(re: re: Buying Sierra from Vivendi Universal) The problem is, one of Vivendi’s most promising assets lies in Sierra On-Line: the publishing rights to Half-Life 2. There’s no question that an astronomical profit will be made on that game. For that reason, I would think Vivendi would be extremely loathe to sell off Sierra’s assets as a whole.
– Evan
I have no way of knowing, but it isn’t clear to me that Half-Life publishing rights are as profitable to Sierra as one might think.
Half-Life was externally developed (by Valve). I’m 99% certain that Sierra at one time controlled the name Half-Life, but I heard that the rights were returned to Valve after I left Sierra.
My guess is that Half-Life is an expensive product for whoever distributes it. By this I mean that the bulk of any profit is flowing to Valve, not Sierra.
Like I said though — I’ve been out of the loop for a long time — but, I’d be willing to bet that the latest Sierra-Valve agreement is heavily slanted towards Valve.
-Ken W
