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.
🙂 No, Jonah, I don’t have it (Heart of the Swarm). It’s just that I have a lot of things going against this game: first of all, Starcraft II requires constant on-line DRM. This is a big no-no for me. Big enough to not buy either Starcraft II or Diablo III.
Add to that the fact that I have less and less spare time; so what’s the point of getting a game if I won’t play it? Better leave it for somebody who has the available time.
@Thief to feature “classic mode”, removing all assists
Props to that! I’d love to see that kind of approach used in more games.
@The Witcher 3 confirmed to be DRM-free
Talking about DRM never being an issue, to quote somebody from EA … I know, Jonah, you already mentioned the previous installments last week. Still, I find it amazing that nobody tries the same.
@Bethesda confirms “new version of Doom 4” being worked on, Rage 2 cancelled
Oh man … if only id could remain independent …
Yeah, new Doom 4? What happened with the old Doom 4?
Different kind of flashlight batteries? 😛
Didn’t play Rage; Doom 3 felt a bit stretched – a bit too short of a story for the length of the game. While the choices of flashlight vs. weapon felt artificial, the overall shooting mechanics felt ok.
As for South Korea not having nukes, it doesn’t matter that much, they have pretty much all western countries behind them.
Jonah, get well. Your voice is still … erm … “sexy”?
Hey Jonah, after seeing a Hitler video parody about you that I thought sucked, I thought I would take the time to make you a proper one. I hope you don’t mind!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XH80Mgbt4ss
@Witcher’s great big sword
For those who have not played it, Whitcher is a dating simulator set in the fictional medieval era staring an albino Ron Jeremy. The aim of the game is to have sex with every female species in the world, including (but not limited to) elves,princesses, vampires and sentient plants. To fill the time between plowing the fertile fields of Temeria there is a light RPG mechanic and combat side missions with some sort of a secondary quest of revenge.
@Lucasarts
Pity really. I enjoyed the Jedi Knight series back in the day. Although I didn’t care about their more recent games. Kinect Star wars was a special case. First time people could tell the game was crap just seeing it at E3. On a side note, it’s sad to see all these studios closing. I’ve spent so much time playing THQ and Lucasarts games. Not to mention Midway. Oh well. As long as the talent of the developers lives on and joins another studio it should all be fine. It’s people that count.
@Doomed Rage
Don’t know why anyone cares. Doom was the original FPS. But now we have Halo, COD, Half-Life and all those franchises. Doom 4 has no chance of competing and will most likely crash and burn on day one. Not unless it brings something innovatingly outstanding. Regarding Rage, there is a popular opinion that Bethesda should just stick to Elder Scrolls. Everything else they bring out ends being crap or overlooked (WET, Brink, Rage)