How Stock Fraud almost destroyed the Gaming Industry
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- čas přidán 29. 11. 2022
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As legendary game company Sierra rises to the top of the food chain, they pick up the attention of an unlikely person that would set their destiny forever.
Social media:
/ lowspec_gamer
/ thelowspecgamer
Music by Epidemic Sound: epidemicsound.com/creator
Stock Footage from Getty
Game footage by used:
• Warcraft 1 (1994)
• Leisure Suit Larry in ...
• King's Quest 8: Mask o...
• Red Baron (16-color ve...
• Phantasmagoria (PC) Pl...
Credits:
Research and Writing: LowSpecAlex
Voice over: LowSpecAlex
Editing: LowSpecAlex
3D animation: Windy, Divye
Art: Maiku no Koe
Spanish Translation, Audio editing and QA: Henrique von Buren
Thumbnail design: Maiku no Koe
VA director and sourcing: Jesús Hernández/Dubbing Home
Sources:
Olaf Lubeck, Williams, Ken. Not All Fairy Tales Have Happy Endings: The rise and fall of Sierra On-Line - Hry
Two golden rules of doing business:
- Never go public
- Listen to Roberta Williams
Going public isn't bad per se. But man, you MUST, DO IT, RIGHT.
But listening Roberta? She's the biggest wisdom source ever, she must never be ignored.
@@HirokaAkita Roberta Williams really has that fabled intuition that people speak about. She can smell trouble from a mile away and prepare for the worst.
@@HirokaAkita No, it's always bad. The simple fact of the matter is a public company is legally obligated to do everything in it's power to make as much money as possible and keep increasing it indefinitly. That will always destroy any real quality it had.
@@TheAkashicTraveller That can't be an actual real law, right? Because that would be such a bad law its 😬😬😬
Roberta was right, but i understand Ken's position, i mean, im a programmer, i love to code, leaving that behind just to go from meeting to meeting i feel would suck my soul dry
Valve not being a public company really gives me peace of mind in so many ways and that's just really sad.
The day Valve goes public or is sold off (probably after Gabe is gone) is the day it dies
uncle Gaben is smarter than that
@@khhnator He is smarter than all of us.
@@SnrubSource I hope his son takes good care of
@@CLOYO alright what's 1+2?
Low spec gamer uploads 4k vids, we have been betrayed. Only 360 and below is acceptable.
Good dam true
LowSpecGamer could make an APU run Cyberpunk 2077 in 4k, you just need to lower the settings till everything is 2D
Love it when your videos go from a few unknown people and then suddenly... bam, household names and everything gets connected.
Loving the Gaming Cinematic Universe
I've been lucky enough to work with Ken & Roberta on Colossal Cave this past year. It's been fun bringing the game to life, and chatting with Ken about old Sierra Stories. This video series was great. Nice work.
Oh wow! Best of luck and thank you for being part of the next chapter of this story
Colossal Cave?
My google-fu says it is a amazing game from 1975. But you said "past year"...
Are we back in the 70s? But I didn't finished my PMJ hoaring 20s jazz playlist!!
Edit: Just watched the video till the end. Looks like an Amazing remake dude! Best of luck for u all!!!
There's something absurd that the sentence "Sierra got CUC'ed" can actually be uttered and be truthful at the same time.
I always admired in Valve how they stayed private, and as a result were able to focus on long-term goals with a mutual benefit for them and their customers, as opposed to the constant nickel and diming and abusive business patterns that you're practically required by law to do if you have a public stock. It's fascinating to know the story behind it all.
Valve made skin gambling a thing though. That sure made some employee shareholders happy.
@@mfaizsyahmi Sure, and we had the whole paid mods thing as well, which wasn't nice either. I'm not saying Valve never messes up, I'm just saying they mess up a whole lot less than others.
