SLOW DEATH of Publisher SIERRA - Lost Interview during LAYOFFS 1999 

Always hate when companies call it "restructuring" instead of "layoffs." It would be like a jewel thief calling themselves a "geology acquisition specialist." Sorry you went through that!

It was fun coming up with the collage of Sierra box covers for this video. By the time this interview happened, Sierra had published hundreds of awesome games... _many that have been sadly forgotten..._

Thanks for sharing this. Behind the scenes game history is always interesting!

what a snapshot of history! Glad this is preserved.

Would be really cool if you could get an interview with Roberta Williams from Sierra! Hearing about the creation of the KQ series would be amazing!

Dude, this is fu***** gold. The fall of sierra, are you shitting me?? This should be called the start of warner bros butchering of the video game industry. Awesome stuff mjr, keep em coming.

Fantastic stuff! Man, I love any media chronicling this era of gaming; it sucks that there's so little media regarding the gaming industry in the 90's, man. I remember, as a kid, having my mind blown whenever I'd see segments on shows like _The Next Step_ that would talk about how it was working at a studio like Black Isle or EA, or how VR Cafes operated back then. When TheMADEOak Channel acquired the library of every _GameproTV_ , like 2 years ago here on RU-vid, you bet I took some time out of my day to watch 'em all and soak up all the info on the industry from back then (that was the second, lesser-known, mid-90's one, btw). This stuff is always interesting and I'm super happy you found it! Show off more, any time! Maybe put some gameplay footage from the old games here - c'mon, you know you want to go back and play some of these just to capture footage anyway :D

Wow, as a huge B5 fan I was so pumped when I heard the game was coming out...and so bummed out when it got cancelled! Thank you for this!

happy to see drunkn master paul again.

This was fascinating, Thanks for posting this Metal Jesus

Absolutely fantastic listening, it's really great that such history is not lost and has been archived

I watch nearly ALL of your videos MJR, but an IMMEDIATE CLICK for Babylon 5 !!!

I remember playing the Babylon 5 game at the Sierra and Precedence party at Vorcon in 98. It looked great and the Starfury flight controls were awesome. I'm sure it would have sold well in Europe as they say here.. but it looked good enough that it would have stood by itself as a great Space sim outside of the B5 license. I know a lot of B5 fans who were eagerly awaiting the game. It's a shame what happened with the game and Sierra :(

Oh, man! This is EPIC! Thank you ;)

I love these Sierra history episodes. MAKE A DOCUMENTARY!! That'd be amazing.

I like how the Babylon 5 game's cover was included even though it was never actually released. Also that last few seconds about how Jane Jensen will be the next guest makes me want to hear that installment (assuming it was recorded).

You had me with the Babylon 5 box :)

I just finished LSL7 nice to see this greetz from Brazil . I miss my cyber sniff 2000... :(

Woaah this is awesome, thanks for sharing this!

DrunkenMasterPaul Thanks for sharing. I didn't think I had the attention span but it ended up so engrossing / entertaining I am glad I gave it a listen.

I loved the part with the guy spelling out his email on live radio, I guess SPAM only came out of a can back then

This is pure gold you guys are right!! you can hear 19 year younger DMP... I'll call him "Classic Drunken Master Paul"

Thanks for the video. Sierra was amazingly great and holds a special place. First game i ever played was LSL1 on an old monochrome monitor PC. Through quest for glory, police quests, and further LSL. Tribes. oh man.

This was a real treat, Metal Jesus. I'd love to see more videos like this and the other where you guys reminisce about Sierra.

Great Video ! Sierra was such a loved Huge Company back at the 90's that brought us many many gems and pretty much established whole genders of games on the PC

I got to talk to Robert Holmes on my podcast like 6 years ago. I was star struck and awful at interviewing and he was unbelievably gracious. What a gem.

Holy heck, this is bittersweet AF. "Layoffs" have been threatened at my job, too, recently. I know that this was almost two decades ago, but I'd like to thank everyone who worked for Sierra and I feel you. ✌

Keep these coming. As a 90's gamer, this was a gem. Thanks for the history lesson.

