Cendent appproached Davidsons and Associates and Sierra around February 1996 or so and bought the companies. Bob Davidson was put in charge soon after (anyone know the date?). The Davidson's quit the company in January 21, 1997. So the limits of their influence is really only up to that point.
So that means they really didn't have that much time to make much for their version of the game. But it and their demands were enough to give Roberta all sorts of problems.
During this time, or not long after it was clear to Roberta's team that Dynamix team wasn't going to finish the updated 3Space game engine on time. So Roberta and her team had to redevote some of their own resources and time to build an updated/new engine for MOE from scratch basically from older version of the engine. Very little of the 3Space engine was left by the time they were done. But that development really cut into the time needed to finish the game, and some extra levels, bosses, puzzles (for those levels) were cut.
They had to deal with voice recordings for the completed material so that the game would be complete (probably in the last few months of development).
Timeline:
September 30th, 1992: KQ6 is released, a few months behind schedule. Roberta goes to work immediately on two projects: Scary Tales and KQ7.
1993-1994: Scary Tales evolves into Phantasmagoria. Originally, Roberta was working on Scary Tales with Josh Mandel as Co-Designer or Co-writer; the Scary Tales idea is scrapped (according to Josh Mandel) and Phantasmagoria is born. Both have two very different storylines and ideas.
November 23rd, 1994: KQ7 is released for the Thanksgiving holiday season. Roberta now works on Phantasmagoria full time.
July 31st, 1995: Phantasmagoria is released. I imagine that KQ8 was already in production at some level and probably goes fully into production at this point--In the Talkspot interviews, Roberta mentions beginning work on KQ8 during Phatasmagoria's development. She mentions deciding to go the 3D route for KQ8 as early as '94 or '95, possibly earlier--around the time Doom came out and was huge. It's possible that pre-production began in early-mid 1995 during the ending stage of Phantas' development, with full production beginning right after Phantasmagoria was finished.
February 20th 1996: The possible sale to CUC International, Inc. is announced and officially opened. Sierra had apparently been approached about the deal about three weeks prior by Walter Forbes, CEO and Founder of CUC, and a member of Sierra's board of directors since 1991. He approached Ken, surprising him with the deal after a board meeting in early February. He offers $1.5 billion to buy Sierra.
The deal is worked out between Walter, Ken and Michael Brochu (COO and President of Sierra, appointed by Ken in October 1995, Ken's second in command and the guy seemingly in charge of Sierra "day to day" since).
CUC laid out a whole post-acquisition structure which Ken objected to, and the sale was nearly broken--They wanted to roll up the games division into a very tight unit, which would strip Sierra of it's identity. Ken's interest was in being able to not only retain Sierra's identity and autonomy, but also be involved with Sierra in a much more product oriented basis. He HATED the day to day paperwork of being a CEO, but LOVED working on games. These were Ken's conditions for the sale to even happen:
1) "
I was to go onto CUCs board as Vice-Chairman. My understanding was that this would put me "above" Bob Davidson, even though he would run the software business day to day. My goal was to give him the independence he needed to succeed, but I thought this corporate role would allow me the visibility, and voice, to intercede if things weren't going welll."
2) "
I was to become the third member of the "Office of the President" with CUCs two existing co-Presidents"
3) "
A software board was going to be formed, "which would have Bob Davidson, Myself, Mike Brochu (Sierra's President) and I believe Kirk Shelton of CUC (who is not in jail)"
4) "
No major decisions were to be made (such as dropping product lines, or consolidating functions) without prior review by the software board."
5) "
I was to stay responsible for Sierra's R&D."
CUC also announces the possible acquisition of Davidson & Associaes on the same day.
Summer 1996 InterAction: A preview of KQ8 is promised for the next issue of InterAction.
July 24th 1996: The sale to CUC is finalized and done--Prior to 7/24/1996, Sierra was still an independent company, with no connection to Davidson or CUC.
Fall 1996 InterAction: KQ8 is previewed in Sierra's Fall 1996 issue of InterAction Magazine, including screenshots and general ideas about the storyline and gameplay. Ken mentions that Roberta spent six months playing almost every new game as "research." Her influences for KQ8 include SuperMario 64, Duke Nukem, and Warcraft II. A release date of Christmas 1997 is set.
After the sale, Sierra and Davidson existed as separate companies directly under CUC in general, until.....
September 1996: CUC Software is formed. CUC Software, Inc. is formed, to create an organizational buffer between CUC and it's games division.
