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Can anyone speculate for me how much one (as a corporation) would have to raise in order to purchase the Sierra assets from Vivendi Universal? I’m just talking Sierra. $200 million? $500 million? $1 billion? $5 billion.
Let’s speculate. Sierra games saved my life; I’m here today because of Ken and Roberta and everyone else who worked their asses off working 60-80 hours per week. We need to have Sierra owned by the gamers, or at least a gamer, who cares.
I voted for the merger with CU/Cendant. It was the worst mistake of my life. I sold out my hopes and dreams. When I was a child, I always wanted to work from Sierra. I went to college so I could work for Sierra. I graduate from college in May 2004, and now there is no Sierra. Not the one that Ken made, the one that changed my life. The one that saved my life.
Please, let’s buy back Sierra.
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(re: re: Buying Sierra from Vivendi Universal) –Last i heard about buying Vivendi’s gaming companies is that Vivendi would rather sell their gaming division as a whole. So, by saying that, I mean they wouldn’t be so enthusiastic about selling off parts. But who knows what could happen in the future.–
Huh? I don’t understand that comment. Well, perhaps I should say that I don’t understand what you mean by “gaming division as a whole.” Isn’t Sierra Entertainment, as it exists now, a gaming division, complete with all the properties that Sierra On-Line had? That is to say, is it a division seaperate from, for example, Blizzard (from what I last saw, a Vivendi division). Are you suggesting that there are other parts of what was once Sierra On-Line that survived the chaos leading to the present day situation and are in existance as seaperate divisions in Vivendi? I’d thought they were all condensed to Sierra Entertainment. Either that, or sold off.
Morgan -
(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 -
(re: re: re: Buying Sierra from Vivendi Universal) Huh? I don’t understand that comment. Well, perhaps I should say that I don’t understand what you mean by “gaming division as a whole.” Isn’t Sierra Entertainment, as it exists now, a gaming division, complete with all the properties that Sierra On-Line had? That is to say, is it a division seaperate from, for example, Blizzard (from what I last saw, a Vivendi division). Are you suggesting that there are other parts of what was once Sierra On-Line that survived the chaos leading to the present day situation and are in existance as seaperate divisions in Vivendi? I’d thought they were all condensed to Sierra Entertainment. Either that, or sold off.
Morgan
I’m not sure how they are currently configured, but – my assumption is that many functions have been centralized; such as marketing, finance, manufacturing, sales, etc. Sierra used to have all of these groups, but doesn’t anymore.
When Sierra was sold, 99% of product development was internal. We had around 700 people just in development. My understanding is that most of development is external today – and, that Sierra’s internal development is a very small group.
In other words, it’s not clear what exists of Sierra to buy…
-Ken W -
(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 -
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(re: re: re: re: Buying Sierra from Vivendi Universal)
Ken,
Wouldn’t you agree it would be beneficial to have the character, assets, and all other rights to the quest Series returned to a company that would allow the original others to run with it, or make new games, based on those characters?
There are, perhaps, in addition to the 1,000+ original Sierra employees, at least another 1000 hard-core gamers, who would be willing to work for a living wage, just to have a Sierra business card, me included.
Dave
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(re: re: re: re: re: Buying Sierra from Vivendi Universal)
> There are, perhaps, in addition to the 1,000+ original Sierra employees, at least another 1000 hard-core gamers, who would be willing to work for a living wage, just to have a Sierra business card, me included. < This is actually something a lot of people don’t know about me… In 1997 I was diagnosed with Hodgkin’s Disease, my prognosis was pretty good, but I felt like crap all day. I called my dear friend Cindy at Sierra, and she got approval to have me go inside. I’m still under a Non-Disclosure Agreement, which means I can’t talk about the projects that weren’t released, but man, being at Sierra, inside Sierra, saved my life. I met up with AL Lowe and Jane Jensen, some terrific graphic artists, sound artists, programmers. It was the best day of my life. When they closed Yosemite I cried for days. I couldn’t understand. I now had a life with no purpose, I couldn’t work for Sierra, not the new Sierra… it wasn’t the same. They didn’t care like they did in the old days. I always wanted to be the Hero, I wanted to save the town… all I wanted was a Sierra business card, and for Ken to come by one day, and tell me, Dave, you did a good job. That was my life dream. I may never have that business card, but I hope that some day, some day, Ken comes to me, shakes me hand, and says “Dave, you did a good job.” I know it’s a dream, but hey, we all need a dream to drive us when we wake up in the morning. Dave
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(Whoa whoa WHOA!!!) Recently I’ve been seeing alot of people coming up with ideas, plots, schemes, etc…, for trying to ‘retake Sierra’. Why?
Correct me if I’m wrong, but the main benefit from getting Sierra back would be the quest games, as well as Half-Life, Homeworld, and the Tolkien lisence. However, consider this:
All of the heavily estabished ‘old sierra’ games are on around their eighth game (except for Quest for Glory, but that is one of the few series which was actually completed). At this point, it would be extremely hard to restart any of those series (plot holes would spring up and multiply, because of either new teams, or just the long hiatus between games). Getting new people to play the a new game would be difficult too, because the sheer amount of intimidation caused by the number 8.
Furthermore, with those three huge properties above, it would be pretty impossible to get Vivendi to let go of it.
Which is why I suggest this: all of you people (myself included) who grew up with the goal of working at Sierra… let go of it.
