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Sierra almost bought id Software and Broderbund

Started by Sir Perceval of Daventry, September 04, 2011, 08:06:47 AM

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Sir Perceval of Daventry

In 1991 and 1992, Sierra almost bought out Id Software (known for Wolfenstein, Doom, and Quake), and Broderbund (publishers of Myst and many other games):

Here's the story of Sierra's near-buyout of id, as told in an excellent book which I recommend, called "Masters of Doom", by David Kushner:

"   One afternoon in February 1992, Roberta Williams opened a package. She and her husband, Ken, were sitting in a gorgeous office in Northern California atop one of the largest empires in the business, Sierra On-Line. They were among the leaders of the computer game industry, which had grown from $100 million per year in 1980 to nearly $1 billion. Their early graphical role-playing games had given way to a slew of titles, all created around Sierra's inherent philosophy: building brands by making game designers into celebrities.
      Sierra, as a result, received submissions for games all the time. This day the contents of the package would catch Roberta's eye. There was a cover letter from a young programmer named John Romero. He had heard she was becoming interested in children's games and was including one he and his friends had made. It was doing rather well in the shareware market, he wrote. It was called Commander Keen in Goodbye, Galaxy!
      Roberta and Ken were impressed and requested a meeting. The id guys were awestruck. They had grown up playing Sierra games; now they were being asked to visit the king and queen in their lair. And the timing couldn't be more perfect. Wolfenstein was coming into shape. If Sierra made them an offer they couldn't refuse, they might strike a deal. They decided to put together a short demo of the game to show the Williamses.
     When the id guys showed up at Sierra's offices, it was clear they hadn't left their apartments for a month. Romero had been growing out his hair. Tom kept an unkempt beard. Carmack had holes in his shirt. They were all in ratty, torn jeans. Before they met with Ken and Roberta, they were given a tour of the offices. For the guys, particularly Romero and Tom, it was a tour of the gamers' hall of fame. Back in a CD duplication room, they were introduced to Warren Schwader. Romero and Tom looked at each other, and immediately fell to their knees, bowing, 'We're not worthy, we're not worthy,' they said. Schwader, they knew, had designed one of their favorite old Apple II games, Threshold. "Dude!" Romero beamed, "Threshold! You are the Daddy!"
    But the allure soon wore off. Around the corner Carmack fell into a conversation with a programmer. As Romero, Tom and Adrian watched, Carmack chipped away at the programmer's work, challenging what to him was a waste of time. When he was through, the Sierra programmer just sat there, belittled by Carmack's superior skills. Romeo patted Carmack on the back as they walked away. "God" he said, "you just wiped them down." Carmack shrugged modestly. Romero was proud.
    The Williameses were not as impressed. They boys struck them as nothing more than highly talented and highly naive kids. When Ken Williams showed up at a fancy restaurant called Edna's Elderberry House with this ragtag group of guys in shabby clothes, he was pulled aside by the maitre d'. Williams had to explain that these were important guests before they were led to a private room with a long oak table and a burning fire.
    The food came, and the conversation flowed. Williams prided himself on discovering and nurturing young talent. But the inexperience of the group, he thought, was palpable. They didn't seem to have a business bone in their bodies. When they told Ken how much they were making on Commander Keen, he blanched. "You're telling me" he said, "You're making fifty thousand dollars a month just from shareware?"
    They showed him the numbers. Scott had upped their royalty to 45 percent. There was virtually no overhead, they explained. The shareware model let Apogee keep ninety-five cents for every dollar that came in. "We make the best stuff in shareware", Romero proclaimed, "that's why we're making so much money. If you think that's awesome," he said, "check this out."
    Tom took out a laptop, set it on the table, and urged Williams to hit the key. Wolfenstein came on the screen.   Williams played the game with a poker face. The guys were dying with anticipation. Finally Williams said, "Ah, that's neat." He closed the program. A final screen came up, with the face of Commander Keen and a green monster from Aliens Ate My Babysitter. In big words in the middle it said: "id Software: Part of the Sierra Family?"
      "Do you mind removing the question mark?" Williams said. Then he offered them $2.5 million.

