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.
Did someone say Yoga? I have returned from my deep educational derangement, securing my graduation and unemployment. Now that I am a professional vagabond with a smexy new Xbox One, I will dedicate more time to gaming and ultimately this podcast. Don’t go Paul. Here is some love. Manly comrad-like non-platonic love.
@Non-tangible gaming
I purchased the Xbox One Titanfall bundle and had to endure a 4 hour download of the game. I fully understand why console gaming is still disk based. On the other hand, my Steam library has 170 titles which I can download at high speed at a moments notice. Until my Xbox can pull off that kind of performance at Steam like prices, I don’t think I will download that many console games. I have loads of digital PS3 titles for that very reason.
@Gaming conventions
Never been to one purely dedicated to a single game. Never really been that dedicated to just one game. Here in UK it’s rare to find a gaming convention at all. Even major events tend to skip out a year or two. I know there are some dedicated communities in London but it’s easier to buy weaponised uranium then to find one. However, if I could ever go to one, it would most likely be about Elder Scrolls or Halo.
PS: City of Heroes was made in the dark days of gaming when homophobia was supreme and untraditional sexual orientation was frowned upon. Allowing a city full of adolescent boys running around in coloured briefs would be marketing suicide. It’s quite amusing. Since then homosexuality went mainstream and even became a marketing selling point for some games. It’s only a matter of time until you can create a transgender 5th generation foxkin character in an RPG.
Another good episode guys and I’m glad you enjoyed the Princess Bride reference.
@Console Digital gaming: I’m all for this as I really do enjoy not having to worry about where disks are. I have quite a few in digital format on my PS3.
@Sims4: I agree with Jonah, it’s one thing to re-write the mechanic on how something works in a game like with Civ V’s Espionage and Religion being vastly different to how it worked in previous games. To just stripping out features that you know will be repackaged into a expansion pack not looking much different or better for it’s delay. All the things that have been left out has had us feel like we’re going back to Sims 1.
@Youtube offline: Hey if they want to give me free music who am I to complain? heh
@QotW: I almost went to a Minecon in Orlando since that’s near to where I live. However it was really hard to get tickets. They sold them in groupings of 3k and they all went in seconds. Freaking jackals.
heyaaaaa xD after 2 years lol downloading an episode here feels like a trip to memory lane haha not sure if u remember me xD