Sierra Shutting Down Game Servers
Source: Tom's Guide | Keywords: sierra, Game, Servers
Sierra is shutting down a long list of dedicated gaming servers, including No One Lives Forever 2, Homeworld, Caesar IV and more. Is this a sign of financial hard times for Sierra, or standard procedure?
This post over on the Sierra forums shows a list of twenty-one dedicated game servers that Sierra will be shutting down as of November 1. Although the company gives no indication as to why the dedicated servers are coming down, the games listed are rather old, and it’s likely that these PC games have reached the end of their lifespan.
Then again, shutting down the servers may be Activision Blizzard’s way of flushing out old, pre-2004 Sierra Entertainment games. The company, a part of Vivendi Games, endured a complete overhaul that included the loss of 350 jobs. Vivendi’s ultimate plan was to re-launch the Sierra brand with new management, new studios, and new IP. Thus, the new line of products assigned to Sierra included Spyro the Dragon, Crash Bandicoot, Scarface and more.
In 2007, parent company Vivendi Games merged with Activision to create Activision Blizzard. While the Sierra branding still exists, currently there are no mentions of returning to pre-2004 Sierra IPs. As for the list of servers going offline, here they are:
1. Alien vs Predator 2
2. Arcanum
3. Caesar IV
4. Dark Reign 2
5. Emperor: Rise of the Middle Kingdom
6. Empire Earth
7. Empire Earth 2
8. Empire Earth: Age of Conquest
9. Ground Control
10. Ground Control2
11. Homeworld
12. Homeworld: Cataclysm
13. NOLF2
14. Red Baron
15. Sanity
16. Star Trek: Armada
17. SWAT3: EE
18. SWAT3: GOTY
19. The Incredible Machine
20. Tribes2
21. Vampire
There’s no question that many gamers will be effected by the shut-down, however it’s disappointing that Sierra did not present final statistics, showing what games are still being played online as compared to when the servers actually went online. These great games lived a good life. Cross your fingers that perhaps one day some of these great IPs will return again.
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NOLF2!
the list of games going offline are impressive! many of these games where considered pioneers in thier genre. I suppose this is revende for what sierra did to Origin... it's a harsh world, sad i guess...
but eventually, newer , younger studios will emerge and new title will come ^^ I can't wait!! ^^
These games weren't just awesome, they still are imo. I feel like replaying Homeworld/Cataclysm.. I wouldn't be able to do that if SecuCRAP was around back then!
always disappointed that they never completed the babylon 5 game. great television show. i began to run through the b5 dvd collection last week and looky what shows up here. funny how things happen like that.
Not really related to game servers, but I remember my first Sierra game, Betrayal at Krondor. Such a great game....
My first Sierra game which they later sold was The Realm. First MMORPG, and I would spend endless hours on that back in around 97.
Wow this sucks... I loved Tribes 2 and Swat 3 online in fact I was just thinking about reinstalling Tribes 2 again. Damn...
Blame Activision.
The first Sierra game I ever played was Space Quest - loved those quest games... stopped playing PC games after they went out of style.
...King's Quest ][ on the Apple //e... it took about 30 seconds every time you went from screen to screen to re-draw the new screen you'd gone to.
It was 'nearly' 3d back on a box with only 64K memory and a single 5.25" drive.
NOLF2!
Holy Crap - I still have NOLF2 in the shrinkwrap! One of those games I never got around to playing, but bought because I liked the original game so much... Man, time flies!
Holy Crap - I still have NOLF2 in the shrinkwrap! One of those games I never got around to playing, but bought because I liked the original game so much... Man, time flies!
Go play it, it's a good game. I never played the original so I can't compare them, but NOLF2 is one of my favourite FPS games.