(re: Sierra is gone) My non-compete with Sierra expired several years ago. There is no restriction whatsoever against my starting another game company.
That said….
I’m happily retired now. Roberta and I have a good life. We talk often about “dropping back in” but I doubt that we ever will. Roberta is working on starting a book, and I have a non-game software project going — but, that’s probably as far as we’ll go. We founded Sierra, and ran it for 18 wonderful years. I’m happy for those years, but it’s time for fresh blood in the industry. There are people who are on this site who can build great games, and hopefully they will.
I’ve been a bit of a bad sport about Sierra’s current problems. On dozens of occasions I tried to contact them to see if I could help. They refused to take my calls, or listen to me in any way. I feel sorry for the people who lost their jobs — but, also think that Sierra has an obligation to have good management — or, if it doesn’t, the people may be better off elsewhere.
-Ken Williams