One of the more surprising announcements during Gamescom was Activision's revival of the classic Sierra brand. The original Sierra, founded by Ken and Roberta Williams in 1979, was known for the King's Quest, Space Quest, and Police Quest series (among many others). Activision has big plans for the brand that include classic franchises and brand new creations.
We had a chance to speak with Activision's MacLean Marshall about the project and how Activision came to resurrect the Sierra name. "There's one piece of the puzzle, which is that Sierra was a brand that we acquired with Vivendi," Marshall says. "It's been dormant and there wasn't a place for it, and we didn't know what we were going to do with it. Then, over the however many years, everyone's been watching this indie movement. There was that angle, where we had this really nostalgic brand that most gamers to varying degrees by age know. We wanted to find a way to expand our digital portfolio."
When we spoke with Activision Publishing CEO Eric Hirshberg about Sierra, he called it a skunkworks project. Marshall provided more detail about the size and scope of the team. "This whole Sierra thing is a passion project for a handful of us at Activision, no more than maybe 15 at any given time," he says.
As for the titles in development, we had the chance to see Geometery Wars 3: Dimensions in action at the show. As for the other announced game, King's Quest, it's still early, but Marshall hints at what to expect from The Odd Gentlemen's project.
"They are doing a contemporary reboot of King's Quest. It's not just an HD port," he says. "But that's not also to say that, maybe King's Quest is or isn't the right one, that's not on the table, too. It could be HD remakes of original Sierra content. It could be contemporary reimaginings of the old Sierra IPs. It could be stuff that's new, kick-***, awesome IP that has nothing to do with the old Sierra brand, but will be a Sierra thing when it launches."
As for how The Odd Gentlemen are approaching the franchise, don't expect that the gameplay will be the same as you remember from the decades old series. "There's not much I can say about King's Quest," Marshall tells us. "All I can say is that I've seen it, and it's not a point-and-click game. But it looks *** awesome."
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The Odd Gentlemen says:
To clarify the game is very much an adventure game. It doesn't only use the mouse.