Bob Davidson is appointed CEO of CUC Software, Inc, and he also retains his post as founder and CEO of Davidson & Associates.
Michael Brochu (President and COO of Sierra from 1995, way before the sale) is appointed an Executive Vice President of CUC Software. He is also made in charge of CUC's Software's European operations, and their OEM relationships, as well as retaining his place as President and COO of Sierra.
Ken is appointed as Vice Chairman of CUC International, Inc, as well as being made a Member of the Office of the President of CUC. He also retains his post as CEO of Sierra, at least officilly. This is when the conflict between Ken and Davidson seems to begin.
November 1996: the co-founders of Valve meet Ken Williams at Sierra's headquarters to show him Half Life, a game they have in development. He attempts to buy them out as a company but they resist (according to Scott, I believe). Instead, however, Ken gets EXCLUSIVE copyrights to Half Life--a very smart move. He appoints Scott Lynch as the Project Manager on Half Life.
December 1996: Ken talks to an online magazine in which he talks about Sierra's future and declares the adventure genre dead. If I'm not mistaken, he talks about KQ8 in this same interview as well.
Holidays 1996: The Roberta Williams anthology is released, which includes many of her games. It also includes a video preview of KQ8.
January 21st 1997: Bob Davidson resigns as CEO of CUC Software.
Chris McCleod, a member of the office of the president and executive vice president of CUC International Inc. is named as his replacement as CEO of CUC Software.
July 1997: The second King's Quest Collection is released, including games I-VII along with Laura Bow and some other Roberta games. It includes a preview for KQ8, and still lists the game as being set for a "Christmas '97" release.
October 31st, 1997: Michael Brochu, COO and President of Sierra, announces his resignation from that post and his departure from CUC.
Chris McLeod, CEO of CUC Software, responds to Brochu leaving by:
"
Chris McLeod, chief executive officer of CUC Software, responded to last Friday's departure of Sierra On-line president Mike Broshu by restructuring that company and breaking the business into three units.
Three former vice presidents - Bill Moore, Scott Lynch*, and Randy Dersham - were given the title senior vice president and put in charge of the new units.
Moore will be responsible for Sierra's Home Production line, Berkeley Systems line, and all on-line gaming products; Lynch will look after Sierra Northwest (Bellevue), Sierra Oakhurst, and Impressions Software; Dursham will be in charge of all sports-related projects including Papyrus and Front Page Sports products."
*= Scott Lynch is blamed for KQ8's delays in a very subtle way in the KQ8 booklet.
November 1997: Ken Williams leaves CUC and forms his own company, WorldStream Communications, with former Sierra head of R&D, Jerry Bowerman. Bowerman worked as Head of R&D up to 1997 and was a close associate of Ken in that role. As CEO even after the sale to CUC, every three months, Ken took a month long trip with Jerry to every one of Sierra's divisions/groups and inspected EVERY SINGLE product in development from morning until night. Ken would instruct the teams on how to make the games better. He wanted a more "hands on" approach to the development of Sierra's games.
December 1997: KQ8's projected release date for Christmas 1997 is missed. CUC and HFS Incorporated, a hotel conglomerate, merge to form Cendant. CUC Software becomes Cendant Software, one of the world's largest and most powerful conglomerates, with over 20,000 employees.
April 1998: News breaks out that the CUC side of Cendant had been "cooking it's books"--inflating income--for years. CUC used Sierra's accountants and Sierra's name in a lot of these illegal doings. This causes Cendant's stock to plummet and many of Sierra's employees lose their 401Ks as Sierra is dealt a crippling blow in terms of profitability. As Cendant's stock sinks, multiple options are looked at on how to save money. Ultimately, it is decided that the software division needs to go.
Some options are looked at, including spinning off Cendant Software as it's own entity. Eventually, Cendant decides to sale the division. Several companies are eager to buy Cendant Software, including Disney and Havas.
June 1998: David Grenewetzki, a game industry veteran, is appointed CEO of Sierra, filling the vacuum which had existed since October 1997. He re-organizes Sierra and does away with the familiar Half Dome logo. He reorganizes Sierra into several new subdivisions: Sierra Studios, SierraHome, Yosemite Entertainment (Oakhurst) and Sierra Sports.
KQ8 again misses a projected release date in June 1998.
August 1998: KQ8 again misses a projected ship date.
November 1998: Cendant Software is sold to Havas. Havas is in turn bought by Vivendi.
December 1998: KQ8 is finally released after three years in development, with three million spent.