Misplaced Pages

#101898

103-490: Sierra Entertainment, Inc. (formerly On-Line Systems and Sierra On-Line, Inc. ) was an American video game developer and publisher founded in 1979 by Ken and Roberta Williams . The company is known for pioneering the graphic adventure game genre, including the first such game, Mystery House . It is known for its graphical adventure game series King's Quest , Space Quest , Police Quest , Gabriel Knight , Leisure Suit Larry , and Quest for Glory , and as

206-404: A Space Quest 7 project at the time. Layoffs continued on March 1, when Sierra terminated 30 employees at the previously unaffected Dynamix, or 15 percent of their workforce. Despite the layoffs, Sierra continued to publish games for smaller development houses. In September 1999, they released Homeworld , a real-time space-combat strategy game developed by Relic Entertainment . The game design

309-593: A database , Voice over IP , or add-in interface software; this is also known as middleware . Examples of this include SpeedTree and Havoc . Independents are software developers which are not owned by (or dependent on) a single publisher. Some of these developers self-publish their games, relying on the Internet and word of mouth for publicity. Without the large marketing budgets of mainstream publishers, their products may receive less recognition than those of larger publishers such as Sony, Microsoft or Nintendo. With

412-540: A public company in 1989, trading on the NASDAQ under the stock ticker "SIER". Additional public investment allowed the company to engage in further acquisitions over the next several years. In 1990, Sierra released King's Quest V , the first Sierra On-Line game ever to have more than 500,000 copies sold and the highest selling game for five years. It won several awards, such as the Best Adventure Game of

515-571: A "software board" consisting of him, Michael Brochu (Sierra's President and COO), Bob Davidson (founder and CEO of Davidson & Associates ), and Forbes. It functioned as a governing body of what would become CUC Software, regulating major decisions and product lines. In September 1996, CUC announced consolidation of some functions of its game companies into a single company called CUC Software Inc., headquartered in Torrance, California . Bob Davidson, founder and CEO of Davidson & Associates became

618-452: A culture of "toxic geek masculinity" within the workplace. In addition, the conditions behind crunch time are far more discriminating towards women as this requires them to commit time exclusively to the company or to more personal activities like raising a family. These factors established conditions within some larger development studios where female developers have found themselves discriminated in workplace hiring and promotion, as well as

721-571: A first-party company. As a balance to not being able to release their game for other platforms, second-party developers are usually offered higher royalty rates than third-party developers. These studios may have exclusive publishing agreements (or other business relationships) with the platform holder, but maintain independence so that upon completion or termination of their contracts, they are able to continue developing games for other publishers if they choose to. For example, while HAL Laboratory initially began developing games on personal computers like

824-410: A fixed period and generally work similar hours as full-time staff members, assisting across all areas of video game development, but as contractors, do not get any benefits such as paid time-off or health care from the employer; they also are typically not credited on games that they work on for this reason. The practice itself is legal and common in other engineering and technology areas, and generally it

927-403: A game on schedule. The complexity of workflow, reliance on third-party deliverables, and the intangibles of artistic and aesthetic demands in video game creation create difficulty in predicting milestones. The use of crunch time is also seen to be exploitative of the younger male-dominated workforce in video games, who have not had the time to establish a family and who were eager to advance within

1030-406: A game's profits. Current examples of first-party studios include PlayStation Studios for Sony, and Xbox Game Studios for Microsoft Gaming . Second-party developer is a colloquial term often used by gaming enthusiasts and media to describe game studios that take development contracts from platform holders and develop games exclusive to that platform, i.e. a non-owned developer making games for

1133-511: A magazine called Sierra Magazine , the name of the magazine published by Sierra On-Line was changed to InterAction in 1991. It was discontinued in 1999. Sierra's Adventure Game Interpreter engine, introduced with King's Quest , was replaced in 1988 with Sierra's Creative Interpreter in King's Quest IV . The game was released under both engines, so those who had newer computers could use the new engine and better rendering technology. Sierra became

SECTION 10

#1732791811102

1236-517: A new company called Sierra Venture . With Sierra and Pioneer investing over $ 12 million, the new company immediately manufactured and shipped over twenty of Sierra's most popular products to Japan and created new titles for the Japanese market. 1995 also saw Sierra acquiring a number of development companies, both small home developers and larger companies. Phantasmagoria was by far the largest project ever undertaken by Sierra. The anticipation for

1339-480: A number of games in production. After 1999, Sierra almost entirely ceased to be a developer of games and, as time went on, instead became a publisher of games by independent developers. At the end of June 2000, a strategic business alliance between Vivendi , Seagram , and Canal+ was announced, and Vivendi Universal , a leading global media and communications company, was formed after the merger with Seagram (the parent company of Universal Studios ). Havas S.A.