At the end of the day, they earn so much on Steam's 30% cut anyway that most of these moves would be inconsequential to them. That's why their work is far more focused on what will cement them for decades to come (the current meta for which seems to be control over devices and platforms, hence SteamVR and the Index, plus SteamOS and the Steam Deck), and less on quarter-to-quarter performance. The latter of which would be normally responsible for most of the exploitative business practices, because screwing over your customer can bring short-term gains, but you need positive mindshare in the long term.
@@mfaizsyahmi Yeah, but to this day, it's still only optional since it doesn't affect you in anything gameplay-wise. It's not a P2W scheme where other games do.
Their skin gambling scheme is tame, yet still flourishing when compared to other gaming companies. So Valve also did it right in this matter.
I don’t know, they don’t seem terribly interested in making video games anymore, they’re hyper focused on selling games and trying to topple Microsoft’s grasp on PC gaming.
I honestly would like to see Valve spin off their game studio or sell it.
@@n_core Still, any kind of money profited off gambling is dirty.
Mr Stonks vibe checks gaming
Wat
MR STONKS IS GONE! NOOOO
Gamestonk!
Holy shit A CEO actually getting prison time!? Shame it doesn't happen more often considering shit like insulin and other medicine prices, let alone stuff to do with games like microtransactions and lootboxes
12 years isn't even close to enough time. Forbes ruined multiple people's lives and even though he had to pay out so much in restitution he doesn't even get the "privilege" of being a ruined homeless man living on the streets. your typical young guy gets pretty much a life time of prison for being caught smoking pot but this guy gets 12 years??? 12 years is a pittance to the people whos lives he ruined.
Uhm...
You happen to know who 'made' microtransactions and lootboxes?
It's...
(Look for the video "Let’s go whaling: Tricks for monetising mobile game players with free-to-play" by "PocketGamerbiz").
And Valve _"totally didn't"_ make this mainstream.
Beware the stonks
Loved this video! Ken shared it on the Colossal Caves Team chat this morning, and we all got a kick out of seeing our lovely bosses Ken and Roberta as anime characters. Thanks for drawing attention to the new game as well!
Wow. Somehow I never actually even bothered to look up what exactly happened to Sierra. Great story.
I've been waiting for this! Curious to see it! - Ken Williams
Just finished -- awesome!!!! Very impressive work. I always thought my book would make a great movie someday. I guess that day has arrived. Thank you.
I am *very* happy to hear it. We went all out on this one knowing that you might be watching. We made some glass prints of some of the key art of the two videos for ourselves, but if you want us to send any let me know. I have sent an email!
@@LowSpecGamer I saw the email. Thank you! Yes -- I would like to get a print of one of the pieces of art. We'll give it a nice home!
Omg it's the man himself!
Seeing your history was really inspiring
I miss Sierra. they published the majority of my favourite games.
LowSpecGamer is a prime example of how changing your CZcams channel's approach can change everything. I used to have a crappy PC, and this channel gave me so much hope for running games which my PC could not handle. But this new (not that new now) approach is really addictive to watch. Keep it up bro!
I'm so glad to see your channel's subscriptions growing quickly. The hard work shows. The production values put other big channels to shame.
At the start of your channel I was really scared that such a great project would fail due to lack of views. I'm glad your hard work is paying off. And glad I'm going to keep getting such high quality entertainment.
This was fascinating... I went to the school founded by the Davidsons (the buyout treated them just fine, thank you very much), and got to know them long after their software development days.
What a cool way to learn a little more of the history that I didn't care about as a kid!
I did not know what happened to them after the buyout. That is fascinating. Thank you
Loads of money, a lot of it used for philanthropy. (And washing their image, as with any rich philanthropist.)
Jan Davidson cared very much about education, which is why so many of their games were pioneers for early 'edutainment," and why they fund a school for smart kids unable to be challenged elsewhere.
Hey, I just subscribed to curiositystream + nebula, because I could finally spare a bit to put towards good creators.
How do I find your videos on curiositystream? I tried searching, but it gave me nothing - same with the "technology" section.