  The id guys returned to their snowed-in apartment to discuss the deal. Two and a half million dollars was a lot of money for four or five guys to split. But they didn't jump the gun. They didn't want just to do a stock deal, they wanted some up-front cash. So they returned to the approach they'd originally taken with Scott Miller. "Why don't we do this?" Romero suggested. "Let's ask for a hundred thousand down. If they're interested, then we'll sell. If they don't, then we don't do it."
  When presented with the request, Williams balked. Though he was impressed by their work, he wasn't ready to fork over such a large chunk of cash. The deal was over. Clearly, id thought, he just didn't get what they were doing. He didn't understand the potential of Wolfenstein 3-D. If he had, he would've immediately handed over the cash. It was a disappointment, not so much so because they missed out on the money, but because their hero and his company had let them down. This game was going to change things, they knew; There was nothing on a computer like it. F---k Sierra and their loser programmers, Romero told them, id would remain independent. And independently, they would rule.
"


(Posted on: September 04, 2011, 09:51:06 AM)


Brøderbund
In early March 1991, there was much discussion of a would-be merger between Sierra and Brøderbund Software. Brøderbund was a major competitor of Sierra had and an influential player in the computer entertainment industry. Best known for it's Where in the World is Carmen San Diego? series, Brøderbund had over 200 employees that specialized in making mostly educational software. With Sierra employing over 600 people at this time, the merger would make the combined company the largest and most powerful independent software developer and publisher in the world.

The truth behind the merger was that Sierra was acquiring Brøderbund, but after the acquisition, Brøderbund would exist as a subsidiary with its own publishing unit, and the combined company would be named Sierra-Broderbund. Sierra and Brøderbund signed a letter of intent to merge on March 15th, but that agreement was terminated in early April 1991 when Sierra and Broderbund came to a disagreement upon what the structure and management of the combined company would be after the merger.

Brøderbund would go on to publish Myst in 1993, which would end up becoming the highest selling computer game of all time, a title which it would hold for eleven years, until The Sims exceeded it in sales.

Delling

I didn't know that story about id and Sierra... as someone who grew up on KQ, SQ, AND Commander Keen... it makes me sad to think they could have all been working under one company and that it could have happened so easily. :( I'll just be in the corner now... wondering what might have been...
Noli me tangere! Nescio ubi fuisti!
Don't touch me! I don't know where you've been!

Marquess of Pembroke
Duke of Saxony in Her Majesty's Court
Knight of the Swan for Her Imperial Highness

...resistance was obviously useless against a family that could invent italics.

"Let the locative live."

http://my.ddo.com/referral/Delling87

Baggins

Sierra would probably still be around today.

KQ might have went 3D much earlier on a better engine. (no not the primitive doom engine)..
Well, ya, King's Quest is on Earth. Daventry is very old city from a long time ago. It's in ruins now and people aren't quite sure exactly where it used to be. There are some archaeologists searching through the ruins, they think they know its Daventry. But its somewhere on Earth."-Roberta Williams http://kingsquest.wikia.com/wiki/File:Daventryisearth.ogg

DawsonJ

Clearly, Ken didn't see the true potential of Wolfenstein 3-D. There have been SO MANY Wolfenstein games, let alone the unofficial mods, like the Mortal Kombat version. But, Wolf just recently came back in a major way, even on the consoles. Too bad Commander Keen didn't go far, after the initial six games or so - which looked nearly identical during actual gameplay.

With all the complaints about the battling in MoE, it makes me  wonder if battling would have been part of an earlier game, with Doom being created in another Sierra location. Y'know, some of our positive memories of the later games in the series may have been positive memories of QFG fans, who switched over. The 3D engine in Doom had limitations, like not being able to walk under certain objects, like stairs, so KQ in 3D may have really sucked, unless they copied the Descent engine.

