Activision Teases the Return of Sierra Entertainment - Update

Daft Ghosty

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Sep 25, 2010
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I'd love for Sierra to truly be back but it is just a name relaunch. It's Weekend at Bernie's 3, staring Blizzard as Larry, Activision as Richard, and Sierra as Bernie.
 

Imperioratorex Caprae

Henchgoat Emperor
May 15, 2010
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Scrumpmonkey said:
Imperioratorex Caprae said:
Nope. Just nope. Please stop arguing that the big Publishers do not buy and close down or mege studios in rapid succession it is simply false.

EA

http://www.computerandvideogames.com/183194/every-studio-eas-bought-and-closed/ <---- Up to 2009

From 2011/2012 onwards this trend has only accelerated with EA. That's not even counting studios being messed with. When studios are merged or consolidated staff are shed, it is very much like a closure for many developers.


Activision:

http://www.gamesradar.com/exactly-how-many-studios-has-activision-closed-generation-exactly-many/ <--- From beginning of this generation until 2012

EA: I count 4 studios, one of which is still alive just merged (Maxis) and one of which was a satellite of the parent (DICE Canada). The rest on that list are spinoffs of EA itself.
And with the exception of DICE Canada and Kesmai/Gamestorm (which I've no clue who the second one is), every studio had at least 4 years of life, some had a lot more than that.

Activision: 8 Studios, most of which weren't absolutely smash hits to begin with.

The games industry today is much different than it was 15 years ago. Why? It has become a helluva lot more popular. This has made publishers a lot of money but now they're also dependent on that money. Dependent on consumers, not necessarily ones like you. They're consumers who don't give a rats ass about developers, just more of the same games they like. And this leads to any studio not carrying the bottom line to get axed if their next title doesn't sell well enough.
Whether you like it or not, the industry is now driven by the people who play games like Call of Duty, stuff some people on this site would say "aren't true games". Will this last forever?
What does that mean to this discussion? The face of the industry changed over the last decade, and a lot of the old developers just didn't make it because of that. Its not the fault of EA, its the fault of the industry in general, including consumers. The collapse of the old is also paving way for new things to arise in their place.
Stop holding onto this nostalgic ideal that these companies would have survived on their own, they wouldn't have. And with the death or acquisition of studios, the devs that leave or are let go move on to form new companies.
Its called business and not everything can remain forever. Not even EA or ActiBlizz. But blaming them for the changing of the guard is ludicrous. Blame the majority of gamers, they're the ones driving the industry to put out clones of x, y, and z-popular titles.
 

Sabrestar

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Apr 13, 2010
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Unfortunately, when Sierra was originally shut down many years ago, they forgot to pick up a seemingly insignificant item in the corner of the room. Said item would turn out to be necessary in the present day for the resurrection of Sierra, and as a result the process cannot be completed.
 

flying_whimsy

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Dec 2, 2009
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Sabrestar said:
Unfortunately, when Sierra was originally shut down many years ago, they forgot to pick up a seemingly insignificant item in the corner of the room. Said item would turn out to be necessary in the present day for the resurrection of Sierra, and as a result the process cannot be completed.
It would serve them right for all the hours of time gamers wasted.

OT: We already had our resurgence of pc adventure games via steam and gog; Activision may be a little too late to the table. Besides, I'm not sure I really want another space quest 3.

I hate to be so negative, but that little feeling of nostalgic joy lasted only until I remembered all of those wasted hours and sudden deaths.
 

Zeterai

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Oct 19, 2009
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Micah Weil said:
Outpost 2
I love you. Unconditionally, and forever. I have never encountered anyone who even vaguely knew of this beautiful game's existence.

If Sierra is coming back.. well, we may just get Outpost 3. Or more Metaltech games that aren't mired in Tribes.

A new CyberStorm or Earthsiege game. Think about it.
 

Someone Depressing

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Jan 16, 2011
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Laura Bow 3? I really don't give two shits how they go under this time, I want Laura Bow 3. I mean, Sierra might have made God awful games that were successful out of a combination of pity, luck, and maybe hiring a decent director every once in a while, but the Laura Bow games were actually pretty good.

And, will they be point-and-click adventure games? Probably not, but they weren't ever really good anyway. At least, not Sierra's stabs at the genre.
 

Steve the Pocket

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Mar 30, 2009
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Point-and-click adventure games are not coming back. Telltale tried it, became reasonably successful at it, and then realized they would rather make QTE-driven visual novels about zombies and werewolves instead. Activision is literally the last company in the world I would expect to take a genuine interest in reviving a dead genre, and the Sierra properties in particular were a better example of why it died than why it deserves to live.

They're not fooling anybody.
 

Brian Tams

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Sep 3, 2012
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What is this, I don't even-

It may say Sierra, but if its helmed by a team that had nothing to do with the old Sierra, then its not actually Sierra.
 

insanelich

Reportable Offender
Sep 3, 2008
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It's the old Sierra gameplay.

Except every time you die or lock yourself out of a key item to progress, the game asks "Do you want to spend $1 to continue?".

If you don't, the game has permadeath.
 

faefrost

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Jun 2, 2010
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If they were to suddenly announce that they had enticed the Robert's out of retirement to make Sierra games this might be something major. Otherwise it's just a name being dusted off.
 

Frankster

Space Ace
Mar 13, 2009
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Everyone's bringing up adventure games but it's the classic city builders that made me love Sierra back in the day.

And I really doubt activision gives 2 cents about that very niche genre so yar, this is just reanimating a corpse and making it twitch for a bit to give us false hopes our loved one is still alive.
 

DarkhoIlow

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Dec 31, 2009
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Almost thought for a second that it was going to be Troika and we'll get to see Arcanum 2 happen for some strange reason.

Now I'm sad, because I was misinformed.

PS: Am I losing it or Sierra actually published Arcanum and Troika developed it or I'm totally wrong about this. It's been so long that my mind's a blur.
 

kat-pottz

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Jan 25, 2011
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To be honest I don't care if it's the zombified corpse of sierra, as long as I get a new empire earth out of this... so go on then, get to work sierra, shoo shoo.
 

Rozalia1

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Mar 1, 2014
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Sierra returning? Well like I'm sure everyone else I'm hoping for a revival of FMV games.
 

Strazdas

Robots will replace your job
May 28, 2011
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all i can say is "meh". yes, i loved sierra. i seriuosly doubt its going to be run by the same guys, or that the guys running it will be on the up and up of the gaming industry and fans.