1442-437: A position in a medium to large video game company. An experienced game-development employee, depending on their expertise and experience, averaged roughly $ 73,000 in 2007. Indie game developers may only earn between $ 10,000 and $ 50,000 a year depending on how financially successful their titles are. In addition to being part of the software industry, game development is also within the entertainment industry; most sectors of

1545-604: A programmer for IBM , had planned to use the company to create business software for the TRS-80 and Apple II . Ken had brought a teletype terminal home one day in 1979 and, while looking through the host system's software catalog, discovered the text adventure Colossal Cave Adventure . He encouraged Roberta to join him in playing it, and she was enthralled by the game. After Ken had brought an Apple II to their home, she played through other text adventures such as those by Scott Adams and Softape to study them. Dissatisfied with

1648-519: A pseudo 3D-perspective where the main character is visible on the screen, a more competent text parser that understands advanced commands from the player, and music playing in the background through the PCjr sound hardware. For the game, a complete development system called Adventure Game Interpreter (AGI) was developed. In mid-1984, King's Quest: Quest for the Crown was released to much acclaim, beginning

1751-410: A respectable publisher. In 2003, Sierra Entertainment released the second video game adaptation of The Hobbit , as well as NASCAR Racing 2003 Season . In early 2004, cost-cutting measures were taken at Sierra's parent company Vivendi Universal Games due to financial troubles and because of Sierra's lack of profitability as a working developer. Sierra's last owned studios Impressions Games and

1854-649: A roundtable discussion with the International Game Developers Association (IGDA), the professional association for developers. Statements made by the IGDA's current executive director Jen MacLean relating to IGDA's activities had been seen by as anti-union, and Game Workers Unite desired to start a conversation to lay out the need for developers to unionize. In the wake of the sudden near-closure of Telltale Games in September 2018,

1957-407: A single publisher; one canceled game may devastate a small developer. Because of this, many small development companies are short-lived. A common exit strategy for a successful video game developer is to sell the company to a publisher, becoming an in-house developer. In-house development teams tend to have more freedom in game design and content than third-party developers. One reason is that since

2060-403: A strong STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) background for women at the secondary education level, but there are issues with tertiary education such as at colleges and universities, where game development programs tend to reflect the male-dominated demographics of the industry, a factor that may lead women with strong STEM backgrounds to choose other career goals. There

2163-697: A unique case where nearly all parts of its labor force, including white-collar jobs such as video game development, may engage with labor unions under the Employment Protection Act often through collective bargaining agreements. Developer DICE had reached its union agreements in 2004. Paradox Interactive became one of the first major publishers to support unionization efforts in June 2020 with its own agreements to cover its Swedish employees within two labor unions Unionen and SACO . In Australia, video game developers could join other unions, but

SECTION 20

#1732791811102

2266-564: A younger audience, was written by Al Lowe and released as Gelfling Adventure . On-Line Systems was renamed Sierra On-Line in 1982, and moved to Oakhurst, California . The "Sierra" name was taken from the Sierra Nevada mountain range that Oakhurst was near, and its new logo incorporated the imagery of Half Dome mountain. By early 1984, InfoWorld estimated that Sierra was the world's 12th-largest microcomputer software company, with $ 12.5 million in 1983 sales. The company weathered

2369-511: Is Hi-Res Adventure #3. The player must invade a mansion that was occupied by a millionaire and steal the sixteen treasures that are inside of it. The game allows players to switch between graphics-based and text-based gameplay. Cranston Manor is based on Larry Ledden's text adventure The Cranston Manor Adventure . The graphical version was programmed by Ledden, Ken Williams , and Harold DeWitz. Larry Ledden wrote The Cranston Manor Adventure as text-only interactive fiction for

2472-482: Is also a significant gap in racial minorities within the video game industry; a 2019 IGDA survey found only 2% of developers considered themselves to be of African descent and 7% Hispanic, while 81% were Caucasian; in contrast, 2018 estimates from the United States Census estimate the U.S. population to be 13% of African descent and 18% Hispanic. In a 2014 and 2015 survey of job positions and salaries,

2575-449: Is expected that this is meant to lead into a full-time position, or otherwise the end of the contract. But more recently, its use in the video game industry has been compared to Microsoft 's past use of " permatemp ", contract workers that were continually renewed and treated for all purposes as employees but received no benefits. While Microsoft has waned from the practice, the video game industry has adapted it more frequently. Around 10% of

2678-533: Is generally illegal, companies often target their oldest workers first during layoffs or other periods of reduction. Older developers with experience may find themselves too qualified for the types of positions that other game development companies seek given the salaries and compensations offered. Some of the larger video game developers and publishers have also engaged contract workers through agencies to help add manpower in game development in part to alleviate crunch time from employees. Contractors are brought on for

