Sierra R.I.P.?

[Cybergoth]

Hi there!

 

I think this wasn't too obvious in all the Activision/Blizzard merger mayhem, but it seems they're closing this traditional publisher house in the process, no?

 

Greetings,

Manuel

[Atariboy]

Its been closed for several years, so I'm not aware of any changes due to the merger with Activision or anything left of the company to close. Its basically just been a brand name of Vivendi Universal Games for several years now.

Edited August 11, 2008 by Atariboy

[DracIsBack]

Too bad. I had such fond memories of the first couple of Space Quests, Kings Quests and Leisure Suit Larry's. Didn't get into the later games much but much.

[moycon]

I had fond memories of Sierra back in the day.

I was just thinking a day or two ago I'd like to fire up the original KQ and have a go at it.

I remember being in awe of that game when it came out.

[Artlover]

Honestly, I never played many of their games, and finished even less. At the time, I felt their games required to much work/effort, and lost interest.

 

Played Police Quest 4, never finished.

 

Outpost, never finished.

 

Most of the LSL games, again, didn't finish most of them. Except #6: Shape up or Slip out. That was fun.

 

Speaking of LSL, they're making another one. Box Office Bust. OH, I hope it don't suck like Magna Cum Laude did.

[mos6507]

I thought they were gone for ages. I first heard about them going away and taking the Babylon 5 game down with it. If they were still around it was in name only.

[kroogur]

If anyone wants a shot at the entire collections of KQ or SQ:

 

http://www.amazon.com/VIVAPE-72465-Kings-Q...2178&sr=8-1

 

http://www.amazon.com/VIVAPE-72478-Space-Q...2178&sr=8-2

 

They also offer the Police Quest and Leisure Suit Larry as well.

 

I picked up the KQ collection and have been having a great time so far!

[PressureCooker2600]

I love Sierra. They put out fantastic games......I enjoyed playing all the KQs, SQs, and LSLs.

 

There is still a company putting out games under the Sierra name on XBLA.

[Atariboy]

My main love of them was the work their Papyrus Design Group/Papyrus Racing Games put out. Not sure theres any games I've played more than 100 hours besides stuff they developed, with several easily being in the thousands of hours played.

 

I don't think I have many other Sierra games, besides a couple XBLA titles published under that brand like 3d MiniGolf.

Edited August 11, 2008 by Atariboy

[+davidcalgary29]

I'll put in a shout-out for the under-appreciated Manhunter series, which really should have received a nex-gen update. I was sort of sorry to see the real Sierra die in the '90s, but not as sad as I was the day my beloved Infocom passed away...*sniff*

[+remowilliams]

Yeah Sierra has been dead for ages, just the same way Atari has. It's existed just as a publishing brand. I mourned them when they originally died, there's no tears to be shed here.

 

I thought I remembered seeing a quote in the last week or so that had Ken Williams sort of saying the same thing.

[+HammR25]

Sierra also had several good combat flight simulations and sports simulations other than racing that I played. That was a long time ago now though. Their last football game was 10 years ago and last flight sim 13 years ago.

[Atariboy]

For their adventure games and the employees resonsible for the companies greatness, it ended 10 years ago. But several development houses they owned before things went bad that they had successfully been publishing games for years such as Papyrus lasted up until 5 years ago when the last few remnants disappeared of the old Sierra (I know you knew that part HammR25 ).

 

Sierra developed or published flight sims? I remember Red Baron, were there any other classic flight sims they did? I've played most all of the well known ones over the years, but can't remember which ones Sierra was involved with.

 

Edit - I see they did several others I loved, like Aces of the Pacific and Silent Thunder.

 

Another thing they're well remembered for after the end of their traditional operations was publishing the Half-Life series for many years, and directly handling the online matchmaking services for online play that made it such a long lasting hit. So it wasn't all bad in recent years, though I'm sure that doesn't make up for the loss of their traditional adventure games for the fans of those.

Edited August 11, 2008 by Atariboy

[+remowilliams]

Edit - I see they did several others I loved, like Aces of the Pacific and Silent Thunder.

Yup, really awesome groundbreaking stuff for the time. Loved those Aces games. Sierra published a lot of good Dynamix stuff.

[FastRobPlus]

I was happy to see Sierra go. I applied for a job when they moved to Bellevue and was rejected via form letter just a few days after I accepted a job at Automap (now MapPoint). I’m not mad about that, but they mailed me a fresh rejection letter every few months for years after that. Even while I was working for MGS I was still getting those letters. Closing the Bellevue office was the thing that finally got them to stop!

 

Oddly enough, the building next to the old Bellevue Sierra building is now called Hotel Sierra.

[+atari2600land]

Didn't they do Crash Bandicoot and Spyro?

[Atariboy]

That's junk of Vivendi Game's that has just been published under the Sierra name, it has about as much relation to Sierra as Infograme's new Alone in the Dark does to the Atari from the late 70s and early 80s, in name only.