Telltale King's Quest timeline

[BagginsKQ]

For those keeping count, first announcement was exactly two years on February 17, 2013, and last confirmed information was given about 1 1/2 years ago on June 2011 (from 01/23/2013).

The last major production/development information was made in an interview on May 2011.

It has now been confirmed that the game was cancelled.

Timeline

• February 17, 2011: Telltale's Steve Allison (SVP of marketing) announces several franchises at a press conference including Walking Dead, and Fables. Telltale announces that they have obtained a Sierra license, King's Quest to be the first game, other series to follow. King's Quest is thought to be a reboot.
  http://www.adventuregamers.com/news/view/21058
  http://www.joystiq.com/2011/02/18/ki...y-of-telltale/
  
• February 18, 2011: Telltale announces King's Quest in a blog post on the Telltale website. It mentions that Walking Dead will be released first, followed by fable (they were projecting for a Winter 2011, and a Q1 2012 release). King's Quest's release is not clear, but implied to be an undertermined point in the horizon, apparently post Fable. Mentions 'reboot'.
  http://www.telltalegames.com/community/blogs/id-764
  
• February 19, 2011: Telltale adds King's Quest to the Telltale forum list for people to discuss the game. The first post is by Alan Johnson the Telltale Community Manager.http://www.telltalegames.com/forums/...ad.php?t=22891
• March 14, 2011: Interview with Adventure gamer. Confirmed not to be a true reboot.
  http://www.adventuregamers.com/articles/view/18536
  
• June 7, 2011: E3, very little confirmed. It's not to be reboot, and will probably star Royal Family of Daventry. Roberta Williams was 'consulted'. Hints that future Sierra games would be after King's Quest, possibly Space Quest or others. Telltale games to be pushed back to 2012 release dates (this moves Walking Dead to 2012).
  http://uk.ign.com/articles/2011/06/0...-quest-details
  http://www.destructoid.com/e3-robert...t-203396.phtml
  http://www.cvgames.com/previews/kings-quest
• September 11, 2011: Gaming Examiner interviews Alan Johson, who tells them that Telltale is working on King's Quest, but it won't be out for a long time.
  http://www.gamingexaminer.com/interv...e-games/10877/
  
• March 12, 2012: Fables is pushed back to Q3 2012 (pushing King's Quest further back).
  http://www.digitaltrends.com/gaming/...lanned-for-q3/
  
• March 14, 2012: CEO Dan Connors makes a nod to wards King's Quest Briefly in an interview. He picked up King's Quest because he felt it was a classic IP, and would be similar to resurrecting other classic adventures like they did with Monkey Island. He mentions that they aren't focusing on it yet (article discusses that Walking Dead and Fables are the next priority).
  http://www.digitaltrends.com/gaming/...telltales-ceo/
  
• April 24, 2012: Walking Dead episode I is finally released (after being delayed since winter 2011).
  
• May 16, 2012: Dan Connors confirms, that Dave Grossman, and his group was starting work on King's Quest. It is mentioned that they were trying to put together the staff, and get it into production. They mention that they had talked to alot of people about it. Other than that he said they didn't have much to say about it yet. Still looks like they were looking for a post-Fables release. Walking Dead is their main focus at that point.
  http://www.siliconera.com/2012/05/16...re-game-genre/
  
• June 2012:E3, mostly talk about Walking Dead, showing of Episode 2. No confirmed references to King's Quest, or much of anything else of importance. Not much on Fables either.
  
• July 6 2012: Walking Dead Season 2 Announced.
  http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news...ead-Season-Two
  
• November 20, 2012: Walking Dead Episode 5 released. No announcements on the release date of the next game series. Still believed to be Fables next.
  
• February 6, 2013: Telltale launches beta for new website and forums, that will ultimately replace the old website. There is currently no webpage for King's Quest, and no direct access to a King's Quest forum either. However, the forum still shows up through a hidden link (and is useable).
  https://beta.telltalegames.com/news/
  https://beta.telltalegames.com/commu...ies/kingsquest
  
• February 12, 2013: It is announced that Fables game will be more of a tie-in, and won't be called Fables. It is looking more likely that it will be the next game released. Walking Dead Season 2, will be a future release (how far in the future is unknown). It is also mentioned that Telltale has many other projects they are working on at at the same time (but no specifics as to what these projects are, or when they will be announced). IGN appears to assume that this will include King's Quest. Fables was originally to be released in Q1 2012, got pushed back to Q3 2012, but was not released.
  http://uk.ign.com/articles/2013/02/1...telltale-games
  
• February 17, 2013: Two year anniversary of when Telltale's King's Quest was first announced (nine months from the previous major announcement).
  
