vivendi-universal posts

The long time efforts of a group of fans of the King's Quest series to continue the adventure game franchise in a non-commercial release have finally been shut down after eight years of work. Today the official web site for the game, The Silver Lining, announced that the project is shutting down after the game franchise' current owners Activision would not grant the Phoenix Online Studios team permission to work on the game.

The fan made project began in 2002 as an attempt to continue the series that was originally developed by Sierra Online. While the team did get the rights to make a non-commercial version by King's Quest's previous owners Vivendi Games, it appears that the property's new owners at Activision didn't want development of the fan made game to continue. No specific reason was given for Activision's decision. The development team was apparently prepping to finally release The Silver Lining this spring . In a note on their now sparse web site, the team stats they don't know what their future holds but, " . . . we hope the teamwork and rapport we've developed won't go to waste."

[Via Kotaku]

Earlier reports suggested that, due to Activision and Vivendi's merger into industry behemoth Activision Blizzard, some staff redundancies would result in more than a few lost jobs. New reports reveal that staff layoffs are coming, and Vivendi's UK branch will bear the brunt of the burden.

GamesIndustry.biz reports that "the majority of the Vivendi team, which oversees the Sierra games label among other things, will face job losses." Some senior team members will be invited to re-apply for new roles within the company. How generous.

Furthermore, a number of upcoming Sierra titles have been under close scrutiny since the Activision Blizzard merger and may not see eventual release dates. Specific details such as which titles might be permanently vaulted have not been revealed.