History Creator / Sierra

* UsefulNotes/PCVsConsole: Was very far on the "PC" side at its height, though they did publish a few games for consoles late in its life. Its adventure games were also popular enough to port to consoles, though these were done by outside companies with [[PortingDisaster varying results]], which likely only reinforced the opinion of fans that the PC was the superior platform. Ken Williams did admit that he and his family owned and enjoyed console games. ''VideoGame/KingsQuestMaskOfEternity'' was inspired by ''VideoGame/SuperMario64'' and ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaOcarinaOfTime''. After the Cendant sale and acquisition by Vivendi, it switched to supporting consoles fully. Thankfully, we got ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfSpyro'' out of it.

** ''Time Zone''

Sierra began to fizzle out in the late 90s, with the decline of adventure gaming (which prompted Sierra to branch out into publishing games of other genres), plus being bought out by [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CUC_International CUC International]] (which also bought out [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Davidson_%26_Associates Davidson & Associates]], the then-owner of Creator/BlizzardEntertainment, in 1996.[[note]]Roberta wasn't keen on the decision, but Ken believed it was best for the company's future and he himself was being exhausted by his executive role, wanting to return to managing game projects instead. When Davidson began running the show, Ken quickly became disillusioned with his choice due to his lack of say in decision-making at the new company and was constantly butting heads with the more conservative Davidson, who wasn't keen on the fantasy elements of ''King's Quest'' (despite also publishing the likes of {{VideoGame/Warcraft}} and {{VideoGame/Diablo}}) and the more risque projects like ''VideoGame/LeisureSuitLarry'' and ''[[VideoGame/PhantasmagoriaAPuzzleOfFlesh Phantasmagoria]]''. Eventually both Ken and Roberta left the company, selling all of their stock in the process, which was actually a good move considering the account scandal that happened afterwards.[[/note]] CUC itself was bought by a conglomerate named [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cendant Cendant]] which had its mitts in hotels, real estate and car rentals - soon after the company was formed, it sold Sierra and other software companies after an accounting scandal occurred when Cendant discovered that CUC had committed what was, at the time, ''the largest case of accounting fraud in the history of the United States.'' It was bought by Vivendi Creator/{{Universal}} (although after Universal's merger with Creator/{{NBC}}, it became just Creator/{{Vivendi}}), who were cool enough to let amateur game makers create fan games of their series until 2009, when it was merged into Creator/{{Activision}} and subsequently closed down.

* BleachedUnderpants: ZigZagged. They were known for being mostly family-friendly, and their flagship series was no worse than a Golden Age Creator/{{Disney}} flick. Their first big hit, however, was a text adventure game called ''Softporn Adventure.'' Where it zig-zagged? They tried to downplay or bury the original, but recycled most of the plotline and puzzles in a PlayedForLaughs way, and had an even ''bigger'' hit as ''VideoGame/LeisureSuitLarry''. Ken Williams repeatedly pointed out that most of the people who bought and played computer games were adults. Williams asserted that the company was simply catering to that market by releasing games with mature content and that they were no different from movie studios that released R-rated movies.

* ''[[VideoGame/{{Manhunter}} Manhunter]]'' series (''Manhunter: New York'', ''Manhunter 2: San Fransisco'')

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** A ''[[Series/BabylonFive Babylon 5]]'' space combat simulator was nearly completed, but was canceled much to the uproar of the fans. The CEO at the time argued that the game's development cost was so high that the game would have never turned a profit. It was very shortsighted decision: many old games have found a second life through online distribution such as [[UsefulNotes/{{Steam}} Steam]] or [[Website/GOGDotCom GOG.com]] or [[GameMod modding]].

* TheWikiRule: [[http://www.sierrachest.com/ The Sierra Chest]], a fansite that chronicles Sierra's entire library, offering walkthroughs, cheats, maps, downloads and music from various Sierra games.

* BleachedUnderpants: ZigZagged. They were known for being mostly family-friendly, and their flagship series was no worse than a Golden Age Creator/{{Disney}} flick. Their first big hit, however, was a text adventure game called ''Softporn Adventure.'' Where it zig-zagged? They tried to downplay or bury the original, but recycled most of the plotline and puzzles in a PlayedForLaughs way, and had an even ''bigger'' hit as ''VideoGame/LeisureSuitLarry''. Ken Williams pointed out that most of the people who bought and played computer games were adults. Willians asserted that the company was simply catering to that market by releasing games with mature content and that they were no different from movie studios that released R-rated movies.

** ''Roger Wilco's Spaced Out Game Pack'' (includes Mrs. Astro Chicken and the Monolith Burger minigame from ''VideoGame/SpaceQuestIV'' and the sand skimmer chase from the ''VideoGame/SpaceQuestI'' remake)