2781-494: Is still their primary activity they are generally described as "publishers" rather than "developers". Developers may be private as well. In the video game industry , a first-party developer is part of a company that manufactures a video game console and develops mainly for it. First-party developers may use the name of the company itself (such as Nintendo ), have a specific division name (such as Sony's Polyphony Digital ) or have been an independent studio before being acquired by

2884-474: Is usually conducted in a casual business environment, with t-shirts and sandals as common work attire. Many workers find this type of environment rewarding and pleasant professionally and personally. However, the industry also requires long working hours from its employees (sometimes to an extent seen as unsustainable). Employee burnout is not uncommon. An entry-level programmer can make, on average, over $ 66,000 annually only if they are successful in obtaining

2987-506: The King's Quest series. While finishing The Black Cauldron , programmers Mark Crowe and Scott Murphy began to plan for an adventure game of their own. After a simple demonstration to Ken Williams, he allowed them to start working on the full game, which was named Space Quest: The Sarien Encounter . The game was released in October 1986 as an instant success, spawning many sequels in

3090-727: The Space Quest series in the following years. Al Lowe , who had been working at Sierra On-Line for many years, was asked by Ken Williams to write a modern version of Chuck Benton 's Softporn Adventure from 1981, the only pure text adventure that the company had ever released. Leisure Suit Larry in the Land of the Lounge Lizards was a great hit and won the Software Publishers Association 's Best Adventure Game award of 1987. It can be deduced that

3193-659: The AFL–CIO writing an open letter to video game developers encouraging them to unionize. In January 2020, Game Workers Unite and the Communications Workers of America established a new campaign to push for unionization of video game developers, the Campaign to Organize Digital Employees (CODE), in January 2020. Initial efforts for CODE were aimed to determine what approach to unionization would be best suited for

Sierra Entertainment - Misplaced Pages Continue

3296-584: The Atari 8-bit computers . It was published by Artworx in 1981. Sierra On-Line acquired the rights from Ledden to create a graphical version which was published as Cranston Manor for the Apple II. Ledden was paid royalties, but did not receive credit in Sierra's version. This Sierra Entertainment -related article is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . This adventure game –related article

3399-456: The International Game Developers Association (IGDA), are conducting increasing discussions about the problem; they are concerned that working conditions in the industry cause a significant deterioration in employees' quality of life. Some video game developers and publishers have been accused of the excessive invocation of "crunch time". "Crunch time" is the point at which the team is thought to be failing to achieve milestones needed to launch

3502-516: The MSX , they became one of the earliest second-party developers for Nintendo, developing exclusively for Nintendo's consoles starting with the Famicom, though they would self-publish their mobile games. A third-party developer may also publish games, or work for a video game publisher to develop a title. Both publisher and developer have considerable input in the game's design and content. However,

3605-528: The Me Too movement and have tried to address the symptoms of these problems industry-wide, the video game industry has yet to have its Me Too-moment, even as late as 2021. There also tends to be pay-related discrimination against women in the industry. According to Gamasutra 's Game Developer Salary Survey 2014, women in the United States made 86 cents for every dollar men made. Game designing women had

3708-622: The Papyrus Design Group were both shut down in early 2004, laying off 50 people; 180 Sierra-related positions were eliminated at Vivendi's Los Angeles offices; and by June 2004, Vivendi had completely shut down Sierra's Bellevue location, laid off more than 100 employees, dispersed Sierra's work to other VU Games divisions, and re-located the remains of Sierra's assets to Vivendi's corporate headquarters in Fresno, California . In total, 350 people were laid off. Some assets were retired in

3811-504: The Screen Actors Guild‐American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA) union doing work for video games struck several major publishers, demanding better royalty payments and provisions related to the safety of their vocal performances, when their union's standard contract was up for renewal. The voice actor strike lasted for over 300 days into 2017 before a new deal was made between SAG-AFTRA and

3914-541: The video game crash of 1983 with only a 20% increase in sales, after analysts in 1982 had predicted a doubling in 1983 of the entire software market. The company had spent much of 1983 developing for a Commodore machine and the TI-99/4A which were both obsolete by the end of the year. Ken Williams was reportedly described as "bewildered by the pace at which computers come into and fall out of favor", and Williams said, "I've learned my lesson. I'm not moving until I understand

4017-539: The video game industry . He told the Los Angeles Times : "Someone who was part of the co-creation of that world and those characters isn't getting a credit or a nickel for the work they put into it. Maybe we need unions in the video game industry to be able to protect creators." Cranston Manor Cranston Manor is a graphic adventure published for the Apple II by On-Line Systems in 1981 and

4120-512: The CEO for the publishing body. CUC Software consolidated manufacturing, distribution, and sales resources of all of divisions including what was to become Sierra, Davidson, Blizzard, Knowledge Adventure, and Gryphon Software. CUC Software utilized its various labels' market specialties. For example, in October 1996, Sierra published Stay Tooned! , an adventure game developed by Funnybone Interactive (a subsidiary of Davidson & Associates) as Sierra

