Oh, Activision, now you've done it.

Activision Terminates Fan Made Kings Quest Extension

 Do I really need to say more?

 Not too long ago, devoted fans of the Chrono series received a pretty douchy slap in the face when Squeenix told the creators to shove it. Now, King's Quest is receiving the same treatment by Activision. Funny, when you consider that no one has touched the franchise in 12 years. In addition, if I'm doing my research correctly, Activision had almost 2 years to do something with the license themselves. So no one was touching this IP.

 What gets me the most from of all of these shutdowns, and especially this one, is that the major companies have the balls to say that the fans don't deserve to enjoy the IP that was created for them in the first place. There is no justified reason. Sure, a lawyer could spout off a million reasons, but 99% of them would be wrong and it really does the brand a disservice while making the company in charge of the IP look like a douchebag with nothing else to do than slap its own fans around. So, Activision, we're going to use you as a whipping boy right now, because you deserve it.

 "That's our IP."

  That's nice. Really, it wasn't. It was someone else's idea, and you bought them. You had nothing to do with this series at any point in time. It's not really about semantics, though, it's about the legal. You own the IP's rights and therefore have a legal obligation to defend that IP or you open yourself to losing it. Well, first of all, make a game, then. You have a pretty good history of making bad decisions with your franchises, so go ahead and make another game with another half assed effort. It's really not that hard to do. These games were popular in the day when text commands had weight, so is it really so hard that you get up off your asses and make a flash version so at least it looks like you're trying?

 Regardless of what this means, it's not really a good legal retort, so we'll find a real one. Ah, yes, the "cover" response. Sure, you own the IP. You own every line made in those games. That's nice. However, just as any band can cover a hit song made popular last month, there's really nothing stopping the fans from getting a solid "cover" defense on their side. It's an interpretation. It's fan fiction. It's a cover song. Why do I still see the Punk Goes... series on shelves if this weren't allowed? As long as the work is done entirely by the fans with no sprite ripping, then there's really no way you can definitively say that, "No, you can't do that."

 What do you have to gain with a decision like this? I mean, apart from pissing off the fan base to no end, you really don't have anything to gain but destroying free advertising. From a business standpoint, wouldn't you rather keep your fans interested in the series instead of letting it fade into obscurity? Are you really interested in maintaining a legacy of controversy over your IP than to start off on a positive note with some momentum? Don't you want that fan base to stick around so that they actually buy your games when you decide to finally make a King's Quest game?

 Really, I'd like to open up the debate, but apart from this being a stupid move on Activision, it's probably not even legally sound. Either way, Activision, you're a load of douchebags. Digg It Stumble it ! Reddit