Sierra goes the way of Atari
This is a sad day. Vivendi Universal Games, who currently owns Sierra, announced that they were shutting down Sierra's Seattle headquarters in a "restructuring move", and that Sierra would live on in name only.
I was going to title this "Sierra On-line Goes Off-Line", but thought that was too cheesy even for me. Especially for such a serious topic: In an effort to reduce costs, Vivendi Universal has closed the last of Sierra. Much like what has become of "Atari", the "Sierra" name will still be used when publishing games, but that's all it is, a name.
Sierra is most recently known for publishing Valve's Half-Life series, but their portfolio extends far beyond that. In fact, they are probably best known for Roberta Williams's "King's Quest" (who in 1979 co-founded On-Line Systems, which later was renamed to Sierra On-Line, with her husband Ken in Oakhurst, California).
Sierra On-Line never was much for console development, and probably saw their 'heyday' in the 80's and early 1990's. I remember how surprised, and excited, I was when I saw Sierra On-Line listed as a member of N64's "Dream Team." Alas, I don't think they ever made even one game for the system (Red Barron was cancelled).
Personally, I used to be a HUGE Sierra fan, and in many ways still am. I have a box full of old Sierra game boxes I collected over the years, many I can't use since they are on 5.25" floppies (remember those?). Sierra was so big at one point in time that they even published their own magazine (InterAction) much like Nintendo's Nintendo Power. The only game company I think I've played, and owned, more of than Sierra is Nintendo.
Most of Sierra's classic games followed in the vein of "King's Quest", a point-and-click 'quest' adventure. My favorites of which being the original "Gabriel Knight" and "Quest for Glory 4". Of course they did more than just that though, like their RPG classic, "Betrayal at Krondor". They were even more than just developers and were the publishers of many games. If I were to make a list of my favorite games most people had never heard of, Epyx's 1994 Sierra published "Battle Bugs" might be at the very top of that list. Think "Pikmin" with preset armies of bugs that you had to overcome and control. It was an excellent strategy game. If I wanted to, I could go on and on listing great games to come out of Sierra.
However, times have changed in the video game industry. Already in recent years Sierra Interactive has become more and more of a publishing label than a development house. They probably spread themselves too thin by acquiring the likes of Dynamix and Berkeley Systems in the 90's, and were sold to CUC International (Cendant Software) in 1996 who specialized in mail order. What followed was bad management, cooked books, and the ousting of the Williams which basically destroyed the company. (Before Vivendi bought them, Sierra was owned for a short time by Havas Entertainment in 1999.) While the last of Sierra has been closed, the reality is Sierra as a game developer hasn't existed since 1999.
Like I said, Sierra has always been mainly a PC developer, and with consoles becoming more and more the choice of gaming, even for hardcore gamers, this closing comes at no surprise. But that doesn't make it any less disappointing. I just hope they don't make a mockery of the name like Activision has done with Atari. It's bad enough the Sierra development studio is no more.
For those of you solely living in the world dominated by the likes of EA and THQ, here is a list of games Sierra has given us over the years (most games published and developed by Sierra/Sierra On-Line/Sierra Entertainment unless otherwise noted).
| 1980 Mystery House The Wizard and the Princess / Adventures in Serenia Jawbreaker Skeetshoot 1981 1982 1983 1984 1985 1986 1987 1988 1989 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 |
1995 3-D Ultra Pinball Caesar II (Impressions) Casino De Luxe (Impressions) EarthSeige 2 Gabriel Knight 2 - The Beast Within Phantasmagoria Shivers Space Quest 6: Roger Wilco in The Spinal Frontier The Last Dynasty (Coktel Vision) Woodruff and the Schnibble of Azimuth (Coktel Vision) Torin's Passage Police Quest V - S.W.A.T. Urban Runner Battledrome (Dynamix) 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 |
(Sources: Sierra Gets Shutdown, Great Gaming Companies: Sierra On-Line, Sierra.com - Game List)
Comments
Dirbyh (not verified)
Thu, 2004-07-01 02:35
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Wow, I guess this explains all those crappy Sierra games.
torkworld (not verified)
Fri, 2004-07-02 20:00
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2 words: Willy Beamish
? (not verified)
Thu, 2007-06-21 19:27
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Add this story to the next police quest series. Nice flub up!!
TRUE STORY: a letter taken from private email with permission from author.
Hello,
My name is Joann Wood and I have a matter which
needs urgent attention. On 7-13-06 I filed a 911
police case report about a man who entered my home and
threatened me after he became agitated over leather
furniture I had listed in the paper. The 911 call was
actually made on 7-12-06, but I did not fill out a 911
report on 7-12-06 because one of the city police
officers, Officer Burkhart, knew the man who
threatened me and refused to let me fill out a proper
incident report. Instead of allowing me to fill out a
police report since I was the one who called 911 about
the intoxicated man, Officer Burkhart counseled his
friend, Jimmy and told him he would even help him fill
out a civil dispute form, signing the civil report as
a witness. I had to contact the chief of Police, Frank
Simons to have another neutral police officer who did
not know Jimmy and his wife to visit me the next day
to take down a police report for the 911 call I made
on 7-12-06. Chief of police Frank Simons was
understanding about my situation and assigned Sgt.
Wheeler who took the police report which is now case #
060702342 through the Valdosta City Police. My main
problem is that on 7-12-06 a civil dispute was filled
out and then signed by Officer Burkhart who stood as a
witness for his friend Jimmy, instead of taking a
proper 911 incident report from me. I have never
called 911 and not filled out a report before, so I
knew something was wrong here. I have been advised by
my family attorney that the police case filled out on
7-12-06 (case # 060702212) is a violation of the
CONFLICT OF INTEREST Law in the state of Georgia
because it was filled out as a personal agreement
between the officer Burkhart and Jimmy license plate
58275QA who are friends while off duty. The police
case 060702212 taken on 7-12-06 only stands out as a
violation of conflict of interest and should be
reviewed by Georgia Officials before it is removed or
altered by Officer Burkhart or anyone else acting on
his behalf through the City Police Department. I would
like officials to investigate this matter and police
case # 060702212 before notifying the police
department of my complaint about the conflict of
interest involved. I do not think anyone should be
given time to delay justice in this matter as far as
an investigation goes. I appreciate your work and
would like any advice or direction you could give me
as to where I should report this concern if I have
submitted it in error to you. I feel threatened by
Jimmy 58275QA after hearing him tell me I was lucky to
have called the police when I did, and by his
friendship with Officer Burkhart who arrived at my
residence for the 911 call I made. Thank you for
reviewing my concern.
Sincerely,
Joann Wood