4223-532: The CEO of CUC International, and a member of Sierra's own Board of Directors since 1991, surprised Ken Williams with the deal after a board meeting. At this time, Sierra had modest revenues of about $ 158 million in the current fiscal year, so the sum surprised Ken. Forbes had posited the idea to Ken that this would be the start of a large company eventually to bring in LucasArts Entertainment , Broderbund , and Davidson & Associates (which at

Sierra Entertainment - Misplaced Pages Continue

4326-669: The Fathers was released, beginning the Gabriel Knight series. The game and subsequent sequels were critically acclaimed in the mainstream press at the time. Sierra and Broderbund started merger discussions in March 1991, but the idea was discontinued later that month. Sierra needed a new building due to growth, and moved its headquarters and much of its key staff to Bellevue, Washington . Sierra's original location in Oakhurst

4429-446: The IGDA found that people of color were both underrepresented in senior management roles as well as underpaid in comparison to white developers. Further, because video game developers typically draw from personal experiences in building game characters, this diversity gap has led to few characters of racial minority to be featured as main characters within video games. Minority developers have also been harassed from external groups due to

4532-511: The Year from both the Software Publishers Association and Computer Gaming World magazine. The Sierra Network was launched on May 6, 1991, as the first game-only online environment. Development of the network began in 1989, as Ken Williams was inspired by the launch of the Prodigy service in 1988 to create something similar for Sierra's games. As a free service other than access use charges,

4635-535: The acquisition of Activision Blizzard , stated it supported these unionization efforts. After this acquisition, the employees of Bethesda Game Studios , part of Zenimax under Microsoft, unionized under the Communications Workers of America (CWA) in July 2024. Over 500 employees within Blizzard Entertainment 's World of Warcraft division also unionized with CWA that same month. Sweden presents

4738-572: The advent of digital distribution of inexpensive games on game consoles, it is now possible for indie game developers to forge agreements with console manufacturers for broad distribution of their games. Other indie game developers create game software for a number of video-game publishers on several gaming platforms. In recent years this model has been in decline; larger publishers, such as Electronic Arts and Activision, increasingly turn to internal studios (usually former independent developers acquired for their development needs). Video game development

4841-463: The bookkeeping of the merged companies and noticed irregularities from CUC's past bookkeeping, leading to the discovery of massive accounting fraud at CUC in March 1998. Forbes was later convicted on three charges related to fraud by the Security and Exchange Commission in 2007. With the news, Cendant announced intention to sell the computer entertainment division, and on November 20, 1998, announced

4944-431: The closest equity, making 96 cents for every dollar men made in the same job, while audio professional women had the largest gap, making 68% of what men in the same position made. Increasing the representation of women in the video game industry required breaking a feedback loop of the apparent lack of female representation in the production of video games and in the content of video games. Efforts have been made to provide

5047-527: The company announced plans to take over management and maintenance of the online RPG The Realm and acquiring the complete yet previously canceled Navy SEALs . The company also reported they obtained the rights to continue using the name Yosemite Entertainment for the development house. Meanwhile, Sierra announced another reorganization, this time into three business units: Core Games, Casual Entertainment, and Home Productivity. This reorganization resulted in even more layoffs, eliminating 105 additional jobs and

5150-416: The console manufacturer (such as Rare or Naughty Dog ). Whether by purchasing an independent studio or by founding a new team, the acquisition of a first-party developer involves a huge financial investment on the part of the console manufacturer, which is wasted if the developer fails to produce a hit game on time. However, using first-party developers saves the cost of having to make royalty payments on

5253-508: The console. This established the use of licensing fees as a model for third-party development that persists into the present. The licensing fee approach was further enforced by Nintendo when it decided to allow other third-party developers to make games for the Famicom console, setting a 30% licensing fee that covered game cartridge manufacturing costs and development fees. The 30% licensing fee for third-party developers has also persisted to

SECTION 50

#1732791811102

5356-1105: The creative licenses from other Vivendi divisions and from companies partnered with Vivendi and the copyrights of several notable intellectual properties , such as Crash Bandicoot , Spyro the Dragon , 50 Cent: Bulletproof and Scarface . Vivendi also ceased publishing under their own name by this point after their name change, with all major releases being under the Sierra brand name. Video game developer A developer may specialize in specific game engines or specific video game consoles , or may develop for several systems (including personal computers and mobile devices ). Some focus on porting games from one system to another, or translating games from one language to another. Less commonly, some do software development work in addition to games. Most video game publishers maintain development studios (such as Electronic Arts 's EA Canada , Square Enix 's studios, Activision 's Radical Entertainment , Nintendo EPD and Sony's Polyphony Digital and Naughty Dog ). However, since publishing