• March 1, 2013: Dan Connors states that they aren't ready to say anything about the King's Quest project yet, but will say something when they are ready to talk about it. Rock Paper Shotgun asked if there were anything beyond Fables and King's Quest down the pipeline, and Connors mentions that they have a couple of unannounced projects being sorted out.http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2013...-to-the-punch/ Fables and Walking Dead Season 2 are projected for 2013 releases.
  
• April 3, 2013: Steve Allison confirms that Telltale has since cancelled work on the franchise. The forum is still up, so far.
  http://www.joystiq.com/2013/04/03/te...s-quest-plans/

Note (miscellaneous):
We also know that this year in 2013 that Telltale is expanding in size, to make more games. No idea what they are expanding to make though.
http://www.joystiq.com/2012/11/20/te...n-spring-2013/

Paul Trowe/Replay (3rd party)

• April 10, 2012: "The remaining issue, as with King’s Quest, would be licensing the games from owners Activision. Trowe explained that Activision had been a touch unrealistic when he first approached them. Activision told us that they wanted $500,000 up front,” he explained. “And greater than 50% revenue share for those properties. I told them ‘good luck on getting that’, because I don’t think anybody’s going to pay that fee. I can tell you that they changed their tune about six months after that.” But since then Space Quest has been licensed elsewhere, and Replay are currently in negotiations over getting the rights for themselves. “I want to say it’s looking good,” said Trowe, “but right now I’d give us 50/50.”
  http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2012...t/#more-103251
  
  RPS: So also with King’s Quest, they’ve been uncharacteristically generous in allowing fan projects. Have you seen the project the Silver Lining?
  Paul: The Silver Lining wasn’t available for sale…
  RPS: That’s right, yes.
  Paul:And in addition it wasn’t really a King’s Quest. In my opinion they did an injustice to the King’s Quest franchise.
  RPS: That’s interesting, why do you think that?
  Paul: I just don’t think it held true to Roberta’s vision, just like I don’t think the Leisure Suit Larrys that have come out after Al wasn’t involved held true to Al’s vision. And that’s why I refuse to work on a Leisure Suit Larry game if Al wasn’t involved. I refuse to work on a King’s Quest game if Roberta’s not involved.
  RPS: Would Roberta be willing to be involved, she’s been out of the industry for a while hasn’t she?
  Paul: I can’t speak for Roberta, but I can tell you that we’re currently talking to her and Ken.
  http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2012...e/#more-103200
  
  
• April 12, 2012: "I love the Sierra classics!! Can you bring back King's Quest, Space Quest, or Police Quest? Our good friends over at Tell Tale have licensed King's Quest from Activision. If we do our job right then maybe, just MAYBE we'll be able to partner with them and ruinite the Space Quest team, King's Quest team (go Roberta!!!!) and Police Quest team for re-makes or new versions of those (Space Quest 7 anybody?)."
  http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/...QuesOrPoliQues
  
• June 5, 2012: Trowe related Kickstarter sabotage controversy (false claims/smears about several other competing projects, and sockpuppetry). He later apologies. However it is unclear how much the duplicity affected any previous claims made before it was discovered by MixnMojo and others.http://mixnmojo.com/news/Is-Paul-Tro...r-Kickstarters
  http://www.spacequest.net/index.php/...2266#entry2266
  
  
• April 1, 2013: “They had [the King's Quest rights], and we were going to license it from them to make the remakes. I wouldn’t do a King’s Quest without Roberta. [Telltale senior VP of publishing] Steve Allison told me that they have the rights but they don’t have the bandwidth.” Allison offered to look into sub-licensing King’s Quest out to Replay, but Trowe hit a dead end when he brought the conversation over to Activision. ”I talked to the guys at Activision and they were like, ‘No, we’re pulling it [from Telltale] because we’re going to do it ourselves.’
  http://www.digitaltrends.com/gaming/...th-paul-trowe/
  
  “Activision’s probably not going to give us the King’s Quest rights,” Trowe told us. “[Telltale] had it, and we were going to license it from them to make the remakes.” Telltale senior VP of publishing Steve Allison told Trowe that it was an issue of bandwidth; the studio behind 2012′s*The Walking Dead simply did not have the resources to handle*King’s Quest, what with a second season and the launch of*Fables both in the works.*
  
  “Then I talked to the guys at Activision and they were like, ‘No, we’re pulling it because we’re going to do it ourselves,’” Trowe revealed. He doesn’t know what the publisher’s plans are for*King’s Quest, but they don’t seem to include either Telltale or Replay. We’ve reached out to Activision for comment and will update this post accordingly when we hear back. Be sure to check out our full interview with Trowe, and to head back here tomorrow for our extensive GDC chat with Telltale CEO Dan Connors."
  http://www.digitaltrends.com/gaming/...elltale-games/

Josh Mandel comments (3rd party)

