King's Quest rights go from Telltale to Activision

Activision has regained the rights to the long-dormant King's Quest series from The Walking Dead creator Telltale Games.

Telltale announced that it had purchased the rights to King's Quest in 2011, but now Telltale's vice president of publishing Steve Allinson confirmed the rights to the game had returned to Activision. “While we deeply love King’s Quest here at Telltale," said Allinson in a statement to Digital Trends, "we can confirm that we are no longer working on the franchise."

"There was a time last year that we investigated partnering with third party developers to produce the game as a partnership but decided against outsourcing. We are not privy to what plans Activision has for the franchise, if any.”

King's Quest was a notable fantasy-themed adventure game series which ran between 1984 and 1998. The series was developed by Sierra Entertainment, with rights to the series falling to Activision when it merged with Vivendi in 2008.

Also speaking to Digital Trends, Leisure Suite Larry remake developer Replay was also planning on making a new King's Quest game. Replay owner Dan Trowe said that Activision has its own plans for a King's Quest game, however.

“Activision’s probably not going to give us the King’s Quest rights,” Trowe said. “[Telltale] had it, and we were going to license it from them to make the remakes.”

“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,’” continued Trowe, but he has no other details as to Activision's plans.

Telltale is currently working on a second season of The Walking Dead alongside an adaptation of Bill Willingham's Fables graphic novels.