5459-444: The developer if the game is not meeting expectations. When each milestone is completed (and accepted), the publisher pays the developer an advance on royalties . Successful developers may maintain several teams working on different games for different publishers. Generally, however, third-party developers tend to be small, close-knit teams. Third-party game development is a volatile sector, since small developers may depend on income from

5562-417: The developers are the publisher's employees, their interests align with those of the publisher; the publisher may spend less effort ensuring that the developer's decisions do not enrich the developer at the publisher's expense. Activision in 1979 became the first third-party video game developer. When four Atari, Inc. programmers left the company following its sale to Warner Communications , partially over

5665-715: The end of February 1996 the beginning of closing the acquisition of both Sierra and Davidson for $ 1.06 billion and $ 1.14 billion in CUC stock, respectively. The deal to obtain LucasArts and Broderbund failed. Sierra's acquisition closed on July 24, 1996. The terms included naming Ken Williams a vice-chairman of CUC International, a Member of the Office of the President of CUC, and that he would remain responsible for Sierra's R&D and remain Sierra's CEO. He also requested creation of

5768-467: The entertainment industry (such as films and television ) require long working hours and dedication from their employees, such as willingness to relocate and/or required to develop games that do not appeal to their personal taste. The creative rewards of work in the entertainment business attracts labor to the industry, creating a competitive labor market that demands a high level of commitment and performance from employees. Industry communities, such as

5871-572: The first video game-specific union, Game Workers Unite Australia, was formed in December 2021 under Professionals Australia to become active in 2022. In Canada, in a historic move, video game workers in Edmonton unanimously voted to unionize for the first time in June 2022. In January 2023, after not being credited in The Last of Us HBO adaptation, Bruce Straley called for unionization of

5974-474: The game first became famous as an early example of software piracy, as Sierra sold many more hintbooks than actual copies of the game. A series of Leisure Suit Larry games followed. Ken Williams befriended a retired highway patrol officer named Jim Walls and asked him to produce an adventure series based on a police theme. Walls proceeded to create Police Quest: In Pursuit of the Death Angel , which

6077-480: The game was high at release in late 1995. Although nearly one million copies were sold when the game was first released in August 1995, Sierra's bestselling adventure game created, the game received mixed reviews from industry critics. In February 1996, early e-commerce pioneer CUC International , seeking to expand into interactive entertainment, offered to buy Sierra at a price of about $ 1.5 billion . Walter Forbes ,

6180-404: The gaming industry, while a 2017 IGDA survey found that the female demographic in game development had risen to about 20%. Taking into account that a 2017 ESA survey found 41% of video game players were female, this represented a significant gender gap in game development. The male-dominated industry, most who have grown up playing video games and are part of the video game culture , can create

6283-557: The growing online services. AT&T later took sole possession of the network on November 15, 1994, so the name was changed to the ImagiNation Network. The network failed to find a mass audience, and was sold to America On-Line in 1996. In 1991, Sierra released the first game in the Dr. Brain series, Castle of Dr. Brain , a hybrid puzzle adventure education game, which has several sequels. In 1993, Gabriel Knight: Sins of

SECTION 60

#1732791811102

6386-457: The industry by working long hours. Because crunch time tends to come from a combination of corporate practices as well as peer influence, the term "crunch culture" is often used to discuss video game development settings where crunch time may be seen as the norm rather than the exception. The use of crunch time as a workplace standard gained attention first in 2004, when Erin Hoffman exposed

6489-431: The lack of respect that the new management gave to programmers, they used their knowledge of how Atari VCS game cartridges were programmed to create their own games for the system, founding Activision in 1979 to sell these. Atari took legal action to try to block the sale of these games, but the companies ultimately settled, with Activision agreeing to pay a portion of their sales as a license fee to Atari for developing for

6592-431: The market better." Many of Sierra's best known series began in the 1980s. In 1983, Sierra On-Line was contacted by IBM to create a game for the new PCjr . IBM offered to fund the entire development and marketing of the game, paying royalties. Ken and Roberta Williams accepted and started on the project. Roberta Williams created a story featuring classic fairy-tale elements. Her game concept includes animated color graphics,

6695-559: The movement again called out for the industry to unionize. The movement argued that Telltale had not given any warning to its 250 employees let go, having hired additional staff as recently as a week prior, and left them without pensions or health-care options; it was further argued that the studio considered this a closure rather than layoffs, as to get around failure to notify required by the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act of 1988 preceding layoffs. The situation

6798-591: The name change to Sierra Entertainment, Inc. In 2002, Sierra, working with High Voltage Software, announced the development of a new chapter in the Leisure Suit Larry franchise, titled Leisure Suit Larry: Magna Cum Laude . Released to mostly mixed to negative reviews; Larry's creator, Lowe, was not involved with the project. The newly renamed Sierra Entertainment continued to develop mostly unsuccessful interactive entertainment products. However, hit Homeworld 2 once again cemented Sierra's reputation as

