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Hi Ken,
I have been studying the Billboard magazine’s Top 20 computer software “Entertainment” chart for the period from Nov 1984 to the end of Dec 1985. I noticed something that I thought you might remember the answer to.
King’s Quest entered that chart around Nov 1984. It then remained constantly in that Top 20 chart for 30 weeks. KQ2 entered the same Top 20 chart on the 1st June 1985. KQ1 was still in the top 20 at that time, so both games were in there at the same time.
KQ2 was in the chart for only 1 week though, and mysteriously, KQ1 also vanished from the top 20 chart at around the same time, leaving the chart on the 15th June 1985, after 30 weeks.
Neither game reappears in the charts throughout July, Aug, Sept, Oct, Nov & Dec of 1985. I haven’t checked beyond that yet.
This sudden departure is rather suspicious, and perhaps suggests that Sierra stopped supplying sales figures to Billboard at that point. This is at a time when text only adventures from other companies, targeting only the IBM & Apple II, were still entering the chart and doing well. The 3D animated graphic nature of the KQ1 & KQ2 games by comparison were leading edge and never seen before! So I would have expected them to dominate the charts in that second half of 1985. KQ1 was in the charts for 30 weeks but KQ2 only one week? It doesn’t make much sense.
I was wondering if you recall if Sierra made a conscious choice, around that mid 1985 time period, to no longer supply sales figures to people like the Billboard magazine? And if so, what the reasoning was? If not, then any ideas why both games dropped out of the chart so suddenly?
Best regards,
Lance
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After researching this further online, I believe that at the time, the top seller data came from the Softsel Hot List, which was the closest thing there was to a top seller list for computer software in those days.
The data for those lists came from sales by Softsel themselves. So if software wasn’t sold at all through Softsel then it wouldn’t show in these lists. It was a rather big distribution channel though, which I believe you (Ken) contributed to setting up in its infancy.
Do you think it is possible that you stopped distributing the King’s Quest games through Softsel mid 1985?
If so, that would explain their sudden departure.
Best regards,
Lance
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