Quote:
|
Originally Posted by RLacey
And will those who have moaned about the cancellation of KQIX now decide that Sierra are in fact a perfectly decent company who were acting entirely within their rights as the legal holders of the rights to the King's Quest series?  |
You might plausibly be referring to me (among others), so I'll answer that.
No.
It's great that Vivendi eventually agreed to make a deal with the KQ9 team. That doesn't mean their initial action wasn't callously belligerent. If you take a charitable view, you might speculate that the c&d was just a shot over the bow to get the team's attention, or establish a negotiating position. Even under that interpretation their initial contact was boorish at best, but I don't buy it. If Vivendi had been open to a deal at first, they could just have opened a dialogue in reasonable fashion. As the stronger party, they were in a position to pretty much dictate the terms of an agreement anyway.
Probably, the petition and campaign to save the game got the matter to the attention of someone responsible enough and decent enough not to be acting on corporate auto-pilot. Someone who realized (like those of us moaning argued all along) that the game offered no serious threat to the value of Vivendi's properties, and that the minor issues (like calling the game "King's Quest IX") could be easily rectified.
To sum up: This is what Vivendi should have done in the first place.
Let me just repost something I wrote when the game was cancelled:
Quote:
|
Originally Posted by Snarky
Instead of a petition, I think we should propose a deal to Vivendi. We'll license the KQ property, for some small sum like $5,000 or $10,000. I think we could raise that much. I'd certainly be willing to pledge ten bucks to revive this game, and I hope a few hundred other people would, too. Since the game is not going to be commercial, I don't think Vivendi ought to demand more. The game will include some statement on startup about how it's not an official game, not "canon", and how the only official KQ games are the ones released by Sierra. The title can be changed to something like "Every Cloak Has a Silver Lining: An unofficial King's Quest game". Vivendi can veto specific elements of the game if they like. The game can only be distributed for free on the website, not sold or physically distributed. Phoenix Entertainment can not make any other games (so that they can't use KQIX to publicize their other efforts).
I think that would be a fair deal. The terms are severe enough to discourage other fan-game makers (probably a concern for Vivendi), but not so hard that they can't be met. We get our game, Vivendi confirm their ownership of KQ, everyone is happy, no one boycotts anybody. Sounds good?
|