Sir Perceval of Daventry

Quote from: DawsonJ on September 04, 2011, 10:49:47 AM
Clearly, Ken didn't see the true potential of Wolfenstein 3-D. There have been SO MANY Wolfenstein games, let alone the unofficial mods, like the Mortal Kombat version. But, Wolf just recently came back in a major way, even on the consoles. Too bad Commander Keen didn't go far, after the initial six games or so - which looked nearly identical during actual gameplay.

With all the complaints about the battling in MoE, it makes me  wonder if battling would have been part of an earlier game, with Doom being created in another Sierra location. Y'know, some of our positive memories of the later games in the series may have been positive memories of QFG fans, who switched over. The 3D engine in Doom had limitations, like not being able to walk under certain objects, like stairs, so KQ in 3D may have really sucked, unless they copied the Descent engine.

Well, battling in a full 3D world was a part of Betrayal at Krondor--which came out in 1993, by Dynamix (one of Sierra's subsidiaries). And Dynamix/Sierra used 3D in their Red Baron games.

And in 1997, a game called Birthright: The Gorgon's Allliance was put out by Sierra--a full 3D RPG.



DawsonJ

Quote from: Sir Perceval of Daventry on September 04, 2011, 11:27:54 AM
Quote from: DawsonJ on September 04, 2011, 10:49:47 AM
Clearly, Ken didn't see the true potential of Wolfenstein 3-D. There have been SO MANY Wolfenstein games, let alone the unofficial mods, like the Mortal Kombat version. But, Wolf just recently came back in a major way, even on the consoles. Too bad Commander Keen didn't go far, after the initial six games or so - which looked nearly identical during actual gameplay.

With all the complaints about the battling in MoE, it makes me  wonder if battling would have been part of an earlier game, with Doom being created in another Sierra location. Y'know, some of our positive memories of the later games in the series may have been positive memories of QFG fans, who switched over. The 3D engine in Doom had limitations, like not being able to walk under certain objects, like stairs, so KQ in 3D may have really sucked, unless they copied the Descent engine.

Well, battling in a full 3D world was a part of Betrayal at Krondor--which came out in 1993, by Dynamix (one of Sierra's subsidiaries). And Dynamix/Sierra used 3D in their Red Baron games.

And in 1997, a game called Birthright: The Gorgon's Allliance was put out by Sierra--a full 3D RPG.





Then why was Roberta having so much trouble getting a usable 3D engine through Dynamix?

Delling

Quote from: Baggins on September 04, 2011, 09:24:37 AM
Sierra would probably still be around today.

KQ might have went 3D much earlier on a better engine. (no not the primitive doom engine)..
We might have actually gotten Commander Keen 7 (which was intended to look and play similarly to Mario 64, apparently (one of the developers upon seeing Mario 64 freaked out and was all: THAT'S WHAT Keen 7 WAS GOING TO BE!))
Noli me tangere! Nescio ubi fuisti!
Don't touch me! I don't know where you've been!

Marquess of Pembroke
Duke of Saxony in Her Majesty's Court
Knight of the Swan for Her Imperial Highness

...resistance was obviously useless against a family that could invent italics.

"Let the locative live."

http://my.ddo.com/referral/Delling87

MusicallyInspired


Baggins

#8
QuoteWell, battling in a full 3D world was a part of Betrayal at Krondor--which came out in 1993, by Dynamix (one of Sierra's subsidiaries). And Dynamix/Sierra used 3D in their Red Baron games.

And in 1997, a game called Birthright: The Gorgon's Allliance was put out by Sierra--a full 3D RPG.
You don't actually battle in 3d world. The game goes into 2d isometric turn based combat the moment you touch an enemy. MOR uses the same engine a the Red Baron games actually. Modified though.

