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.
@gaming flashback
I don’t tend to associate UK with good game development (due to the life choking taxes), but Bolo sounds like a clever and complex action-strategy game. Almost makes me wish I was born 20 years earlier to play it (almost, being old sucks). To be honest, I feel like there are no good online games anymore and most that are released are just regurgitations of earlier success. I am hoping next gen will bring a breath of fresh air to the competitive online world.
@Rats leaving the sinking ship
I played a few demos of PGA tour but never liked them. The concept of hitting a ball with a club across the same field of green is probably the most pathetic attempt at recreation mankind has ever devised. It should be renaimed PGAL (Please Get A Life).
@First official COD free for all tournament
Whenever I hear news like this it makes me think that everyone in the Activision management offices evacuated the building and left a duck in charge. Where they beta testing Black Friday or something?
@QOTW
What’s your favourite soundtrack? With the atrocious state that the contemporary music industry is in, I tend to turn more and more towards the anime and gaming tunes. My favourite is the opening march of Morrowind and my favourite song has to be Still Alive (both from Mirror’s Edge and Portal). Other notable tracks are Utada Hikaru’s Kingdom Hearts ending (both Japanese and English), Guitaroo Man soundtracks, FFX and too many others to mention. Gaming has some good tunes. What’s yours?