Microsoft consumes Activision; and a plea

Activision is also actively selling the Zork collection on Steam. I&#x27;d expect that to show up on Gamepass. It includes:<p>Zork I, Zork II, Zork III, Beyond Zork, Zork Zero, and Planetfall<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;store.steampowered.com&#x2F;app&#x2F;570580&#x2F;Zork_Anthology&#x2F;" rel="nofollow noreferrer">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;store.steampowered.com&#x2F;app&#x2F;570580&#x2F;Zork_Anthology&#x2F;</a>

We all know Microsoft bought Activision _for_ the Infocom IP. It’s clearly the most valuable asset.

Have been gaming since the mid 80&#x27;s and text adventures were a main feature. Years later and I owned Lost Treasures 1 and 2 then the Masterpieces CD. I topped that with IUB.zip - pretty much everything Infocom.<p>Jason Scott then produced Get Lamp - I have a coin - which brought so much of that era together.<p>I view text adventures, be they Infocom, Level 9 or others, as an inspiration to others. A re-release could only be a good thing.<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Get_Lamp" rel="nofollow noreferrer">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Get_Lamp</a>

The comments are quite interesting. Reaching out to people at microsoft in the actual comments. This is the real value of activitypub, and completely transparent to visitors to the blog.

Zork for XBOX in 4K coming to Game Pass.

I think copyright law should be different for originators vs. owning individuals vs. legal entities. Once the legal rights of a work are separated from the originator, the work should pass to the public domain faster.

Microsoft has actually been relatively good about making their abandonware source-available, especially if it&#x27;s historically important like Infocom stuff is.

&gt; If you happen to work at Microsoft Activision Blizzard Github King, ...<p>nice.

They bought Activision to make me install Edge somehow, didn&#x27;t they...

Xbox probably has a great collection of titles that could run on Steam Deck or other handhelds.<p>Game Pass for Handhelds, so you can get access to their archive of handheld optimized games.

Ken and Roberta Williams have hinted that they would be willing to revisit old Sierra Online games, provided that Microsoft would agree to lend them back those IPs.

Yeah right.<p>Microsoft isn&#x27;t about to let go of IP rights around the most well known text adventures.<p>But at the same time, I&#x27;d be surprised if they don&#x27;t do anything with them either.<p>The synergy between their investment into OpenAI and their acquisition of Activision might suggest that they&#x27;ll be doing quite a fair bit with those franchises indeed.

I think it might be hard from the legal standpoint to open source everything in these games. Game and source code - maybe. Other assets might involve dependencies on third parties, who need to give permission.

I think Zork sank into the swamp long ago.<p>&quot;Want some rye, &#x27;course ya do...&quot;<p>I mean, come on, let&#x27;s not clutch our pearls after that abomination.

Hey, if anyone&#x27;s gonna do it, my bet is on the company that revived Battletoads ¯\_(ツ)_&#x2F;¯

Want some rye, course ya do.

Games made before I was born whose copyright won&#x27;t expire until long after I&#x27;m dead.<p>They ought to be public domain by now.<p>In fact, games should have a shorter copyright term since they&#x27;re harder to preserve and less valuable over time.<p>I still have a box legally-purchased of Zork games (CDROM editions) and manuals and a copy of Planetfall here, but should I feel any shame about pirating them? I don&#x27;t think I should.<p>Counterargument to myself and trivia: All the authors of Zork are still living. (I assume they receive no royalties, though, based on how the game industry generally works).