@@werdfeefs7027 you probably know by now but you get a separate Nebula login emailed to you :)
The hospitality division of Cendant is now four separate companies: Anywhere (formerly Realogy), Travelport, Wyndham Worldwide and Avis Budget Group.
If only our copyright laws were still as originally drafted. Then all of the Sierra IP would be public domain now and MS wouldn't be able to profit from it. For that matter, Roberta could make another King's Quest game without that BS getting in the way.
Wait, what? The laws were changed to favor MS? It happened due lobby?
@@victor_silva6142 The laws were changed multiple times over the past two centuries, but mostly in the 1900's due to lobbyists. People blame Disney because they funneled a lot of money to get their copyrights, with regards to Mickey Mouse et. al, extended. As it stands currently, 99 years plus 50 after the author's death. As originally drafted it was 14 years, and they later amended that to double it if the author sought an extension.
it's a bit silly to blame Disney for the latest extension, tho. What really happened is that the EU did an extension and the US just followed suite.
@@poudink5791 I'm not specifically blaming just Disney, only pointing out that most do. However, to suggest that the US follows the EU at all is ridiculous as the US doesn't follow anyone, only leads. Although I'm sure it'll be pointed out soon enough that where the US leads isn't always to a good place.
Ken & Roberta got the short end of that straw but ended up OK, thankfully!
I really hope that CZcams gets its act together and starts making your vids reach to more people.
I found you because your PS1 video and started binged all of them after that.
Keep the great work mate.
BTW, are you the LSG that Caddicarus mentioned on his vid about building his pc?
Yes
I was scrolling through my subscription feed the other day noticing that low spec gamer was not in there for a while, and today you delivered! My commute home is covered now
You are the one CZcams I can, without fail, watch an entire 6+ minute video without skipping
I hope the kid I’m doing open heart surgery understands that I need to put it off for a second.
There's a small error around 13:45 : Activision Blizzard bought itself to Vivendi, a few years after they merged with Vivendi Games into the group. The whole group is still alive and is probably one of the biggest content producers and distributor in the world, being active in a whole lot of cultural industry and information sectors. It even was the parent company of Universal Music till a few years ago.
While Activision did merge with Vivendi Games to form Activision Blizzard, the Activision part more or less had control over the company after the merge.
And Activision did buy back most of the shares Vivendi held in Activision Blizzard in 2013 for 5.8 billion dollars, so it isn't part of the Vivendi Group anymore.
So far.... Valve has just never let you down.... and I am reeeeally not a fan boy. My steam account is now 18 years old. But so far they have never disappointed me. Not a single game was pulled from my account so far. They advanced VR incredible lot, made great hardware and I never had a problem with the support. I mean...come on. I am really not naive to all this BS that is happening in the gaming industry.. but Valve... they play fair so far.
The only reason I got into steam was because the original MW2 required it. I remember hating having to sign into steam just to play my game. Now 600 games later a valve index and a steam deck I think it's safe to say I got over it.
Makes me wonder if I would have still used steam if mw2 didn't require it.
The only thing I don't like is the popularization of loot boxes they did with TF2 and the Cs skin gambling.
@@greenboots5823 same for me and Half-Life 2
I love Valve and they're well above most companies, but they have a sizable list of issues too, let's not ignore that.
1. Making Lootboxes mainstream
2. Absolute lack of quality control (theres an entire genre of bootleg Fascist/Politician/Dictator smut games they activly sell on their stores, and countless asset flips)
3. Not putting out any sizable games for almost a decade, and STILL consistently neglecting their IPs.
4. Steam Support can be incredibly unhelpful
5. Occasional Double standards and inconsistencies
6. Failure to communicate to their audience about the state of series and their current status
7. Treating some countries citizens as lesser customers
8. Poor moderation of their community (Punishing occasional reasonable members and ignoring many serious offenders)
9. Implementing Steam Reddit Gold
Valve probably is my favorite Company ever, but let's not pretend they can do no wrong, even if they're far above most.
