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Hi Ken,
It might be a bit early to bring up this issue – but isn’t Sierra gonna have its 25 years anniversary sometime in 2004? On which month exactly?
Wow, I sure hope to see some old titles in honor of the anniversary. There will be probobly another Larry game (although sadly without Al Lowe). Maybe we can hope for a re-release of at least the collections… looking on eBay, the (used!) collections of the various quests series are sold for prices around 80$+, and people are “jumping” on every collection auction, eventhough mostly include only the CD, and sometimes the manual only. Currently, Sierra is wrong by underestimating the financial potential of this. I hope that in honor of the anniversary (a quarter of a century!!) they will understand the situation. [Maybe we will make a petition, but it is still early..]
-Eyal -
(re: Sierra 25-year anniversary – next year?) Hi Ken,
It might be a bit early to bring up this issue – but isn’t Sierra gonna have its 25 years anniversary sometime in 2004? On which month exactly?
Wow, I sure hope to see some old titles in honor of the anniversary. There will be probobly another Larry game (although sadly without Al Lowe). Maybe we can hope for a re-release of at least the collections… looking on eBay, the (used!) collections of the various quests series are sold for prices around 80$+, and people are “jumping” on every collection auction, eventhough mostly include only the CD, and sometimes the manual only. Currently, Sierra is wrong by underestimating the financial potential of this. I hope that in honor of the anniversary (a quarter of a century!!) they will understand the situation. [Maybe we will make a petition, but it is still early..]Posted by: qfgs on 10/9/2003
qfgs:
I started coding on Mystery House, our first game, in December of 1979. We started selling it in May of 1980. Hence … the 25 year anniversary is 2004, or 2005 – depending on how you look at it.
My personal opinion: “is there anyone left at Sierra? Is there a ‘there’ there?”
-Ken W -
(re: re: Sierra 25-year anniversary – next year?) I didn’t know when in 2004, since 2004 is getting closer I asked… only to know its December 2004…
Anyway, you are probobly right asking – is there a “there” … they (Vivendi) probobly use the name “Sierra” for their games.. and that’s that. But there must be something… you moved the headquarters to Bellevue sometime around ~1993 right? since the heart at Oakhurst (Yosemite Entertainment) was shut down in 1999, what’s left of the hq. in Bellevue ?
Another thought – all the tech people and the phone-lines that current Sierra have… and they must store all the data of past products somewhere… well there must be something, I guess?
[and who (which company) develop the new LSL … interesting though]
-Eyal -
(re: re: re: Sierra 25-year anniversary – next year?) Anyway, you are probobly right asking – is there a “there” … they (Vivendi) probobly use the name “Sierra” for their games.. and that’s that. But there must be something… you moved the headquarters to Bellevue sometime around ~1993 right? since the heart at Oakhurst (Yosemite Entertainment) was shut down in 1999, what’s left of the hq. in Bellevue ?
I happened to be looking over the Sierra website the other night (trying to find a fix for a patch for Empire Earth that isn’t installing correctly…) and I noticed that they list the headquarters of Sierra Entertainment as Bellevue still. I don’t know how much of it survives, but Vivendi claims that’s still the “heart” of Sierra, so I assume that it must still be substantial.
Of course, we know differently…but that’s what they say. ;P
Morgan. -
(re: re: re: Sierra 25-year anniversary – next year?) According to
Link: http://www.sierra.com/partner_studios.do(http://www.sierra.com/partner_studios.do)
Sierra still have its own development studio in Bellevue, as well as 2 acquired studios that are too working under Sierra. -
(re: re: re: re: Sierra 25-year anniversary – next year?) [NOTE: After writing this, I realized that it might not be a great idea to post it in the Ken Williams Q&A section, as it is a bit lengthy and I am not, as a matter of fact, Ken Williams. But the mealymouthed quote from Vivendi referenced in the message above rather set me off, and I now see that there’s no other place to put this; this is the context for it.]
Vivendi is very much the heart of the New Sierra. Excellent metaphor. Keeps the blood (or income, if you prefer) flowing, continually, repetitively, mindlessly acting to keep the body alive.
Unfortunately, they decided to jettison their brains some time ago. Brains don’t sell, and it does take quite a bit of blood to keep the brain functioning, doesn’t it?
How about this: nobody celebrates Sierra’s 25th birthday, because that would be vaguely morbid. It would be like lovingly draping confetti over a patient in a permanent coma, then slipping the little party hat onto his head. The thoughtfulness is there, I’m sure, but it would be better to celebrate the things the patient accomplished when alive and well.
Instead, we can celebrate the 25th anniversary of the release of Mystery House. When the 25th anniversary of KQI’s release comes, we can celebrate that, too. We can celebrate the anniversaries of our own favorite Sierra games, too, by replaying them – they’re as alive as they ever were if you’re playing them..
Does this sound a bit too much like one of those sententious speeches where mourners are told, generally by somebody who hasn’t actually lost a loved one, to “be happy with all the good times you had?” I hope not, because we also have a future. Good times to come.
We can celebrate the prospects of Sierra fan projects. We can celebrate the efforts towards a series of Quest for Glory novels, and buy copies of them when they’re good and ready. We can celebrate that people still keep discovering the classic games even today.
About a month ago, I showed a friend of mine an adventure game, and she was enthralled by the idea of games where you DIDN’T shoot everything in sight, but didn’t wander through a sterile, characterless environment either. Games that told a story.
In one sense, Sierra’s 25th anniversary is coming up. However, for one of my peers, Sierra was just born a few months ago.
Celebrate that.
John W. Wells
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