King's Quest IX - Fan Built?

[Melbosa]

Source: http://www.kqix.com/home.php

Phoenix Online Studios Announcement





On November 29th, 2005, Vivendi Universal Games (hereafter VUG) granted a fan license to Phoenix Online Studios to continue work on the KQIX project. As part of the negotiations between the two companies, VUG required a change of name of the project.



As a result, "King's Quest IX: Every Cloak Has A Silver Lining" will now adopt a new name: "The Silver Lining". We chose such a name because in many ways it represents the spirit that has always represented our project.



This is the press release from VUG:



"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."



- VIVENDI UNIVERSAL GAMES



However, because of the nature of the negotiations with VUG, and the fact that we had to stop development during the past three months, we are forced to push the release of the first part "Shadows" further down the line. We are still unsure of our new release date, but we can say that it will happen somewhere during 2006.



Our website will also undergo changes in the near future due to legal claims we must comply with. We are preparing a couple of surprises for next year, so keep visiting and checking the Forum for further news.



On behalf of The Silver Lining Development Team, we would like to thank the thousands of fans that made this possible by emailing VUG and spreading the news; we would also like to give a special thanks to Matt Compton and Cat Tyson, organizers of SaveKQIX.org for such unconditional and wonderful support, as well as everyone who helped them in this kind effort. Also, special thanks to Rod Rigole 'Vice-President of Legal Affairs' and Marcus Beer 'Senior Public Relations Manager', both from VUG, for their great help during the negotiation. Without any of the aforementioned, none of this would have happened.



The cloak has dropped and the silver lining appeared. You, the fans, made it happen.







Thank you,



Directive Staff

PHOENIX ONLINE STUDIOS

[Mr. Analog]

Well thats an interesting turn of events. Certainly we all know that Kings Quest was a massivly popular series during the 90s and has languished somewhat in the ne'er-realms of licensing obscurity and the void where popular properties of years past reside when they have no contemporary peer (i.e. KQ isn't an MMO, FPS, RTS, etc.).



If this is true, then it's a bold move by Vivendi and certainly is the dream of many a fanboy.