No it isn't. It's a puppetted brand of Activision, similar to what it was under Vivendi.

A Sierra without the Williams is much like id Software without the Johns.

Surely it depends on what is eventually developed/published...

leileilol wrote:

No it isn't. It's a puppetted brand of Activision, similar to what it was under Vivendi.

A Sierra without the Williams is much like id Software without the Johns.

Correct. No Williams, Al Lowe, The Coles, or the Two guys from Andromeda would just be Sierra in name only.

That would be like Lucasarts without Schaffer, Gilbert, Grossman, Tiller, Falstein, McConnel, Land, or Bajakian.

Already posted about this: Activision reopens www.sierra.com

Actually it is probably more than what many seem to be dismissing it as. John Williams seems to have been consulted on this, but has said that he is not at liberty to say much at this point. He is likely under an NDA. This has been in the works for a while now, at least ever since they took back the KQ license from Telltale. In the mean time, they granted a GK license to Jane Jensen and I believe that the 2 Guys have had some communication with Activision. Besides, it is not as if a Sierra IP has never been horribly abused before. MCL or BOB anyone? What do we have to lose by waiting to see where this is going.

collector wrote:

Already posted about this: Activision reopens www.sierra.com

Actually it is probably more than what many seem to be dismissing it as. John Williams seems to have been consulted on this, but has said that he is not at liberty to say much at this point. He is likely under an NDA. This has been in the works for a while now, at least ever since they took back the KQ license from Telltale. In the mean time, they granted a GK license to Jane Jensen and I believe that the 2 Guys have had some communication with Activision. Besides, it is not as if a Sierra IP has never been horribly abused before. MCL or BOB anyone? What do we have to lose by waiting to see where this is going.

Mark Crowe has made nothing but terrible console games now, since he founded Pipeworks. Al Lowe has stated he's either not interested, or nobody bothered to talk to him about it. The cop who created Police Quest left game dev after Blue Force flopped, and let's face it, Roberta Williams isn't the best designer ever (KQ6 rocked purely because of Jane Jensen). I don't think the Coles have been approached yet, and Josh Mandel is still bitter.

Face it, the Sierra of old is gone, and is never coming back. Their only hope, is if they start with fresh faces, and gave them the type of unbridled freedom (like at LucasArts) that just doesn't exist in game development any more.

I much rather preferred the Dynamix part of Sierra which had transmogrified as several companies over the decade (GarageGames, InstantAction etc)

ElectricMonk wrote:

Face it, the Sierra of old is gone, and is never coming back.

That doesn't mean we can't get good adventure titles from a new Sierra. :B

With Activision at the helm though... neh... I give it a 50/50 shot that what they come up with at first will be decent.

leileilol wrote:

No it isn't. It's a puppetted brand of Activision, similar to what it was under Vivendi.

A Sierra without the Williams is much like id Software without the Johns.

^This!

leileilol wrote:

I much rather preferred the Dynamix part of Sierra which had transmogrified as several companies over the decade (GarageGames, InstantAction etc)

I'd like Dynamix games to make it to GOG.com.

Yeah, like Earthsiege 1 and 2, Starsiege. Though the two tribes games have been freeware since Tribes:Vengeance (a stupid marketing stunt, man that game was disappointing)

Also Stellar 7 and Nova 9, and let's not forget Arctic Fox.

leileilol wrote:

I much rather preferred the Dynamix part of Sierra which had transmogrified as several companies over the decade (GarageGames, InstantAction etc)

What's odd, is I *LOVE* how they handled SQ5, but Heart of China and Rise of the Dragon left me wanting. They were neat in their own ways, but SQ5 really hit it out of the park.

Of course Heart of China and Rise of the Dragon were done in DGDS and SQ5 was in SCI with Mark Crowe, so in that sense it was not a purely Dynamix game. Dynamix's strength was physics, i.e. The Incredible Machine series, the flight sim games, the Mech game, even the later stuff like the 3-D Ultra Series.

Mau1wurf1977 wrote:

leileilol wrote:

I much rather preferred the Dynamix part of Sierra which had transmogrified as several companies over the decade (GarageGames, InstantAction etc)

I'd like Dynamix games to make it to GOG.com.

Betrayal at Krondor is already there. 😁 That was one of the very first games I ever bought for PC and it's still a favorite.

I will check it out! MT-32 or General MIDI support?

Mau1wurf1977 wrote:

I will check it out! MT-32 or General MIDI support?

Does this answer your question?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YcdNsnZymUk

Don't forget Papyrus and Impressions' part of the Sierra devs. 😀

also k.a.a but wasn't that just a short-lived EXTREME HARD CORE!!! sub-brand for Dynamix only used for two games?

Very cool 😀

I hope they resurrect Lord of the Realm.
The third game was a disgrace to the series 🤣 .

The BaK in the GOG Krondor pack is the CD version as an ISO with ripped CDA OGG tracks.