@@_-Lx-_ Well said, The only thing I can't agree on in the list is steam support. I can't speak for everyone obviously, But in my personal experience I've had positive interactions with Steam support. I broke my left Valve Index controller I contacted them to see if I can send it in for repair. They replaced it I paid nothing not even for shipping. I've even gotten full refunds for games that are over the 2 hour mark not by much but they could have turned it down easily. Point is I love this company but they are not with their faults.
13:45 Nope, Vivendi was not bought by Act/Bliz, they where the owners of Activision and Blizzard. They merged Activision and Bilzzard to Act/Bliz and gradually sold more and more shares. There was news around 2017 that Vivendi wanted to buy Ubisoft, maybe a story for another video
Yes, sorry for the lack of clarity. They sold out their gaming division, not the whole company
I can't put into words just how amazing this content is. Literally the only channel I've ever turned in notifications for.
Walter white ur wife ??????
The art and stories are getting more and more exquisite, keep it up LowSpecGamer! ^^
Wow! An amazing story, and with such unexpected players. I grew up with Sierra, and I had no idea what was happening.
Hadn't checked this channel for a while, but this content is amazing!
Fantastic! Thank you for the hard work!
man I miss your old contents pls make low spec guides again
Love your stories and docos mate - brilliant content and delivery ✅
Got this randomly recommended, had to double take. Last time I saw a video by this channel, I was trying to play a some game 4 years ago on a crappy 2008 computer. Now it's all high quality documentaries, Jesus fucking christ. Good stuff.
I really like new direction you've selected for the channel!
Great video! Love how it all ties together!
Once again amazing mini-documentary!
Damn, my guys dodge that bullet like total champs
Te amo LowSpecGamer, tremendos videos!
I used to watch this channel all the time for my lowspecgaming needs, coming back after a few years because the name just randonmly popped in my head, im really glad to see you've diversified your content as i assume your making videos you enjoy making rather than rattling off specs.
watched a few videos really nice stuff and enjoyable :D
I'm happy that Roberta get back to game making.
These videos are so good, every upload is fantastic
Love it! Great work on the narrative!
Awesome video, all the drawings of Roberta are so cute on this one lol
YES!!!! Lowspecgamer video!! The day instantly got better!
I think you just etched Roberta’s and Ken’s name into my brain, man. The constant turmoils and tribulations could’ve been made into an anime lmao
I love these so much!
Great, informative video!
Woo! The return of Waifu Robera!
Didnt know Robert was making a new game! Will check it out when done!
Love your channel and content LSG
Watching through and I'm noticing some errors,
2:08 random rendering error on the graph, not a big deal.
3:21 "February 1992" text reads 1982
whoops
😛
Cool video as always
Como olvidar el Empire Earth con el logo de SIERRA, ojala les vaya bien en su indie y puedan hacer remakes de King Quest y EE
My aunt used to work there I just remember playing video games and her telling me they used to call her when they couldn't beat kings quest haha I completely forgot about that
MetalJesusRocks worked at Sierra in the 90s, he must have a good perspective on how it was like working in that company in those days. Hope he gets to see this video.
John Romero's nail polish is quite the detail! I wonder if he already wore it in the early 90s.
By 10:16, i've been muttering OH NO repeatedly
I was gunna skip this until I saw "3h ago" and I immediately clicked. Love the videos
CUC being voiced by what sounds by text to speech is peak casting.
Every business story has a public floatation causing problems in the long term, and buyouts causing problems immediately!
I’m far too artistically and academically minded to want to run a business anyway, even though I got convinced I did for a few years as a teen, but everything tells me that you just gotta stay private even if you grow slower. (And I guess that it’s less risky to go public from a good place than out of desperation for more funds!)
Of course then you brought up that Valve took that advice at the end, so… yeah.
Had no idea Sierra ever published Half Life though. Pretty cool. Can’t believe he refused an offer of an advance from Carmack and Romero though, holy heck
In case we need some new reminders that stock, trading and financing are just straight up evil
Why stock markets need to exist I will never know.
