When last heard from, those behind a long-in-development, fan-made King's Quest sequel were on the verge of an agreement with Activision allowing them to finally complete their project. This afternoon, that news came. The Silver Lining will finally be completed.
Phoenix Online, the collection of fan-developers who'd been working on The Silver Lining for upwards of a decade, will release the game on July 10, for free, thanks to a non-commercial license from Activision. In February, the publisher had shut down their development on the graphical adventure game IP, which transferred to Activision in the merger with Vivendi Universal. Phoenix Online had an earlier non-commercial license from Vivendi to continue work, but Activision apparently wanted no part of overseeing or approving pro bono work on a game it had no intention of reviving.
An outpouring of support for Phoenix Online and, perhaps significantly, a lengthy feature by Stephen Totilo explaining the odyssey of this game apparently changed Activision's mind. In early May, the publisher said it had renewed discussions with Phoenix, "given the overwhelming community support for the Silver Lining project."
This afternoon, the Silver Lining website returned with the announcement of a deal with Activision, and a release date of July 10. According to a statement on the site:
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.
They've released a trailer introducing us to The Silver Lining - their Vivendi agreement required them not to use King's Quest so that may be the case here. In this game: "players will assume the role of King Graham as he sets out on a quest to save his children, Rosella and Alexander, from a mysterious curse."
The Silver Lining [site]