Well it’s official, I just got off the phone with my contact at Sierra who wants to remail nameless. ORCS: Revenge of the Ancients is dead, no chance of any sort of comeback, moreover MEO is being ‘restructured’ as we speak, with a whole new team taking it over.
I was to scream ‘SIERRA SUCKS!!’ I want to say ‘YOU PEOPLE ARE IDIOTS!’ as I’m sure many of you do. But the truth of the matter is, Sierra is not to blame.
As much as we’d like to think that the folks at Sierra were a small bunch of cool dudes who liked to play video games it’s not true. They are, in fact, a company like all others. And they are owned by someone else, like so many other companies. Sierra is owned by ‘Havas Interactive’, which in turn is owned by ‘Vivendi’ a french company which is the 64 th biggest company in the world.
Do you think any of them know or even care about this game? No. Do you think they care that people like John Race and his Berkley team made this game their blood, sweat and tears for months now? No. And in reality do you blame them?
It’s all about money here folks, Sierra obviously wasn’t paying the bills so CHOP CHOP CHOP! And they decided that ORCS, an LOTR inspired game would not catch the video gamers eye. Forget the fact that the films, due out in the next few years will be the biggest thing EVER, forget the fact that it’ll beat Star Wars, Titanic AND Jaws.
They don’t see that far ahead, or maybe they do but they STILL think ORCS wouldn’t have been a moneymaker.
Shame on them for not taking the risk.
As for John Race and his team, they apparently are not one of the 105 people being fired. They will be moved to other tasks, if they are willing. I heard that at this very moment they are out getting drunk, good, stick Vivendi with the tab, they obviosuly have the money to pay for it now.
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Xoanon here,
I will try to find more about this, right now this is what I recieved:
Sierra Cancels Babylon 5 And More in Reorganization
On the heels of another reorganization, Sierra On-Line has elected to cancel several titles it claims did not meet its success criteria. Cancelled titles include Desert Fighters and Pro Pilot Paradise at the company’s Dynamix studio, Babylon 5, a project of Sierra Studios, and Orcs: Revenge of the Ancient. The product cancellations will result in the loss of 105 jobs.
The company today also announced a reorganization into three business units: Core Games, Casual Entertainment and Home Productivity. This new structure is effective immediately. Core Games features several renowned development teams including Impressions Games, Papyrus, Sierra’s Northwest studio and the Tribes team. In addition to Valve, other third party relationships include Relic and Massive Entertainment. Core Games will focus on strategy, action, RPG and adventure games.
Casual Entertainment includes the Hoyle line, the Trophy Bass Fishing series, Professional Bull Rider, the Field and Stream Hunting series, the 3D Ultra series, Austin Powers: Operation Trivia and other similar titles. This group has a 26 percent share of the casual entertainment business. Home and Productivity will publish titles for gardening, home design, home publishing, family heritage, digital imaging and web page design.
From: The Adrenaline Vault
Thanks to Hastur for the tip
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Xoanon here,
Cool news has reached me today from the heavens beyond. A contact on the ‘inside’ gave me a cool tibit of news concerning the ‘Making Of’ film. When I asked him/her/it/they if he/she/it/they have seen any cameras aroud shooting pre-production stuff, he/she/it/they said that they certainly are!
More was gleamed from my contact, but it is of such a fragile topic I cannot say, but will speak of soon!
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