KQ9 shut down

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#1 Post by **Erpy** » Thu Oct 06, 2005 7:32 pm

They got a C&D a little while back. It's really a shame so much work was done already. I hope they'll be able to turn the stuff into an original game or at least start an original project with the team they've assembled over time.

Gronagor · #2 Post by **Gronagor** » Thu Oct 06, 2005 7:54 pm

Ouch. Predicted, but ouch!

El_Listo · #3 Post by **El_Listo** » Thu Oct 06, 2005 8:11 pm

Oh no. God, the game was looking so good! That really ruined my day.

I know VUgames own the rights to KQ, but come on, that game wasn't harming at all. I hope they don't do the same with other fangames.

Shame on you Vivendi, you have lost a costumer today.

Angelus3K · #4 Post by **Angelus3K** » Thu Oct 06, 2005 9:03 pm

Oh man.... I hope no other fan groups get shutdown... there's some great projects out there!

Def Zeppelin · #5 Post by **Def Zeppelin** » Thu Oct 06, 2005 9:27 pm

.....Are you kidding me? F***ing greedy rich software companies, GD idiots.

It was a free game, what do they care.

They should just rename all the characters and call it CastleMan Quest or something, use a loop-hole.

Pidgeot · #6 Post by **Pidgeot** » Thu Oct 06, 2005 9:31 pm

Blame America, really. Their laws are the reason Vivendi are forced to either explicitly approve of the project or make them shut it down. If they don't, they lose the copyright because they don't show any interest in it.

Def Zeppelin · #7 Post by **Def Zeppelin** » Thu Oct 06, 2005 9:32 pm

Why can they not just approve it without losing copyrights? This is mentally retarded.

I hope they send this game out underground. I hope they don't delete the game.

I bet Vivendi used the makers of K9 to show them that there still is a fanbase for the KQ series. Greedy idiots.

If Vivendi didn't like this project to begin with, they should have stopped them years ago, instead of letting them carry on like this, then be disapointed and have years of hard work down the drain.

#8 Post by **Erpy** » Thu Oct 06, 2005 9:43 pm

Renaming all the characters wouldn't have helped. Their screenshots showed King Graham as we know him, the land of the green isles as we've seen it in KQ6 and tons of its inhabitants too. The references would still be there, even with changed names.

I doubt they'll delete the game just like that. They'd at least be able to salvage part of their material for an original project. Don't count on an underground release though. A cease and desist usually involves the copyright holder asking the violating party to promise to stop development. If the game would be finished and released underground, it'd leak out eventually and VU would know who to prosecute in court...the person or people who responded to their initial request.

If Vivendi didn't like this project to begin with, they should have stopped them years ago, instead of letting them carry on like this, then be disapointed and have years of hard work down the drain.

It probably went like this: lawyers are expensive. You could let a team of laywers scout the internet day in, day out in search of fangames that are announced, or you could have one lawyer review the 1% of all announced fangames that actually make it to completion. The latter option is a lot cheaper.

Def Zeppelin · #9 Post by **Def Zeppelin** » Thu Oct 06, 2005 9:50 pm

Greedy vultures, this whole thing reeks of careless hound-dogs doing whatever they can to make a buck.

El_Listo · #10 Post by **El_Listo** » Thu Oct 06, 2005 9:58 pm

In my opinion Vivendi are not very smart, there will be important drops on the sales of those compilations they are releasing the 11th of october. And well, KQ9 might have increased those sales.

This is sad, sad, sad... I hope the adventure community reacts.

Quest For Glory Fan · #11 Post by **Quest For Glory Fan** » Thu Oct 06, 2005 10:01 pm

I geuss with the new collection coming out they don't want fan games reaping their profits. It's a damn shame and a blow to the community but I didn't think I would play it anyways... just not the Kings Quest type. Could you site your information Erpy?

El_Listo · #12 Post by **El_Listo** » Thu Oct 06, 2005 10:09 pm

Maybe they want to avoid comparations, but I really think KQ9 would be a great way of promoting those compilations. People can discover the series downloading KQ9, and when they finish the game they might buy the compilations for more.

Fribbi · #13 Post by **Fribbi** » Thu Oct 06, 2005 10:09 pm

Oh noooo! I was looking forward to this game too! :cry :cry :cry

Does this means AGDI is in danger too. Are Vivendi going to shut you down too before you release the game or are they going to wait until they have enough evidence against you to sue you?

Now because of this I really need to change every sprites from my game so it I will not be shutted down too. This is not a good day for Sierra games fan lover. I have already translated every characters name into icelandic now but I need to change every sierra characters from my game now because of this sad news. So yes that's mean The wrong game 2 will not have Simon King Graham and other Sierra characters because of this. My god. If I had installed Larry 3 VGA they would had done that too.

I am not going to waste my time like you are doing with Quest for glory 2 now and wait until it will be shut down in future.

AGDI please listen to me now. First I am really sorry how I acted in this week but I was only trying to convince you to say something on the newspage. Ok I know there is nothing really going on. But I think you will have to think twice once more before you install your third game on the internet now. Since Vivendi has shutted down King Quest 9 it could be you who is next. So what you should now do is change the name of your third install to something else like "Heroes for hire again" and this will be your orginal game then. Yes change everything in that game especially the names title name backgrounds just everything. You are in great danger if you don't do that. Yes I know this is hard to understand bu you really have to chancel your Quest for glory 2 because you don't want to ruin your life especially when you are trying to make your own orginal game.

I saying this as your loyal friend. I know your fans will understand this. They just have to accept this situation you are in now.

Can I go now?

I will still make The wrong game 2 but with different characters and because of this I have to delay my game progress once more.

I hate this when this happens. Always when I am trying to smile I read a bad news like this to make me be unhappy.