Before I get a whole bunch of people trying frantically to find Blair Smith’s (me) address, so you can tie me up and hang me, let me clarify. The goal shouldn’t be the uphill battle of trying to reclaim sierra, but to make games with the spirit of sierra in mind. Getting a successful company together, which would produce high quality games, with a similar working environment, and similar direction. If such a company could actually wedge it’s way into a market dominated by EA, Activision, and other such behemoths… it would be a far greater victory than reclaiming Sierra would.Okay, now you can tie me up and hang me! 😀
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(re: Whoa whoa WHOA!!!)
Who would want Valve & Half-life. 🙂 They haven’t done anything in years. They would probley more of a leech then anyting. But, if VU still wanted to sell it’s game sections (Sierra, Blizzard, etc) then maybe someone could pull it off, buti’m pretty sure VU woul charge more then what the companies are worth…
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(re: Whoa whoa WHOA!!!)
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The goal shouldn’t be the uphill battle of trying to reclaim sierra, but to make games with the spirit of sierra in mind. Getting a successful company together, which would produce high quality games, with a similar working environment, and similar direction. If such a company could actually wedge it’s way into a market dominated by EA, Activision, and other such behemoths… it would be a far greater victory than reclaiming Sierra would.
<< I think it’s personally an addiction to the logo. As kids a lot of us just wanted a business card with that on the side. Maybe I should print one up that says “Designer Wannabe.” Most print shops wouldn’t recognize the logo and probably wouldn’t question it. hehe
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(re: Whoa whoa WHOA!!!) Speaking of Vivendi Universal….
Press Release:
VU Games posts major first half loss
Rob Fahey 11:46 14/09/2004The financial performance of Vivendi Universal Games continued to decline through the first half of 2004, according to the latest figures released by its giant parent company, with losses of 156 million Euro recorded for the period.
That loss is a major decline in performance over the 52 million Euro loss recorded in the same period of 2003, although some 90 million Euro of it can be accounted for by restructuring costs incurred by the division’s turnaround plan.
Those costs came from a variety of measures, including the cancellation and hence write-offs of certain projects in development and the reduction of the division’s headcount in North America by around 40 per cent.
This new turnaround plan, which is largely focused on reducing VU Games’ operating costs, was put in place when a new management team was appointed in January, and sweeping changes have been made to the company since then.
However, Vivendi Universal has given no guidance about when its games division might return to profitability. The parent company itself continues to struggle to climb out of debt – reducing its net debt from 11.6 billion Euro at the end of 2003 to 6.4 billion Euro at the end of June, while group operating income was also seen to rise 30 per cent on a comparable basis during the first half.
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(re: Whoa whoa WHOA!!!) Do you know what that is? Its bad Karma – they have screwed over so many people, employees, gamers, development houses etc, and now its all falling to bits. I for one am glad that this is happening – a little bit of sweet retribution for destroying things that used to be so great and so loved. Lets hope next year they can push their annual debt over the 200 million Euro mark!
Hopefully they sell off the rights to the Sierra IP to someone who is going to make use of them.
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(re: Whoa whoa WHOA!!!) How much do you reckon would one have to pay to acquire the Sierra name and full slate of intellectual properties? I mean, it’s all been driven into the ground so much these last five years, by now you could probably acquire the above for pocket money (relatively speaking, of course). And with the losses being what they are, I’m not sure VU would hold out very long if a prospective buyer suddenly came knocking.
Of course, fans wouldn’t accept you if you didn’t also get all the old names involved – the Williamses, the Coles, Al Lowe, Jim Walls, the Two Guys from Andromeda, etc. Otherwise you might as well be making big-budget fangames with an eye on ripping off other peoples’ hard work.
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(re: Whoa whoa WHOA!!!) Somewhere there has to be some rich guy who loved Sierra games as a kid, and then got really weathy off the dot-com explosion in 99. Someone who has just enough nostalgia combined with money to buy back the Sierra name and the rights to the original games. It’s not a solution, but it’s a starting point for whatever is to come of the new “game development team” starting here.
It’s ridiculous to say that there is no more value left in Kings Quest, Space Quest, QFG, etc… everyone knows that groups of hard-core fans are working every second of their free time to create fan-sequels! That’s madness! That’s the people stepping up and telling the world that if they don’t get what they want, they’re going to make it themselves! And then there are the groups remaking the old games from scratch on AGS and offering them for free! No other games have that kind of dedication. Do they have an overdeveloped sense of nostalgia? Yes. George Lucas made a lot of money off nostalgia with the Star Wars prequels, and weren’t even very good.
Plus imagine the publicity opportunities for the “Rebirth of Sierra” – a phoenix rising from the ashes of corporate destruction! I agree there are a lot of people that would work for dirt cheap to have a Sierra business card– the old sierra on-line that is. There is a strong desire in the hearts of young programmers to make memorable adventure games and work for a company that cares and respects them and their customers.
Where are you nostalgic rich guy? Help us out!
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(re: Whoa whoa WHOA!!!) Seeing as James Bond was worth 1-1.5 billion US$ in Sony’s recent acquisition of MGM, I’d say something like IP of Sierra’s old franchises would be pretty miniscule, as their earning potential is nothing compared to that of James Bond.
A bit unrelated, but, something that I would love to have/collect if someone ever did manage to resurrect this stuff would be classic Space Quest action figures. That would be awesome, all the characters/aliens/robots from the classic Space Quest games.
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(re: Whoa whoa WHOA!!!) A bit unrelated, but, something that I would love to have/collect if someone ever did manage to resurrect this stuff would be classic Space Quest action figures. That would be awesome, all the characters/aliens/robots from the classic Space Quest games.
Oh yeah… I would love to have Space Quest action figures, from Roger with his mop and Spike accessories to Quirk with removable toupee to Beatrice Wankmeister (she’s just pretty) to Sludge Vohaul (he’s just evil). Serious action figure potential for sure.
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