It took me 2+ hrs to listen the whole thing through as it was very difficult for me to understand everything, for the audio being so “old“ plus me being not a native english speaker. But it was indeed interesting to hear about this. *Although I must admit that a lot of the goofing around or the US company issues is very hard to relate to over here in Europe...*

I want to thank you and all the people that worked hard to make great games. I saw BC Quest for Tires I played that so much as a kid.

I like this nice man, along with his buddy man.

Yes, you should absolutely upload the rest of the interviews!

Thy made some amazing games for the PC and Amiga so much nostalgia for lot's of gamer's. So sad how a gaming giant like SIERRA, can go down the drain, even tho thy out sell most other companies, corporate and managerial overspending, that's how most of the game companies, crash and burn. Thank's for this one MetalJesus, an amazing historical Video :o)

Please release the GameDive archives! Been waiting a year plus! I've literally listen to this episode twice a week! Again I can't be the only one wanting to here the rest of these!

This was incredibly interesting! Please do a followup "Where are they now" video! What happened to the B5 and MEO IP? What happened to the people in the interview? Did that guy go back to The Realm Online!?

Just got to talk with Ken Williams this past weekend, and picked up his new book. Oh the memories from Sierra in the '80s in Oakhurst.

Sierra has always felt like one of those few-in-a-generation, almost mythical companies that people wish they could have been a part of. The golden ages of those places are typically pretty well-documented, and Sierra is no exception. Not always as documented are the pain and confusion that came from those golden ages meeting their end. These interviews give us the chance to see (well... hear) exactly what was going through people's minds as it happened. Thanks to you and DMP for putting this up.

Historical document. Absolutely great material

metal jesus is the coolest hope you do more love your videos can't wait for more

Really interesting thank you for that Insider look

That's crazy cool! Thanks guys.

1:17:24 Oh boy, they had no idea... 3 years later Morrowind would be released. First Person is a huge standard today.

Love your videos MJR! and a welcome return of DMP!!

To me those Sierra box covers brought me back to a time of rage. Back in 1995 I had what I thought was a nice $3200 computer with monitor and ran some pretty stout SPSS statistical software on it. Every game I bought worked well on it. ... except Sierra. Crash ..Crash. Crash. It was ridiculous. For the first time I would look at the software publisher instead of the game title to see if I wanted to buy the game. If I saw the Sierra logo I put it down. Great titles that didn't work (to me) that was what Sierra was all about.

Wow, the mind-blowing proposition of worldstream in 1999 and didn't know its connection to Sierra. So much vision and talent there. _____ YES !! A vote for playback of these recordings!!

I was 9 around this was recorded,I was in no way into pc,but I regret not getting into it,but this was so interesting to listen to!,please we need more!

You need to release more these are great!!!!

Thanks for sharing, I liked the boxes scrolling by... BC’s QUEST... Lord Of The Realm!

Kevin Eastman is a cool dude. I met him a couple times at comic book conventions. Hope you post that interview.

This is amazing, thanks!

I had to wait until I had some alcohol to truly enjoy this. This channel always astounds me.

Wow so long ago it’s def a snapshot in time, doesn’t feel that long ago but I was in middle school back then but now I’m 31, I remember Sierra games all being really good and continued to play them through my late teens.

I love hearing these old stories of companies' struggles and successes. Also everything is great with DMP!

WTF Babylon 5 game, space combat? Could've been? I just checked footage online, I'm very sad now. It looks Awesome. Nooooooo! Why Sierra? Why? To be honest, not sure the Bab5 name would be enough to sell it though. I eat these old interviews up, a windows into the past... Thank you, very much.

"he is probably trying to get to a quiet pay phone" haha This takes me back I was in my twenties in the 90's and forgot how many of these games I had.

I still crack up knowing Sierra was developed in Oakhurst, CA. A small ass hick town a couple of hours from me.

The audio was great, but I really, really enjoyed the slideshow.

Betrayal at Krondor was a work of art! Loved the magic riddle chests...

I was so psyched for babylon 5 to be released back then. Upgraded my own PC and gave my boss my old in anticipation for the multiplayer .