Well there goes another game wich never came out to life like my game The black sky.

RIP
King Quest 9

2001- 2005

:cry :cry :cry :cry

I am still here so what about it. I only come here to see if there is any interesting stuff here to read. I can't help it. This forums is like drug, you know.

Quest For Glory Fan · #14 Post by **Quest For Glory Fan** » Thu Oct 06, 2005 10:20 pm

well Fribbi left for almost 4 days. I'm impressed. I can assure you though that Quest For Gllory 2 is in no danger as they have the official ok from Sierra and the Coles. I also doubt The Wrong Game 2 is in danger as it doesn't really have a fan base or even a website. As far as fan games go this is just another brick in the wall. I've heard of other C&D notices like the one Square sent to the guys making Chrono Trigger in 3D. That game lokoed even more promising then QFG2. However that one was more understandable as a compilation with the original Chrono Trigger was released not 2 years earlier. A sad day it is but a passing one.

Fribbi · #15 Post by **Fribbi** » Thu Oct 06, 2005 10:36 pm

well Fribbi left for almost 4 days. I'm impressed. I can assure you though that Quest For Gllory 2 is in no danger as they have the official ok from Sierra and the Coles

But does Vivendi Studio agree with that?

Def Zeppelin · #16 Post by **Def Zeppelin** » Thu Oct 06, 2005 10:42 pm

Vivendi is such an awesome company dooooods, they are making a game called 50 cent: bullet proof, that game is gonna be off da hook yo. There is no level of gaming Vivendi cannot match dawgs.

El_Listo · #17 Post by **El_Listo** » Thu Oct 06, 2005 10:47 pm

Yeah Def, who needs a proper sequel to KQ, LSL, or GK? We have tons of games about blowing up stuff and similar crap!

(Warning: I'M BEING IRONIC TOO)

Fender178 · #18 Post by **Fender178** » Thu Oct 06, 2005 11:27 pm

How will this affect The sq7 project?

Vildern · #19 Post by **Vildern** » Thu Oct 06, 2005 11:28 pm

Ouch, that blows. I never have thought that Vivendi would do it. After the release of KQ1vga and KQ2+, it seemed nobody there cared. I guess they did. Darn.

Quest For Glory Fan · #20 Post by **Quest For Glory Fan** » Fri Oct 07, 2005 1:47 am

AGDI is the only fan team out there that has the OK in contract form... I don't see how that's hard to understand. I don't think Vivendi could have done anything then. How this will affect other games out there I don't rightly know. However I doubt Kings Quest 3VGA is in any danger because the only games getting C&D orders are new games not VGA remakes or otherwise.

Those games are promotional. Unofficial sequels take away from buisness. No one buys EGA games anymore simply because Sierra themselves doesn't really sell them seperate and the only way to get them is by buying the whole series anyways. Sierra doesn't make money from some guy selling his old games on EBay so basically what I'm saying as far as what I've seen is Remake=Good new game=bad the only non remake I think to be safe is Hero6. They've gone on longer and released demos before. Kings quest 9 just released its first demo when they got their letter. Keep in mind this is all speculation.

#21 Post by **navynuke04** » Fri Oct 07, 2005 1:54 am

We have an arrangement with Vivendi. We are in no immediate danger of being shut down.

Swift · #22 Post by **Swift** » Fri Oct 07, 2005 2:19 am

I'm not surprised that it happened. Only disappointed.

I hope they won't target IA next.

Quest For Glory Fan · #23 Post by **Quest For Glory Fan** » Fri Oct 07, 2005 2:24 am

personally I doubt it but all we can really do is hope.

maestro · #24 Post by **maestro** » Fri Oct 07, 2005 4:24 am

It appears that their entire website has now been shut down. Either that, or it crashed due to being overloaded with traffic. Here is the suggestion that I posted shortly before their site went down:

maestro wrote:What a shame that they did such a thing so close to the release date! Did Vivendi give any specific objections to the project? The reason I ask is that I thought of a way of salvaging some or most of the project.

The project consists of material taken from Sierra as well as completely original material. Separate the two. First, take all of the completely original material. You own that outright; Vivendi cannot forbid you to make whatever use of it that you wish. Then create a new backstory to ground the original material. It could have a vague similarity to Kings Quest, but not enough to violate any copyrights or trademarks. For example, the story seems to revolve around a prince who was separated from his parents in infancy and who returns to claim his royal titles. There are many stories based on that beginning, the story of Moses being one of the most well-know. So Vivendi absolutely does not own the rights to the idea of a prince separated from his parents who comes back to claim his due. Use your original (i.e non-Sierra) scenes and characters, and create new scenes and characters to fill out the story. Change enough details to make it not a sequel to Kings Quest. Since you own it, you can even sell it and make money off of it.

Now, take the material that was based on Sierra material. You can create something like a 3-D Daventry world. Make it clear that it's not a game or a sequel, and make it very low-key. You can make it a walk-around where you can interact a little, but not enough to make it a real game, or a 3-D chatroom, where users can chat with each other in a 3-D Daventry world. Someone else has already done a chatroom with Sierra backgrounds, and Vivendi has not objected, so perhaps you could make a 3-D version of the Sierra chatroom. We have all been waiting to see the world of Daventry in 3-D, and this would give us this chance, even though it wouldn't be in a real game.

I think that if you do this, then you would be able to salvage a lot of the work that you've done over the past few years. Best of luck to you.

EDIT: The site is now back up. For a minute there, I thought that the site would come back up as a Vivendi site with information on an official sequel.

Snarky · #25 Post by **Snarky** » Fri Oct 07, 2005 4:50 am

Given that AGDI has an arrangement with Vivendi, is there a way you guys could intervene, try to get KQIX included under the same agreement?