• March 8, 2011: "Telltale and I have spoken a bit lately, but there's nothing more I can (or should) say about it! But I would love to be King Graham for Telltale, and I trust them completely with the property."
  http://archive.adventuregamers.com/f...6&postcount=27
• Jan 19, 2013: Josh Mandel comments & Chat Log:
  "And Activision would be foolish to say, "Here, we're renting you the license to King's Quest. Do nothing with it in perpetuity...Telltale seems to be going in another direction anyway. Walking Dead was a hugely popular license and a big success for them, I think. King's Quest would be a big step backwards, a far less well-known and far less popular license...I think it's been safely reported that Activision and/or the Sierra licenses (except Larry) are up for sale...they *had* the KQ license and did nothing with it, opting instead to pick up a license of a national television show that certainly didn't need Telltale's help."
  http://www.telltalegames.com/forums/...&postcount=122
  http://pastebin.com/ktzRV5FU

[BagginsKQ]

http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2012...t/#more-103251

This one is tangentially interesting as in April 2012 the month before the Siliconer article, apparently according to Replay they had attempted to try to get the licenses from Activision for KQ and SQ. But probably got turned down, due to Telltale's involvement. It mentions it was Space Quest was already licensed 'elsewhere'. They were hoping to also be able to get a license themselves, but only had a 50/50 chance at it.

Apparently they also tried get the license earlier, but Activision offered only if they could pay $500,000 up front to them.

There is a reference in the article that things changed at Activision 'six months later', maybe that's a reference to Telltale first aquiering the Sierra license? It's a little unclear maybe Telltale was big enough company and was willing to pay the upfront cost?

Replay explains a bit more, about the situation with Tell Tale on their faq updated about April 12, 2012 (a few days after the other report);

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/...QuesOrPoliQues

Our good friends over at Tell Tale have licensed King's Quest from Activision. If we do our job right then maybe, just MAYBE we'll be able to partner with them and ruinite the Space Quest team, King's Quest team (go Roberta!!!!) and Police Quest team for re-makes or new versions of those (Space Quest 7 anybody?).

So apparently there may have been an option to 'share' development and the license with Telltale.|

[MtnPeak]

Wow, very nice! Beautiful work.

Attn Moderators: Maybe this thread could be "sticky" and kept at the top of this category.

[inm8#2]

Hmm, if Telltale misses/missed out on the KQ option, it would be possible that Replay Games picks it up?

[BagginsKQ]

Sticky, I like that. I'll just update it, "if" there are more 'updates', as we go, LOL.

Hmm, if Telltale misses/missed out on the KQ option, it would be possible that Replay Games picks it up?

I think they got turned down, twice...and there is that other issue... That won't be named in this thread. I'm not sure Activisions lawyers hvae much love for 'outsiders'.

Edit: E3 2012, based on what I could find about the only other thing mentioned besides Walking Dead, and maybe a bit of Fables, was a HD port of Monkey Island Tales for the IOS apparently. As mentioned I haven't found any confirmed references to KQ during the event or not.

Although there was an article or two from the month before or just days before E3, that mentioned that they "have the King's Quest license" and/or mentioned it had been 'delayed' to late 2012 or so. I'm not going to bother with those links as I put in plenty of example of 'confirmed' references instead.

[BagginsKQ]

Hey, thanks for the sticky!

[inm8#2]

Originally Posted by BagginsKQ

Hey, thanks for the sticky!

That's what...somebody...said.

[BagginsKQ]

Lol.

[exo]

It may be worth noting that over at Replay games, Paul Trowe has an odd ego about him in that he believe s they are essentially Sierra 2.0. When the two guys from andromeda got back together and ran a kickstarter for their new game, Paul trolled their site and sent several disparaging remarks to the guy working with them (Chris Pope). The gist of it was - who are you and why aren't Scott and Mark working with me on this? Paul got so much heat from his antics that Josh Mandell replaced him as the "voice" of replay games, and now runs all the project updates and answers questions in the forums.

Paul is a trip. In his interviews with Al Lowe (and anywhere else for that matter), he repeatedly states he was the youngest employee at Sierra and talks about himself as much or if not more than he asks questions of others.

When Al Lowe worked with another group on their kickstarter game, Sam Suede, Paul sent them legal threats for claiming that Al was involved on their project... as though he had some sort of contract that prevented Al from working with anyone else. When Al made it clear he *was working with them (maybe Paul shoulda asked before all the very public legal threats?), Paul backed off... but not before permanently damaging the Sam Suede kickstarter and causing quite a bit of confusion among adventure game fans as to who was in the wrong.

All those attempts to get licenses from Activision were just part of his intention to get all the Sierra licenses again, and remake all the games (not produce new ones). Not that it changes anything in this timeline, but it gives some background on what exactly was going on there.

Nice work on the timeline Baggins.

[inm8#2]

^ Good post, exo.

