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Adventure game portal Sarien back with Activision's approval
In a lengthy post on the personal blog of Martin Kool, proprietor of the recently cease-and-desisted Sierra adventure game portal Sarien.net, the lengthy history of the site's development was recounted. We assumed said history would end with the site's closure earlier this week -- but luckily, it looks like a new chapter is set to unfold, as Activision has given Sarien approval to continue running, albeit in a limited fashion. Kool explained, "Activision proposed to officially authorize Sarien.net to publish the first game of any series in its multiplayer HTML5 form." The portal will include a link from each of these free-to-play first chapters to the series' full collections on Steam. The publisher also demanded that the iPad versions of the titles be removed, on the off chance that they ever decide to drop their own adventure game Apps. Seems like a pretty reasonable response from Activision -- especially when compared to most publishers' policy of "Hey, that's ours, cut that out right away, young man."
Unauthorized Sierra adventure games portal Sarien.net ceases upon Activision order
Sarien.net, "the portal that once stood for reliving classic Sierra On-Line adventure games" (for free), has been shut down following a cease-and-desist order issued by IP owner Activision. The site's creator, Mr. Kool (real name!), has posted the letter from Activision's legal counsel on the Sarien homepage. "While we appreciate your dedication to the Sierra classic library and understand that you are a fan of these games, Activision has not authorized the development or distribution of these games via your Website," the order reads. "Accordingly, we must demand that you immediately cease any further distribution or exploitation of the Sierra Games on your Website." Kool launched Sarien way back in April 2009, but it seemingly took this month's implementation of iPhone and iPad browser support (for all of the site's AGI-powered games) for Activision to take notice. "Wait till you see my new World of Warcraft in javascript," Kool quipped in a tweet. "Oh wait, that's Activision too..." [Thanks, Ryan; image source: MobyGames]
