to take the fun out of making games.

There's something in Revelation about this, I'm sure of it.

Kotick is a tool.
 
However, spending 8 years of your life working on a project with copyrighted material you don't have the full rights to is a bit silly.

" Kotick is a tool.  However, spending 8 years of your life working on a project with copyrighted material you don't have the full rights to is a bit silly. "

You can't jump to conclusions on something like this.  The problem is that allowing a game like this sets a precedence retroactively on all of their games, or at least the idea that anyone with a computer can ask them for permission to make a new game based on their IPs.  Criticizing one man for the whole situation is similarly unfair.

It's still way more bad PR than they needed. If they were worried about that, then they should have just let it come out and go "Alright, well we let that go from before, but no more."
 
It's like they don't even give a fuck that they are shitting all over their public image. I don't know what they are shooting for, "fuck it, everyone hates us so we might as well just do everything to make sure we squeeze out every penny" It limits their option because people will get fed up with them after a while.

That sucks. Thats Activision for you though.

Activision is now the Smart Parts of the video game world.

Wow, harsh, that really made no sense.

That is a fucking joke.

  @Zaapp1 said:

" You can't jump to conclusions on something like this.  The problem is that allowing a game like this sets a precedence retroactively on all of their games, or at least the idea that anyone with a computer can ask them for permission to make a new game based on their IPs.  Criticizing one man for the whole situation is similarly unfair. "

 "This stands against the fact that Vivendi granted a non-commercial license to the team, subject to Vivendi's approval of the game after submission."

*glares at Activision at around 1:10, posts the following*
 

" They should just tell them to go fuck themselves, remove any connections to King's Quest, and release the game themselves. "

" You can't jump to conclusions on something like this.  The problem is that allowing a game like this sets a precedence retroactively on all of their games, or at least the idea that anyone with a computer can ask them for permission to make a new game based on their IPs.  Criticizing one man for the whole situation is similarly unfair. "

Hence the reason I haven't spent a penny on Activision shit and will continue that stance until their business culture drastically changes.