Sierra Entertainment

Sierra Entertainment (previously Sierra On-Line, commonly referred to as Sierra) is an American publisher founded in 1979 as On-Line Systems by Ken and Roberta Williams. Based in Oakhurst, California and later in Fresno, California, the company is owned by Activision, a subsidiary of Activision Blizzard.

Sierra is best known today for its multiple lines of seminal graphic adventure games started in the 1980s, many of which proved influential in the history of video games. The Sierra label was absorbed by its parent company in 2008. Some franchises (such as Crash Bandicoot and Spyro the Dragon) that were published by Sierra were later published by Activision.

Sierra was revived in 2014 by Activision Blizzard. It now focuses on re-releasing their old games, reviving their franchises and collaborating with independent developers for smaller projects.

History

Founding

Sierra Entertainment was founded in 1979 as On-Line Systems in Simi Valley, California, by Ken and Roberta Williams. Ken Williams, a programmer for IBM, bought an Apple II microcomputer which he planned to use to develop a Fortran compiler for the Apple II. At the time, his wife Roberta Williams was playing text adventure games on the Apple II. Dissatisfied with the text-only format, she realized that the graphics display capability of the Apple II could enhance the adventure gaming experience. After initial success, On-Line Systems was renamed Sierra On-Line in 1982, and the company moved to Oakhurst, California. By early 1984 InfoWorld estimated that Sierra was the world's 12th-largest microcomputer-software company, with $12.5 million in 1983 sales.

Entertainment

Entertainment is a form of activity that holds the attention and interest of an audience, or gives pleasure and delight. It can be an idea or a task, but is more likely to be one of the activities or events that have developed over thousands of years specifically for the purpose of keeping an audience's attention. Although people's attention is held by different things, because individuals have different preferences in entertainment, most forms are recognisable and familiar. Storytelling, music, drama, dance, and different kinds of performance exist in all cultures, were supported in royal courts, developed into sophisticated forms and over time became available to all citizens. The process has been accelerated in modern times by an entertainment industry which records and sells entertainment products. Entertainment evolves and can be adapted to suit any scale, ranging from an individual who chooses a private entertainment from a now enormous array of pre-recorded products; to a banquet adapted for two; to any size or type of party, with appropriate music and dance; to performances intended for thousands; and even for a global audience.

Sierra

Sierra (Spanish for mountain range and saw, from Latin serra) can refer to:

Mountains and mountain ranges

Place names

Radical Entertainment

Radical Entertainment is a video game developer based in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. It was founded in 1991 and previously developed games for game publishers such as Microsoft and Fox Interactive. It is an entirely owned subsidiary of Activision Blizzard after being acquired by Vivendi Games in 2005. The studio, being the oldest gaming studio in British Columbia, is often referred to as the backbone of the gaming industry in Vancouver.

The company is known for developing Scarface: The World Is Yours, Crash: Mind over Mutant and Prototype. Their motto is Play, Work, Live, Breathe, Games.

The studio suffered massive layoffs on June 28, 2012 and suffered partial closure, being left with the inability to produce original games but rather being limited to support work on other Activision titles. The layoffs at Radical were attributed to the fall of the video game design market in Vancouver, which had been said to be the "undisputed centre of the Canadian video game industry". The studio, however, later confirmed the layoffs to not be as severe as reported.