6901-448: The nature of the video game culture. The industry also is recognized to have an ageism issue, discriminating against the hiring and retention of older developers. A 2016 IGDA survey found only 3% of developers were over 50 years old, while at least two-thirds were between 20 and 34; these numbers show a far lower average age compared to the U.S. national average of about 41.9 that same year. While discrimination by age in hiring practices

7004-439: The network provided a "land-based" precursor to MMORPGs and internet chat rooms, each land theme for the type of content provided multi-player gaming and category based bulletin boards and chat rooms throughout the continental United States. By July 1993, having reached about 40,000 subscribers, AT&T announced a plan to invest $ 5 million into the network and add more games, gaining partial control as part of its expansion into

7107-540: The news, there have typically been followup discussions towards the potential to form a union. A survey performed by the International Game Developers Association in 2014 found that more than half of the 2,200 developers surveyed favored unionization. A similar survey of over 4,000 game developers run by the Game Developers Conference in early 2019 found that 47% of respondents felt the video game industry should unionize. In 2016, voice actors in

7210-634: The official expansion pack for the widely popular game Diablo developed by Synergistic Software , a division of Sierra. On November 19, 1998, Sierra published Half-Life for the PC, developed by Valve , which became a huge success. During these events, CUC merged with Henry Silverman 's HFS Incorporated in December 1997 and became the Cendant Corporation . The merger did not immediately affect operations of Sierra. However, Silverman, who served as CEO of Cendant, had become more involved with

7313-522: The original publisher of Valve 's Half-Life series. After seventeen years as an independent company, Sierra was acquired by CUC International in February 1996 to become part of CUC Software . However, CUC International was caught in an accounting scandal in 1998, and many of the original founders of Sierra including the Williamses left the company. Sierra remained as part of CUC Software as it

7416-694: The present, being a de facto rate used for most digital storefronts for third-party developers to offer their games on the platform. In recent years, larger publishers have acquired several third-party developers. While these development teams are now technically "in-house", they often continue to operate in an autonomous manner (with their own culture and work practices). For example, Activision acquired Raven (1997); Neversoft (1999), which merged with Infinity Ward in 2014; Z-Axis (2001); Treyarch (2001); Luxoflux (2002); Shaba (2002); Infinity Ward (2003) and Vicarious Visions (2005). All these developers continue operating much as they did before acquisition,

7519-414: The primary differences being exclusivity and financial details. Publishers tend to be more forgiving of their own development teams going over budget (or missing deadlines) than third-party developers. A developer may not be the primary entity creating a piece of software, usually providing an external software tool which helps organize (or use) information for the primary software product. Such tools may be

7622-456: The process, including Print Artist , and some like the Hoyle franchise were sold to other publishers or developers. Sierra was simply a publishing label and brand name for Vivendi assets, being used in tandem with its own name for publishing. As a company, Sierra was disestablished on August 24, 2004. The business continued to operate as a division of Vivendi Games. In late 2005, the Sierra brand

7725-429: The publisher's wishes generally override those of the developer. Work for hire studios solely execute the publishers vision. The business arrangement between the developer and publisher is governed by a contract, which specifies a list of milestones intended to be delivered over a period of time. By updating its milestones, the publisher verifies that work is progressing quickly enough to meet its deadline and can direct

7828-415: The publishers. While this had some effects on a few games within the industry, it brought to the forefront the question of whether video game developers should unionize. A grassroots movement, Game Workers Unite , was established around 2017 to discuss and debate issues related to unionization of game developers. The group came to the forefront during the March 2018 Game Developers Conference by holding

7931-475: The release of King's Quest: Mask of Eternity in December 1998. Brochu, who had been hired in 1995 by Ken Williams, to handle the daily business affairs of Sierra, replaced Ken Williams and remained as President of Sierra until October 1997, when he too departed the company. In April 1997, to further expand upon their role in the edutainment business, Sierra purchased Books That Work and CUC International purchased Berkeley Systems and transferred management of

8034-605: The sale of the consumer software division to Paris -based Havas S.A . Sierra became a part of Havas Interactive, the interactive entertainment division of the company. On February 22, 1999, Sierra announced a major reorganization of the company, resulting in the shutdown of several of their development studios, cutbacks on others and the relocation of key projects, and employees from those studios, to Bellevue. About 250 people in total lost their jobs. Development groups within Sierra such as PyroTechnix were shut down. Others such as Books That Work were relocated to Bellevue. Also shut down

8137-458: The series' title to Quest for Glory . This decision caused all future games in the series, newer releases of Hero's Quest I , to switch to the new name. In 1987, Sierra On-Line started to publish its own gaming magazine, about its upcoming games and interviews with the developers. The magazine was initially named The Sierra Newsletter , The Sierra News Magazine , and The Sierra/Dynamix Newsmagazine . However, since Sierra Club already published