You had me at *big spoon* the rest is a hour and 20 minute bonus)( kidding aside, this really is crazy interesting

Count me in for more archival interviews!

I was so pissed when B5 was cancelled. I still remember the Dynamix website be changed to show a giant squirrel destroying the building

MJR you started working out, didn't you? Your posture is way better, and you seem to have made some gains!

i fucking love so much this stories from the 90's! Great content man!

My first Sierra game was Lionel Train Town. It's a Jeff Tunnell game where you complete tasks and solve puzzles with toy trains.

I grew up with PC games by SIERRA. Awesome interview

My favorite developer. Why I started to watch Metaljesus.

Duuuuude. I just finished watching your "WE WORKED AT SIERRA! - The Rise, Fall & SCANDAL of Sierra On-Line" video and moved onto this one. This is super rad stuff. I grew up with the generation of games that Sierra cooked up during their 'golden years'. It's really amazing to have this kind of insight and to know that you guys were a part of that badass machine. Hope to see more videos like this.

Thexder, Firehawk (still have it that my parents kept!), HL2, KQ, SQ, PQ, etc. :D

We need more DMP! I appreciate all of your guests, but haven't seen DMP in too long!

It sounds like yall all got part time jobs as air traffic controllers and are venting about Sierra during a break. Great show guys! :P

this is great and listening to the whole thing

Man.. I remember seeing the kings quest IV box in my cousin's room waaaay back...... game looked amazing.

Super interesting! Can you release more please? :)

and here it is... 2018.... and still no half life 3 :(

I didn’t noticed his Resident Evil 4 GameCube controller. #MetalJesusRocks

They stopped caring about what they had and the Work's future, and they decided they wanted a boat.

DMP is really good as the host. He should try this sort of call in panel discussion show on RU-vid.

I was so excited for Babylon 5, also really miss the Dynamix dev studio.

1000 people listening to a live podcast in 1999 thats pretty cool

Just putting it out here, I am still hoping the Homeworld: Cataclysm source code will surface one day.

This is amazing, thank you for sharing. I grew up in Huntsville,Alabama with a Gateway computer and I literally only played Sierra games for years. I had discovered Space Quest III and it changed my life.

This is *GOLD* !!! I'm not even into old school PC games mainly because I'm 25 and never grew up on it or owned those games but man is this interesting. It doesn't take a genius to know this is gold. Hopefully this ends up everywhere online. I'm about to post this on Reddit unless someone else has.

I still have sweet memories about Phantasmagoria and Gabriel Knight: the beast within ... good old times 👌👌👌

A little too corporate for my taste but still appreciate the variety of content, ABSOLUTELY noticed youre posture! Keep it up, I lost 45 lbs just walking my dogs twice a day!

You guys ever do anything with Ecoquest 1 and 2? That was my favorite game as a kid.

So many great games from my childhood! Classics!

I have never heard of sierra but It is such a shame when a company that has been around for awhile falls and disappears from existence because people just forget about these people that made these games and all games are an art form and hold something special for certain people so just think of this as a legacy on remembering sierra

I once got laid off because a company had different plans for my workplace. Never fun.

i came across my "The Realm Online" disk. Stephen was always a god to us who played the Realm. I loved that game. I looked at the page that was there still, but its so broken. Wish someone would pick it up and put it back out there. What is Stephen doing these days?

I like the tag line on the game at 8:31 it's a fitting choice for the conversation. ^_^

I will always remember Sierra games despite being 17 and not playing most of their games

I'm sure this video was interesting to those who worked at Sierra and could relate. However for the rest of us, it did provide a nice sleep aid.

*has 15 mins free* well lets watch this metal jesus vid looks at video length *well i quess im going to be late * hahaha

I’m watching this . And working on my mustang !!

Its great to see DMP. These talking videos are cool as. Keep up the great work MJR

Where can I go for more of this old Talk Spot content? This information should be archived..

What a time capsule. I love stuff like this.

Man I didn't know Tribes 2 was by Sierra. Wonder why it didn't work so well when I got it on my PC and there is no servers. I loved playing that game with a friend back in the day.

Listened to this while I was at work. Great insight to the collapse of Sierra. Thanks for posting this gem!