One of the great downfalls of an acquisition or merger, in the game industry, is the loss of great franchise titles. Sierra, or Sierra Online, once stood on its own as a company with great gaming titles but later fell into the depths of Hades under many different company names.
Sierra’s last stop on the acquisition highway was Vivendi, years after much of Sierra’s steam had slowed. Now, they’re part of Activision Blizzard so we had high hopes they’d find a great use for some of the old Sierra properties long since collecting dust. Space Quest, Kings Quest, Leisure Suit Larry and especially Gabrielle Knight were some of our favorites, but times have changed.
“We are retaining only those franchises that are a strong fit with our long-term strategy including Crash Bandicoot, Ice Age and Spyro, as well as Prototype and a second game that has not yet been announced. We will not publish any other titles that previously were part of the Vivendi Games portfolio and we are currently reviewing our options regarding those titles,” says Activision Blizzard (joystiq)
This is unfortunate news, Activision Blizzard now has a large set of franchises on their hands, many of which have collected dust for years. Those dust collecting franchises could rise from the dead and reinvigorate their old fan base… or be dropped to the earth as unwanted scrapes after a big hunt with the vultures awaiting their take (sorry, too much watching of Animal Planet)
A reworked Kings Quest or Gabriel Knight could have seriously awesome potential in this time and age, imagine a dark comedy version of Gabriel Knight or a huge scaled world in King Quest using todays graphic engines. Although, these titles could also go the way Atari has gone and taken a well remembered franchise and made mud of its great name (*cough* Alone in the Dark).
Unfortunately, we’ll probably never know the distance an old franchise could go in this new world. We’ll have to pull out an old copy of our prized posessions and remember just how great they once where.
@Avellone: Kickstarter still in its infancy
Not sure if backers will become more wary when a high profile project doesn’t make it. When somebody wants something really bad, they’re willing to ignore any kind of risks.
Now I’m not going to quote Michio Kaku however, since that would imply that most projects are trying to just rip people off, and I don’t think that’s true.
@CD Projekt RED’s new licensed sci-fi RPG officially titled Cyberpunk 2077
… really? No better title than that?
But again, the Witcher games were well received, so who knows …
@Zombie Nation – well, it was a severed flying giant head, so I guess you can count the character as a zombie.
@QOTW: dunno, really. I’m not into conferences that much, never been to one, so meh …
I’m very sorry, but I won’t be able to donate to your Kickstarter because I don’t have a credit card, and I don’t think my parents will accept “giving strangers money” as a valid reason for using theirs.
@QOTW: Being in such a small country, I could never attend such conventions.
Dynamic Jul: Try GamesCom in Germany.
I dont have much to contribute this week, i’ve been studying a f*cking lot
@QOTW:
yeah… Brasil doesn’t have many gaming conventions, and those we have are in Sao Paulo, wich is far far away from my house. it looks fun see people getting toys, shirts and exclusive stuff for free. i’d like to go to a big one in US some year… when i win the lottery :3