INFO

To Our Fans

In October of 2000, something started. Only a small team of people knew about it then, of course. It started small; the team that would become The Silver Lining's development team was modest, but the important thing is that it started. In January of 2002, the team changed hands when César Bittar took over as Project Director, and began making a lot of organizational changes in the team. He made it his goal to adapt the team from just a fan project into a well-run and cohesive whole. Phoenix Online Studios had begun. By then, more people had heard about the team, and their goal of creating a game based on and continuing the King's Quest series.

And as more time passed, the development continued, and even more people heard about us. We were featured in gaming magazines and on major gaming websites, and our fan base grew. Nurtured by our close relationship with our fans, maintained by the active forums and our staff members who run them, we knew we had a devoted and growing fan base of our own.

Because we started out as fans ourselves, we have always known how important a faithful fan base is to the success of any game. Supporters as spirited and loyal as ours have been one of the huge factors in keeping this project going and this team motivated. If we ever thought we’d let down the people who’ve been cheering us on for years now, it would be a crushing blow. And now more than ever.

In the fall of 2005, the team received a letter from Vivendi Universal, who owned the rights to the King's Quest series, requesting we suspend further development of the game. We complied with their request. Within days, our fans rallied to our cause with such fervor as even we couldn’t have imagined! The "Save KQIX" campaign was begun: emails and letters bombarded Vivendi, petitions were signed and endless offers of help were provided to us. It was the kind of devotion that any team, group or company could only dream of, and there it was. Our fans were ready to fight for us without even being asked. Not only that, it worked. A few months following the letter, after all of this activity, and much negotiation with Vivendi, Phoenix Online Studios was granted a fan license by Vivendi Universal, and production began again in the earnest under the game’s new title, The Silver Lining.

Now we are more motivated than ever, because we know the debt we owe to our fans. Without them, without you, we may very well have never made it this far. It’s our job, which we gladly do, to finish this game and deliver the best product we can. There is no doubt in any of our minds that there is a bright future ahead for Phoenix Online Studios, and we know we have you, our fans, to thank for it.

Thank you.

Sincerely,

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