Birthright was 2d sprites on 3D. Never played it but screenshots look kinda ugly.
Well, ya, King's Quest is on Earth. Daventry is very old city from a long time ago. It's in ruins now and people aren't quite sure exactly where it used to be. There are some archaeologists searching through the ruins, they think they know its Daventry. But its somewhere on Earth."-Roberta Williams http://kingsquest.wikia.com/wiki/File:Daventryisearth.ogg

Sir Perceval of Daventry

#9
Quote from: DawsonJ on September 04, 2011, 11:51:54 AM
Quote from: Sir Perceval of Daventry on September 04, 2011, 11:27:54 AM
Quote from: DawsonJ on September 04, 2011, 10:49:47 AM
Clearly, Ken didn't see the true potential of Wolfenstein 3-D. There have been SO MANY Wolfenstein games, let alone the unofficial mods, like the Mortal Kombat version. But, Wolf just recently came back in a major way, even on the consoles. Too bad Commander Keen didn't go far, after the initial six games or so - which looked nearly identical during actual gameplay.

With all the complaints about the battling in MoE, it makes me  wonder if battling would have been part of an earlier game, with Doom being created in another Sierra location. Y'know, some of our positive memories of the later games in the series may have been positive memories of QFG fans, who switched over. The 3D engine in Doom had limitations, like not being able to walk under certain objects, like stairs, so KQ in 3D may have really sucked, unless they copied the Descent engine.

Well, battling in a full 3D world was a part of Betrayal at Krondor--which came out in 1993, by Dynamix (one of Sierra's subsidiaries). And Dynamix/Sierra used 3D in their Red Baron games.

And in 1997, a game called Birthright: The Gorgon's Allliance was put out by Sierra--a full 3D RPG.





Then why was Roberta having so much trouble getting a usable 3D engine through Dynamix?

Roberta had a lot of very very innovative ideas for KQ8 and the engine that Dynamix had in 1995/1996--3Space--wasn't capable of making these ideas a reality. It wasn't powerful enough. And Dynamix thus was tasked with coming up with a better version of 3Space, but they fell way behind (very disorganized along with technical problems). There was communication issues between Sierra (Bellevue) and Dynamix.

The game was already going over budget and had already missed it's Christmas '97 release date and Sierra had to scramble and make their own KQ8 engine, and hurry things up. Budget issues forced cuts of a lot of the game, including at least 3 whole other levels of the game, quite a few characters (who, for the sake of budget/resources were either combined into one character or done away with entirely), a few subplots which would've added to the game.

3 whole lands (if not more) were cut from the game:
-A full exploration of Castle Daventry for the first time, which would've seen Rosella in stone. An idea Roberta was tinkering with was that Rosella would be very grateful to Connor for saving the kingdom...and who knows? Roberta toyed with the idea of a sequel having aspects of a love triangle between Edgar, Rosella and Connor.
-Daventry would've had two towns, plus one other location: Connor's village (like we saw in the final game), a city of Daventry (like described in the KQ novels, with a village area which was closer in appearance to KQ1's Daventry including the famous Well), and a seaside town of fishermen.
-An underwater level in Daventry, concerning pirates and a ship which sunk before they could raid Daventry. Connor would have to get stuff from the sunken ship.

There were a whole assortment of characters who were either cut, or situations where two characters would be combined into one to save money/time.

KQ8 went through three separate designs as it was.

Baggins

#10
QuoteRoberta had a lot of very very innovative ideas for KQ8 and the engine that Dynamix had in 1995/1996--3Space--wasn't capable of making these ideas a reality. It wasn't powerful enough. And Dynamix thus was tasked with coming up with a better version of 3Space, but they fell way behind (very disorganized along with technical problems). There was communication issues between Sierra (Bellevue) and Dynamix.
The particular version of 3space engine was actually being primarily designed for Red Baron II. Red Baron II was behind schedule. The game had technical and bug issues. Sierra wanted to use it but it wasn't complete even for the game it was being designed for.

Sierra was forced to modify an early version of 3Space instead. The version used inEarthsiege.

So technically it isn't that Dynamix was disorganized. Their organization was devoted to finishing Red Baron II which the engine was being designed for. Once the red baron ii/engine was finished the plan was Sierra would have taken it and used it themselves.

Think of it this way, for a good analogy, ID is designing the iD Tech 5 engine for Doom 4. Other companies out their want thr engine to design their games as well. Since it has much more bells and whistles over previous engines. But iD won't release the engine until all the bugs are worked out and Doom 4 makes it to the public first. This was essentially thr same situation with Dynamix and Red Baron II.