8240-513: The series, Quest for Glory: So You Want to Be a Hero , was released in 1989. The series combines humor, puzzle elements, themes and characters borrowed from various legends, puns, and memorable characters, creating a five-part series of the Sierra stable. Although the series was originally titled Hero's Quest , Sierra failed to trademark the name. Milton Bradley successfully trademarked an electronic version of their unrelated joint Games Workshop board game, HeroQuest , which forced Sierra to change

8343-601: The software board met only once. He began disputes with Davidson over Davidson's conservative management style and his disdain for Sierra's more risque product lines such as Phantasmagoria and Leisure Suit Larry . In January 1997, Davidson stepped down as CEO of CUC Software, and CUC Executive Chris MacLeod was named as his replacement. After this, Ken Williams shifted his focus work on CUC's online product distributor, NetMarket while remaining as CEO of Sierra in name only. In November, Ken Williams departed from CUC International, while Roberta Williams remained with Sierra until

8446-464: The studio to Sierra as an internal developer. In December 1997, in order to secure the rights to Return to Krondor , Sierra purchased PyroTechnix, who were developing the game. On November 5, 1997, after the departure of Brochu in October, Sierra was split into three business units, all of which reported directly to MacLeod. In 1998, Sierra divided into 5 sub-brands and corporate divisions: On November 24, 1997, Sierra published Diablo: Hellfire ,

8549-545: The target of sexual harassment. This can be coupled from similar harassment from external groups, such as during the 2014 Gamergate controversy . Major investigations into allegations of sexual harassment and misconduct that went unchecked by management, as well as discrimination by employers, have been brought up against Riot Games , Ubisoft and Activision Blizzard in the late 2010s and early 2020s, alongside smaller studios and individual developers. However, while other entertainment industries have had similar exposure through

8652-410: The text-only format, she realized that the graphics display capability of the Apple II could enhance the adventure gaming experience. With Ken's help in some of the programming, Roberta designed Mystery House , inspired by the novel And Then There Were None and the board game Clue , using text commands and printout combined with rudimentary graphics depicting the current setting. Mystery House

8755-499: The time owned Blizzard Entertainment ) under one entity and be a major publisher in the video game industry, as a great boon to the Williams and to Sierra's shareholders. Roberta had expressed her concerns about the offer to Ken and to executive officers, but he remained interested in the potential that Forbes offered. Ken accepted the offer, believing it was in the best interest for Sierra's future and stockholders, and CUC announced by

8858-484: The toxic nature of the video game culture. This racial diversity issue has similar ties to the gender one, and similar methods to result both have been suggested, such as improving grade school education, developing games that appeal beyond the white, male gamer stereotype, and identifying toxic behavior in both video game workplaces and online communities that perpetuate discrimination against gender and race. In regards to LGBT and other gender or sexual orientations,

8961-487: The use of crunch time at Electronic Arts , a situation known as the "EA Spouses" case. A similar "Rockstar Spouses" case gained further attention in 2010 over working conditions at Rockstar San Diego . Since then, there has generally been negative perception of crunch time from most of the industry as well as from its consumers and other media. Game development had generally been a predominately male workforce. In 1989, according to Variety , women constituted only 3% of

9064-508: The video game industry typically shares the same demographics as with the larger population based on a 2005 IGDA survey. Those in the LGBT community do not find workplace issues with their identity, though work to improve the representation of LGBT themes within video games in the same manner as with racial minorities. However, LGBT developers have also come under the same type of harassment from external groups like women and racial minorities due to

9167-678: The video game industry. Whereas some video game employees believe they should follow the craft-based model used by SAG-AFTRA which would unionize based on job function, others feel an industry-wide union, regardless of job position, would be better. Starting in 2021, several smaller game studios in the United States began efforts to unionize. These mostly involved teams doing quality assurance rather than developers. These studios included three QA studios under Blizzard Entertainment : Raven Software , Blizzard Albany , and Proletariat; and Zenimax Media 's QA team. Microsoft , which had previously acquired Zenimax and announced plans to acquire Blizzard via

9270-504: The workforce in video games is estimated to be from contract labor. Similar to other tech industries, video game developers are typically not unionized . This is a result of the industry being driven more by creativity and innovation rather than production, the lack of distinction between management and employees in the white-collar area, and the pace at which the industry moves that makes union actions difficult to plan out. However, when situations related to crunch time become prevalent in

9373-407: Was Yosemite Entertainment, the division occupying the original headquarters of Sierra On-Line. The company sold the rights of Headgate Studios back to the original owner. With the exception of the warehouse and distribution department, the entire studio was shut down. Game designers Al Lowe and Scott Murphy were laid off. Lowe had just started work on Leisure Suit Larry 8 . Murphy was involved in

