(re: What about new sequels?) I was talking to a former Sierra 2D animator this weekend who worked on games such as Larry 7 and Torin’s Passage. He made an interesting point that is relevant here. As Sierra started experimenting in different directions adventure games could go, as I pointed out, they had these games with “full” screen animation such as Larry 7 and Torin’s Passage. Unfortunately, as computer processor power increased to make 2D animation more exciting, that same processor power allowed realtime 3D to happen. This goes along with what I said before – Sierra didn’t have a chance to explore the new directions adventure games could go, because the adventure game suffered when realtime 3D was possible and inevitably, the first thing that made money was shooter games.
So I do agree about your diversification point (I think that point was about the market in general and what kind of games Sierra made, not that diversification ruined Sierra series or changed them), and the points about less quality because of management decisions which were ultimately affected by the market… well, the thing is there are just tons of factors at play here, I’m sure they all contributed.