Dynamix was not beholden to Roberta's team. They had their own project to work on. If that project came out earlier, Roberta would have ha the chance to take advantage of it.

(Posted on: September 04, 2011, 02:26:16 PM)


Btw one of the reasons Roberta wanted a more powerful version of 3Space was she wasn't happy with the graphics of the early version they were working with. She was able to boost the graphics on the in-house modified version. But apparently it still didn't reach the quality she had hoped she could achieved with thr Red Baron II engine.

It's possible if Roberta had stuck with the early Earthsiege engine and just modified it, they might have forced it to handle physics and water currents/swimming. However it would have came at a cost that Roberta wasn't happy with, with it's lower visual quality, lower polygon counts etc. This is actually mentioned in Goldberg's book (All Your Base...) and a few interviews. Basically Roberta wanted top of the line graphics for 1997. She would have liked the highest quality for 1998 graphics as well. But she had to make due and compromise with what she could get out of the modified MOE engine.
Well, ya, King's Quest is on Earth. Daventry is very old city from a long time ago. It's in ruins now and people aren't quite sure exactly where it used to be. There are some archaeologists searching through the ruins, they think they know its Daventry. But its somewhere on Earth."-Roberta Williams http://kingsquest.wikia.com/wiki/File:Daventryisearth.ogg

Sir Perceval of Daventry

Quote from: Baggins on September 04, 2011, 12:54:39 PM
QuoteRoberta had a lot of very very innovative ideas for KQ8 and the engine that Dynamix had in 1995/1996--3Space--wasn't capable of making these ideas a reality. It wasn't powerful enough. And Dynamix thus was tasked with coming up with a better version of 3Space, but they fell way behind (very disorganized along with technical problems). There was communication issues between Sierra (Bellevue) and Dynamix.
The particular version of 3space engine was actually being primarily designed for Red Baron II. Red Baron II was behind schedule. The game had technical and bug issues. Sierra wanted to use it but it wasn't complete even for the game it was being designed for.

Sierra was forced to modify an early version of 3Space instead. The version used inEarthsiege.

So technically it isn't that Dynamix was disorganized. Their organization was devoted to finishing Red Baron II which the engine was being designed for. Once the red baron ii/engine was finished the plan was Sierra would have taken it and used it themselves.

Think of it this way, for a good analogy, ID is designing the iD Tech 5 engine for Doom 4. Other companies out their want thr engine to design their games as well. Since it has much more bells and whistles over previous engines. But iD won't release the engine until all the bugs are worked out and Doom 4 makes it to the public first. This was essentially thr same situation with Dynamix and Red Baron II.

Dynamix was not beholden to Roberta's team. They had their own project to work on. If that project came out earlier, Roberta would have ha the chance to take advantage of it.

(Posted on: September 04, 2011, 02:26:16 PM)


Btw one of the reasons Roberta wanted a more powerful version of 3Space was she wasn't happy with the graphics of the early version they were working with. She was able to boost the graphics on the in-house modified version. But apparently it still didn't reach the quality she had hoped she could achieved with thr Red Baron II engine.

It's possible if Roberta had stuck with the early Earthsiege engine and just modified it, they might have forced it to handle physics and water currents/swimming. However it would have came at a cost that Roberta wasn't happy with, with it's lower visual quality, lower polygon counts etc. This is actually mentioned in Goldberg's book (All Your Base...) and a few interviews. Basically Roberta wanted top of the line graphics for 1997. She would have liked the highest quality for 1998 graphics as well. But she had to make due and compromise with what she could get out of the modified MOE engine.

I never found anything wrong with the '96/97 graphics...I actually thought they looked better and less blocky than the final game. Much more detailed and pretty. And I liked the original Conor much better than the one we got.

Baggins

#12
They are seriously more blocky, the engine didn't even allow texture smoothing.... So blocky textures in all the screenshots.

One example is arms. In early version the 'connor' didn't have hands, his arms were cubic (four sided polygons). In the upgraded version he has more defined hands (7-8 polygons over 3-4 in thr original graphics), and his arms are more rounded (particularly in the shoulders maybe 6-8 polygons). Still not as defined by today's standards but better than 1996 graphics technically.

