Microsoft now owns: Zork, Kings Quest, Leisure Suit Larry, and After Dark

And Pitfall! Plus River Raid. Also Heretic and MechWarrior. Wait. Wait. WHAT?!

So. Ok. Microsoft just bought Activision Blizzard. We’ve all seen the news.

Which means Microsoft now owns games like World of Warcraft and Call of Duty. The news has been reporting on that, non-stop, all day.

But…

Take a step back for a moment. Let’s think about the classic games that Microsoft now owns. The list is absolutely staggering. Here is a partial list of classics that Microsoft now owns.

Most of us are aware of the recent stuff.

• Tony Hawk

• Quake

• Starcraft

• Warcraft

• Crash Bandicoot

Oh, my gosh. The list goes on and on.

But, what about the classics? Like the classic-classics? Well. It’s Activision. So…

• Pitfall!

• River Raid

• MechWarrior

• Zork (via Infocom)

Yeah. Microsoft now owns Zork. ZORK! And Pitfall! WHAT!

It gets more intense. Did you know that Vivendi was part of Activision? You know who Vivendi owned? Sierra Online. That means that Microsoft now owns:

• Kings Quest

• Space Quest

• Police Quest

• Leisure Suit Larry

• Quest for Glory

• So, so many more

Let that sink in. Microsoft now owns Kings Quest and Space Quest. Heck. Leisure Suit Larry?! Microsoft?!?

Yep.

And you know who was also owned by Vivendi? Berkeley Systems. Which, for most of us, means one specific thing:

• After Dark (the screensaver package)

Flying Toasters! Microsoft owns those flying toasters!! Also Raven, which means:

• Heretic

I’m sorry. That’s just too much gaming history for any one company to own. Especially Microsoft.

It’s not that I don’t trust Microsoft. It’s just that, after having worked at Microsoft for around half a decade of my life… I don’t trust Microsoft.

Especially with the Sierra Online catalogue. Space Quest is sacred ground.

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