Sierra’s Franchise Titles Fade Into History

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.

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Much like Apple “dries the channel” when a new device is arriving, allowing stores to post their “sold out” signs, Blizzard will probably invest heavily in their new MMO and allow WoW to die down when they’re ready to make a transition. Or, will they?

Is there any advantage in leaving World of Warcraft as the clear contender if Blizzard is to hype a new MMO style game? Perhaps, if the game is in a completely different genre it might be possible, but some folks will no doubt cancel their Warcraft subscriptions to try out Blizzards next big thing. They’ve said nothing as to the property they’d be driving their next MMO to market with… will it be Diablo or perhaps a Starcraft MMO or something truly “new” and something really “different.”

If anyone in the market today is to begin development of a new MMO, it would seem Blizzard is going to be the most suited to developing another successful venture into this space. They have learned a lot over the years and can apply that knowledge to their next “different” online gaming franchise.

Watch out startups, Blizzard may be working on something even better than World of Warcraft.

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Their problems are over (or just beginning, depending on your point of view.)

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Another app allows remote guild chatting, which is nice when you want to be in contact with your guild 24 hours a day, too.

The app will charge $2.99 a month after the free trial. Check both apps out here.

(Thanks, RPS.)