9476-449: Was a successful year for the company. Sierra was the market-share leader in PC games for the year. With $ 83.4 million in sales from software-publishing, earnings improved by 19 percent, and a net income of $ 11.9 million. In June, Sierra and Pioneer Electric Corp. signed an agreement to create a joint venture that would develop, publish, manufacture, and market entertainment software for the Japanese software market. This joint venture created

9579-668: Was argued to be "exploitive", as Telltale had been known to force its employees to frequently work under "crunch time" to deliver its games. By the end of 2018, a United Kingdom trade union, Game Workers Unite UK, an affiliate of the Game Workers Unite movement, had been legally established. Following Activision Blizzard 's financial report for the previous quarter in February 2019, the company said that they would be laying off around 775 employees (about 8% of their workforce) despite having record profits for that quarter. Further calls for unionization came from this news, including

9682-417: Was later renamed Yosemite Entertainment , and continued under that name until closing in early 1999. The company was now made up of five separate and largely autonomous development divisions: Sierra Publishing, Sierra Northwest, Dynamix , Bright Star Technology , and Coktel Vision , with each group working separately on product development but sharing manufacturing, distribution, and sales resources. 1995

9785-613: Was more known as an adventure game publisher than Davidson. In November 1996, Ken Williams met with the founders of Valve and negotiated Sierra's exclusive rights to publish Half-Life , which Ken Williams debuted at E3 in May 1997. In December 1996, Sierra released The Realm Online , an online fantasy role-playing game. After the sale, Ken Williams remained within the software division so that he could provide strategic guidance to Sierra, although he began to grow disillusioned as he soon found that his new titles at CUC meant very little and

9888-560: Was re-launched from Los Angeles. A new subsidiary called Sierra Online (no-relation to Sierra's former name Sierra On-Line) was also founded within this time, which focused on downloadable and online-only games. Throughout 2005 and 2006, Vivendi acquired several game development studios including Massive Entertainment , High Moon Studios , Radical Entertainment , Secret Lair Studios / Studio Ch'in (based in Seattle and Shanghai) and Swordfish Studios and integrated them into Sierra, alongside

9991-640: Was released as Hi-Res Adventure #0 though being the second release. The next release, Wizard and the Princess , also known as Adventure in Serenia , is considered a prelude to the later King's Quest series in both story and concept. Through 1981 and 1982, more games were released in the series including Cranston Manor , Ulysses and the Golden Fleece , Time Zone , and The Dark Crystal . A simplified version of The Dark Crystal , intended for

10094-403: Was released in 1987. Several sequels followed, and the series was touted for adherence to police protocol (relevant parts of which were explained in the games' manuals), and presenting some real-life situations encountered by Walls during his career as an officer. Quest for Glory is a series of hybrid adventure/role-playing video games designed by Corey and Lori Ann Cole . The first game in

10197-553: Was released through mail-order in May 1980. It was an instant hit with about 15,000 copies sold, earning US$ 167,000 (equivalent to $ 618,000 in 2023). It is the first computer adventure game to have graphics, although made with crude, static, monochrome, line drawings. The two shifted the focus to developing more graphical adventure games. Mystery House became the first in the Hi-Res Adventure series. The Hi-Res Adventure series continued with Mission Asteroid , which

10300-544: Was renamed Vivendi Universal Publishing and became the publishing division of the new group, divided into five groups: games, education, literature, health, and information. The merger was followed by many more layoffs of Sierra employees. In August 2001, Sierra announced a major reorganization, which included the closure of Dynamix as well as the layoffs of 148 employees located at the company headquarters in Bellevue. On February 19, 2002, Sierra On-Line officially announced

10403-487: Was revolutionary for the genre, and the game received great critical acclaim and many awards. UK-based game developer and publisher Codemasters , in an effort to establish themselves in the United States, announced the launch of a new development studio in Oakhurst, using the abandoned Sierra facilities and hiring much of the Yosemite Entertainment's laid-off staff in mid-September 1999. In early October,

10506-515: Was shut down later that year. The Sierra brand was revived by Activision in 2014 to re-release former Sierra games and some independently developed games. Currently, the Sierra brand is under Microsoft 's ownership through its gaming division , following the acquisition of Activision Blizzard . Sierra Entertainment was founded in 1979 as On-Line Systems in Simi Valley, California , by the husband-and-wife duo Ken and Roberta Williams . Ken,

10609-404: Was sold and renamed several times over the next few years. Sierra was formally disestablished as a company and reformed as a division of this group in August 2004. The former CUC Software group was acquired by Vivendi and branded as Vivendi Games in 2006. The Sierra division continued to operate through Vivendi Games's merger with Activision to form Activision Blizzard on July 10, 2008, but

#101898