Oh How The Mighty Sierra Has Fallen

By Joe Haygood | July 29, 2008

So word started going around this weekend that Activision was taking Sierra to the woodshed, and basically stripping them down to nothing, essentially cancelling or re-evaluating all of their current franchises in development, outside of Crash Bandicoot, Spyro the Drago, Ice Age and Prototype.

Some of the titles missing from the keeper list include Ghostbusters, World in Conflict: Soviet Assault, Leisure Suit Larry: Box Office Bust, Brutal Legend, 50 Cent: Blood on the Sand, and Chronicles of Riddick: Assault on Dark Athena.  More titles are also missing, but these seem to be the biggest titles to possibly be cancelled.

While some have had less mystery surrounding them, like Brutal Legend, which producer Tim Shafer has stated that he does not feel comfortable working with the timeframes that he feels might accompany a publisher like Activision, but what about the rest.  Ghostbusters looked like it was nearing completion, with a Fall 2008 release date.  The graphics looked good and the game had a nice vibe to it, but to cancel it so soon before a release seems a bit harsh.  World in Conflict was a huge success on the PC, and to see the expansion pack cut is a big blow to both a great franchise and to the platform in general, as World in Conflict sold fairly well.  Some of the titles probably deserve to be cut, as I cannot think anyone was clammoring for another 50 Cent game, and the Leisure Suit Larry game looks to follow the same disasterous path that Magna Cum Laude went down a few years ago with horrible results. 

The bigger issue is the fact that an icon is being pared and trimmed without a proper send-off.  Yes it is probably nostalgia that is gripping me, but I remember how Sierra had a commanding grasp of the gaming market on the PC.  It was always anticipation that gripped me when I knew a “Quest Game” was coming out.  Even their forays into other types of games were great, like Thexder or Tribes.  There has never been a better football game on the market then the Dynamix made and Sierra published Front Page Sports Football 97, which managed to get stats and arcade mixed into one complete package.

Gabriel Knight, King’s Quest, Space Quest, The Laura Bow Mysteries, Manhunter, Quest for Glory, Adventures of Willy Beamish, Leisure Suit Larry, Police Quest and many more were examples of what Sierra gave PC gamers over the years.  Some of those titles expanded into new genres, building their popularity, like the SWAT games that born of the Police Quest series of games.

Now, the company that Roberta and Ken Williams built over 25 years ago will now disappear, another icon like Infocom, Stormfront and so many others that were stripmined for small bits of gold they could provide their buyers.  Sentimental, yes, but it still stinks to see a great company wither into nothing.