The thing is Roberta wasn't happy with the limits of either of these and wanted something that looked even more visually appealing/realistic and up to date in 1998.

The finalized graphics appeared as early June or July 1997 or so. Maybe a little earlier in the interaction magazine.

This comment from Newsweek touches on Roberta's wishes for the graphics;
QuoteMarch 1997; So in this new game I'm trying out 3-D worlds, new worlds where players can venture anywhere they want to go. But in order to accommodate this total freedom in exploration, I have to back off the story and go more free-form. It's the hardest project I've ever worked on.
Why is it so hard?
How can we do it and still keep somewhat of a semblance of a story going? What technology do we use? In Phantasmagoria I used almost 3,000 pictures, and each one was as pretty as I could possibly make it. But now we want people to explore, to see what's there all around them. I can do that, but the pictures won't be as pretty. Right now computers can't handle that. But my dream is that what we're working on now will be the kernel of what people will be playing 17 years from now.
Well, ya, King's Quest is on Earth. Daventry is very old city from a long time ago. It's in ruins now and people aren't quite sure exactly where it used to be. There are some archaeologists searching through the ruins, they think they know its Daventry. But its somewhere on Earth."-Roberta Williams http://kingsquest.wikia.com/wiki/File:Daventryisearth.ogg

Sir Perceval of Daventry

Quote from: Baggins on September 04, 2011, 02:15:49 PM
They are seriously more blocky, the engine didn't even allow texture smoothing.... So blocky textures in all the screenshots.

One example is arms. In early version the 'connor' didn't have hands, his arms were cubic (four sided polygons). In the upgraded version he has more defined hands (7-8 polygons over 3-4 in thr original graphics), and his arms are more rounded (particularly in the shoulders maybe 6-8 polygons). Still not as defined by today's standards but better than 1996 graphics technically.

The thing is Roberta wasn't happy with the limits of either of these and wanted something that looked even more visually appealing/realistic and up to date in 1998.

The finalized graphics appeared as early June or July 1997 or so. Maybe a little earlier in the interaction magazine.

This comment from Newsweek touches on Roberta's wishes for the graphics;
QuoteMarch 1997; So in this new game I'm trying out 3-D worlds, new worlds where players can venture anywhere they want to go. But in order to accommodate this total freedom in exploration, I have to back off the story and go more free-form. It's the hardest project I've ever worked on.
Why is it so hard?
How can we do it and still keep somewhat of a semblance of a story going? What technology do we use? In Phantasmagoria I used almost 3,000 pictures, and each one was as pretty as I could possibly make it. But now we want people to explore, to see what's there all around them. I can do that, but the pictures won't be as pretty. Right now computers can't handle that. But my dream is that what we're working on now will be the kernel of what people will be playing 17 years from now.


It's just I guess the early graphics with their lighter atmosphere, and their low-res hero, kind of reminded me of KQ5-7 in a way, yet 3D. There's just something quaint about them. I've never cared much for graphical realism anyway, so polygon counts and the like aren't something I worry about when playing a game.

IMO, Roberta should've made KQ8 like Phantas but different. 3D world, with a 3D character, but not FULL 3D. Maybe the way TSL is with the cinematic camera movements. I can almost picture it--Connor having the same sort of smooth walk as Adrianne in Phantas does, walking from 3D screen to screen, but with a camera following him as he walked.

Combat could be handled the same way the action scenes are in Phantas--almost the way old fantasy films like Jason and the Argonauts did it. Cinematic combat.

I think there should've been a desert sequence in KQ8 too. Something harking back to KQ5.

I need to get the other 1997 InterActions. Thus far I only have Summer 1997. Holiday 1997 is on the way. And I need the other 1996 InterActions--I only was able to get Fall '96.

KQ8 as a finished product was very revolutionary IMO, my grievances aside. Were there any games out in 1998 that has as massive or free roaming a world as KQ8 did? KQ8, in terms of it's huge, open, free roaming world, it's at-will camera changes and camera movements, and the general design of the land system (maps/loading) reminds me of Grand Theft Auto--which came out years after KQ8.

