Al Lowe, creator of the Leisure Suit Larry games, recently put up on eBay auctions for the source code to the first two Leisure Suit Larry games. While on the surface, this just seems like a developer giving fans a chance to own a piece of gaming history. Activision were having none of that though.

I am not writing this from the point of view that Activision is an evil company, I am writing it from the angle that sometimes companies are too big for their own good.

According to Britton Mathews, Al Lowe was the recipient of a cease and desist letter over the two auctions. Now, the fun part, Activision allegedly admitted not owning the rights to Liesure Suit Larry but the source code, which Mr. Lowe was selling, could potentially contain code for games that Activision does own.

Specifically, Police Quest and Space Quest.

Mr. Lowe has bowed to Activision’s demands and taken the auctions down. Partly because he understands the futility in fighting such legal action – the attorney fees would quickly outstrip any potential amount of money he got from the auctions.

Any legal battle is going to be a costly affair and is not an option for many that receive a Cease and Desist letter. It is far cheaper to simply do as the C&D letter requests and be done with the situation.

What is sad about this situation though is that Activision admits they do not know if they own any of the code in the Leisure Suit Larry games that Mr. Lowe was selling. For Mr. Lowe to prove this fact would certainly take a long time and become very expensive.

Activision are simply doing what companies do. They are protecting their properties, somewhat overbearingly. As they say, it is better to err on the side of caution.

Grab your copy of Leisure Suit Larry on ebay today.

Carl Williams

It is time gaming journalism takes its rightful place as proper sources and not fanboys giving free advertising. If you wish to support writers like Carl please use the links below. https://www.paypal.me/WCW https://www.patreon.com/CarlWilliams