14 DAY TRIAL // We reported earlier today that the development of Gabriel Knight: Sins of the Fathers 20th Anniversary Edition for Linux had been blocked by Activision, but now the developers have reached out to us in order to explain that this is just a misunderstanding.
Our initial report was inspired by a post on the official forum made by Weldon L. Hathaway, technical director for Phoenix Online Studios, who said that the Linux support would be missing due to Activision's refusal to allow development.
The developers from Pinkerton Road, the people responsible for the development of the new of Gabriel Knight: Sins of the Fathers 20th Anniversary, have reached out to us and explained that in fact this was just a big misunderstanding.
Jane Jensen, the game designer who also made the first game 20 years ago, has posted on the forums explaining the situation. It seems that everybody got worked up for nothing. Here is the entire message.
“1. First, we never said MGX would be released on Linux only that Moebius would be. If you look down at the bottom of the kickstarter page it just says MGX is new and still TBD. So there were no promises broken or blocked by either Pinkerton Road or Activision. Keep in mind that from the start we realized that MGX was a game we were working with a publisher on, and we would have less control over. I don't see that as a bad thing. It's FANTASTIC that we are doing the GK1 remake. And that means working with the GK license holder. Also, to reiterate, MGX/GK1 is *not* being funded by kickstarter. That money all went into Moebius (and then some).
2. Secondly, we are thrilled to have gotten the license to release GK1 on PC, Mac, Apple mobile and Android. There is no anti-Linux conspiracy. We are also not releasing on console either, for example. It was simply a matter of ‘these platforms make the most sense in the market right now, let's release there and see how it goes.’ We may be granted permission to do more platforms later, but that depends on how well the game turns out and how it sells.
I know those of you who are passionate about Linux are disappointed, but there is nothing to be upset at Activision about (or, I hope, me!).”
There it is. If the game sells, maybe we will get the chance to play a Linux version, but until then we'll be playing Moebius.