I don't remember the Tomb Raider games or Indiana Jones and the Infernal Machine or Soul Reaver having worlds as open and large as KQ8. I remember the worlds in Tomb Raider I-III being very linear and not as wide roaming as the world was in KQ8. Perhaps my memory is faulty.

I love KQ8--But I look at the original ideas, cut elements, concepts, and think while it's great, it could've been a true classic. Roberta was really touching on some epic ground with this game--Epic on the level of JRR Tolkien, IMO. It really had the chance to be her masterwork. As it is, it's still one of the best KQ games ever.

But I do prefer Bedouin Connor.

Baggins

#14
Believe me Roberta probably could have gotten away with 1995 style graphics in 1995 (early version was built upon a 1994/1995 version of 3Space used for Earthsiege). It would have been detrimental to have 1995 graphics tech in 1997. Just look at criticism for the graphics in Duke Nukem Forever... It's largely several years out of date in many ways.

Another case In point, Jedi Knight received negative comments for having out of date 3d when it was released. Out of date in comparison to other 3D games at the time.

You also suggest Roberta could have went the direction of Grim Fandango. The main point why she didn't she wanted full exploratory 3D.

Secondly Grim Fandango wasn't much of a success. Roberta's game had more mass markedly appeal, drawing in new players outside of the niche and dying Adventure game market. It sold twice as many copies as Grim. Perhaps it would pleased old adventure fans more, but probably still failed in long term.
Well, ya, King's Quest is on Earth. Daventry is very old city from a long time ago. It's in ruins now and people aren't quite sure exactly where it used to be. There are some archaeologists searching through the ruins, they think they know its Daventry. But its somewhere on Earth."-Roberta Williams http://kingsquest.wikia.com/wiki/File:Daventryisearth.ogg

dark-daventry

I had no idea that Sierra almost bought id. Perceval, you've always been knowledgeable about Sierra's history. You somehow find these nuggets of gold that I otherwise wouldn't have known. Kudos for finding this stuff.
Founder of the (new) Left Handed Alliance Of Left Handed People (LHALHP)

Gay and proud of it!

Avid Adventure Game fan

Blackthorne

I'm sure Ken Williams is lamenting the loss on his HUGE  FRIGGIN' AWESOME YACHT, and comforting himself by bathing in crisp $20 bills.  They did all right without Wolfenstein - and good for iD, they learned on their own!


Bt
"You've got to keep one eye looking over your shoulder
you know it's going to get harder and harder as you
get older - but in the end you'll pack up, fly down south, hide your head in the sand.  Just another sad old man, all alone and dying of cancer." - Dogs, Pink Floyd.

Baggins

It's always possible Ken could have destroyed iD like they did Sierra! If the whole CUC thing still happened.
Well, ya, King's Quest is on Earth. Daventry is very old city from a long time ago. It's in ruins now and people aren't quite sure exactly where it used to be. There are some archaeologists searching through the ruins, they think they know its Daventry. But its somewhere on Earth."-Roberta Williams http://kingsquest.wikia.com/wiki/File:Daventryisearth.ogg

Sir Perceval of Daventry

Quote from: Baggins on September 05, 2011, 01:16:15 PM
It's always possible Ken could have destroyed iD like they did Sierra! If the whole CUC thing still happened.

Not necessarily. Sierra was thriving at the time of the CUC acquisition. Blizzard was acquired by CUC at the same time as Sierra--same day--and they're thriving.
I think what happened is after Ken left, no one who really understood Sierra stepped in to replace him, and CUC/Cendant/Vivendi micromanaged the soul out of Sierra. Whereas Blizzard has had the same CEO since they began in 1991. However, I have heard Blizzard is now beginning to go through what Sierra did--I've heard Activision is putting their boots on Blizzard's neck and squeezing every dime they can out of WoW. Blizzard fans are beginning to act as Sierra fans did in '97/98, saying Blizzard has changed, etc.