Yea, it was quite unsettling reading about the things Trowe did. It's funny, the last thing I want is a "New Sierra". It's better that each developer can hopefully get the rights to their games. All signs point to Jane Jensen having worked out something for Gabriel Knight (Mystery Game X), so maybe Activision will let up a bit in the future.

But yea, just seeing all of Trowe's comments and forming a picture of what he's like...keep that guy the hell away from these other IPs.

[BagginsKQ]

Exo, I actually had a bit of the stuff you mentioned in the timeline, well actually in an addendum post (I had come across it by researching for the timeline)! I was quite shocked by it, and never even knew about it before! I edited the material out though, after I got jumped on by MusicallyInspired for drudging up water under the bridge. The conservation concerning Trowe situation you can find a link to it where it was moved to the telltale general forum.

http://www.telltalegames.com/forums/...ad.php?t=43751

Blah... the last thing I want to see is a remake of every Sierra game... Quite a few towards the end are already hiresolution... and besides I like the old VGA anyways. Talk about trying to milk the franchises...

That and I actually like to see the series evolve from early simpler days, and become more sophisticated over time. That's not to say I wouldn't mind seeing a VGA KQ2 remake that remains more faithful to the original subject manner, in the way KQ1SCI updated KQ1AGI.

[Jennifer]

Just a heads up that I split out all the general discussion on the Leisure Suit Larry HD remake to the Leisure Suit Larry HD remake(s) thread in General Chat.

[Lambonius]

Sigh...

Seriously, I know I'm not the only who finds it a huge pain to have all non-specifically-King's Quest Sierra related discussion continually moved to the already over-crowded General Chat area, otherwise known as the place interesting threads go to die. Can we petition to stop this practice? Please?

[BagginsKQ]

http://uk.ign.com/articles/2013/02/1...telltale-games

Only two parts that might be 'connected', or not.

Ign's makes a nod to KQ at the beginning, and they mention later on that Telltale said it is working on a handful of projects including the Fables "tie-in" (it apparently won't be called Fables). Nothing specific about what these other projects happen to be.

"Beyond The Walking Dead, Telltale also has plenty of projects in active development, including Fables, which was announced nearly two years ago."

Whatever, the project are, it seems they are probably still much farther down the pipeline.

In anycase, nothing concrete.

They also mention that their company is still growing, and they hope to make many more products.

[Jennifer]

Originally Posted by Lambonius

Sigh...

Seriously, I know I'm not the only who finds it a huge pain to have all non-specifically-King's Quest Sierra related discussion continually moved to the already over-crowded General Chat area, otherwise known as the place interesting threads go to die. Can we petition to stop this practice? Please?

This sub-forum is for King's Quest discussion rather than general Sierra discussion, so we try to keep the forum mostly on topic (topics that incorporate King's Quest discussion with other games tend to stay here though as you can see).

The General Discussion sub-forum is not that bad (the Larry thread is several years old now and still active). If you like a topic in General Discussion, feel free to post in it to resurrect it. There's no steadfast rule on topic resurrection, and some mods may differ on their views regarding this, but as long as you contribute meaningfully to the conversation, I personally have no problem with it (and have done so myself on topics I enjoy on many occasions).

Originally Posted by BagginsKQ

Ign's makes a nod to KQ at the beginning, and they mention later on that Telltale said it is working on a handful of projects including the Fables "tie-in" (it apparently won't be called Fables). Nothing specific about what these other projects happen to be.

That's not surprising for legal reasons, considering the closeness of the title Fables to the RPG Fable.

It will be interesting to see if they use the Fables name at all in the title. I suspect we'll have to wait for the end of the Fables season until we find out which franchise Telltale intends on tackling next.

[BagginsKQ]

So the Beta King's Quest forum is a hidden community with no direct links to it yet.

https://beta.telltalegames.com/commu...kingsquest-top

BTW, King's Graham's father's rules prove to be helpful yet again (you must know how to think outside of the box, and look for answers to obtuse puzzles);

"Boy if I have learned anything in my life, I have learned this: When in doubt, or in trouble, pick up anything that is not nailed down, and if it is, look for loose nails or boards. Check carefully into, under, above, below, and behind things. Read everything; you might learn something. Wear clean undergarments, brush after meals, and always remember: nothing is as it appears."-Sir Hereward.

[MusicallyInspired]

Still don't believe it yet.

[jonathanfrisby]

News-maybe tomorrow?
Comment reply from author of RPS Dan Connors interview:

jfrisby says:
"Call Dan back up and get an update on whether they’re still doing King’s Quest!"

Nathan Grayson says:
"Part two of the interview (going up tomorrow) might be relevant to your interests "

[inm8#2]

Oooh that could be the news for which we've been waiting.

[BagginsKQ]

Well hopefully either they tell us if they are still working in the idea, or telling us they let it go. Either way hopefully some concrete information.