Every Cloud: The Silver Lining Lives!
You may remember back in March we brought you the very sad news that the giant, evil clawed feet of Activision had cruelly stomped down on the fan-made King's Quest game, The Silver Lining. Well, it turns out that Activision's feet are fluffy little kitten paws, not capable of crushing a weeny bug. (Or perhaps somewhere in between - Realism Ed) A deal has been struck between the amateur developers, Phoenix Online Studios, and the giant laser-eyed robot publisher, and the first episode of the new game will be released on the 10th July. That would be in two weeks!
The game has been in development for over eight years, and was so very close to completion when Activision noticed they owned the Sierra-developed King's Quest series and decided that previous agreements were invalid. However, thanks to a fan campaign and perhaps a series of ghost-led dreams showing Activision bosses the errors of their ways, some manner of deal is struck and the games will be available for that ever popular price: free.
You can read lots more details at The Silver Lining's site, as well as see some of the impressive screenshots.
And this does seem to once more be to do with the excellent fans of the series. They write to their fans:
"They say lightning never strikes twice, but once again, you’ve proven them wrong.
We are extremely happy to announce that our project, The Silver Lining, will definitely see the light of day!
In a wonderful turn of events, Activision reached out to the Phoenix Online team a few months ago with a desire to revisit their decision regarding The Silver Lining. After negotiations, the C&D has been officially rescinded, and Phoenix Online has been granted a non-commercial license to release The Silver Lining!
Our team is ecstatic about this, and as hard as we’ve worked for 8 years, it’s the tireless belief and support of you, our fans, that has made this possible. We want to give special thanks to the Save The Silver Lining team, who put together and ran an amazing and organized campaign, and rallied our fantastic fans to make a difference. You made it possible once, and now we’ve done what seemed impossible for a second time! The support we received from all of you was amazing and honestly blew us away. We always knew we had some of the best fans out there, but even so, wow! We will always be grateful for your unending belief in us.
And that’s not the only good news we have for you: the first episode of The Silver Lining will be released in just two weeks on July 10th! The long wait is almost over, and we couldn’t have done it without you!"
And have a trailer: