Sierra Shutting Down Game Servers

News
By published

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

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.

Kevin Parrish

Kevin started taking PCs apart in the 90s when Quake was on the way and his PC lacked the required components. Since then, he’s loved all things PC-related and cool gadgets ranging from the New Nintendo 3DS to Android tablets. He is currently a contributor at Digital Trends, writing about everything from computers to how-to content on Windows and Macs to reviews of the latest laptops from HP, Dell, Lenovo, and more. 

13 Comments Comment from the forums
  • nukemaster
    Private server time :)
    Reply
  • randomizer
    NOLF2! :cry:
    Reply
  • katmandude
    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!! ^^
    Reply
  • stemnin
    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!
    Reply
  • sandmanwn
    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.
    Reply
  • Not really related to game servers, but I remember my first Sierra game, Betrayal at Krondor. Such a great game....
    Reply
  • 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.
    Reply
  • NuclearShadow
    Wow this sucks... I loved Tribes 2 and Swat 3 online in fact I was just thinking about reinstalling Tribes 2 again. Damn...
    Reply
  • Kami3k
    Blame Activision.
    Reply
  • The first Sierra game I ever played was Space Quest - loved those quest games... stopped playing PC games after they went out of style.
    Reply