The Stock Market exists to help companies raise money
I think you can thank Adam Smith for that
What a wild story.
Oh damn this'll be top!
Am I the only one thinking that Cendant logo looks an awful lot like some of the logos used for the Combine in HL2
3:21 Voice says 1992, Text incorrectly says 1982. Apologies if this has already been pointed out, not sure if there's anyway to fix it outside of a complete re-up :/
I believe larger channels have the option to re-upload the video for edits, retaining likes and views.
Okay, next do
"How Gambling is currently destroying the Gaming Industry."
Did you mean "How gambling made the video game industry not only the biggest and most profitable it has ever been but also the most profitable entertainment industry"?
@@LutraLovegood Good point, here is another one: You know how profitable it is to sell crack cocain?
While seeing Sierra's failure makes me sad, it does make me wonder if the Earth would be a worse place had they not failed: Even if you hate them because they haven't made a game for so many years, Valve is as "good" as a multiBILLION company can get. All of their IPs are valuable, and part of the reason why they don't make new games anymore is because they don't make games for cash. Half-Life 2 defined some rules in the FPS genre, CS (especially CSGO) defined what a competitive FPS needs to be, both Portal and L4D are great games that fill a space in the market to this very day.
If Sierra hadn't failed, Valve likely wouldn't be able to accomplish many things that it has accomplished, and Sierra could spend all of Valve's talent into milking more money out of its famous IPs (like Activision has been doing with CoD). We would get more games but the contributions of those games to the industry would be far, far less substantial. Just knowing this makes me genuinely happy that they failed, so that Valve could survive as a truly independent company and do what they are doing today.
(I know many people hate Valve for making microtransactions popular, but honestly, if they didn't do it, then somebody else certainly would. Also, their microtransactions tend to be the best in industry even though they came up with the formula: They are only cosmetic, and they don't have shiny effects to make them more appealing either)
That's assuming on things that never happened.
And Valve was late for microtransactions, the asian market was already hot on it, Microsoft had started with Oblivion on Xbox, and EA had their sports games (fun fact but sports cards were an incredibly popular form of gambling for children decades ago), Double Dragon 3 in the 90s, a lot of online games in the early 2000s, Habbo Hotel and Second Life, The Sims 2 and Facebook games...
Valve is one of the smallest offenders on that front, and frankly one of the least egregious outside of gambling. If Valve had never existed we would still see tons of micro transactions in video games.
omg i cant believe i came across this video, i grew up as a kid in the 90s and started enter the gaming space and industry popped up, my first was of course wolf-3d and doom, doom 2 and when i was like in junior high was hooked on counterstrike made by sierra. I never knew what happen to the brand until the whole story unfolded now.
I love your vids because of you i could tweak games and play on my potato pc or i would suffer from lowpsecophobia
3:18 In English it would be skeptical or "Some people were skeptics to this sort of technique." Using the plural form of skeptic.
Ken and Roberta's sections felt so close to the standalone episode Dark Quiet Death in Mythic Quest, and then I learnt the couple in that episode was actually based on the two. Small world. One of the best episodes I have ever watched on TV. Always felt Rob McElhenney and Charlie Day were so much more beyond their acting.
Well, to be fair with Walter Forbes, his dream of the videogame industry consolidation is pretty much happening during current times. The thing is, he's not leading the movement he so desperately dreamt of.
Ironic isn’t it
@@LowSpecGamer Rather than ironic, it's more like poetic justice.
he was really ahead of his time, unforunatley for him, probably would have gotten away with his crimes too today😜 but seriously, cant say he wasnt a visionary
@@ivanm3342 His ideas weren't knew, far from it. And industry consolidation is something that's always bound to happen in our capitalist system, just look at literally every other industry. All the big players have been grabbing all the power they can for centuries until only one man is in charge.
im sure its something thats already in the books but id love some valve content
I grew up on Kings Quests, Space Quests and Police Quest 🤤💪🥰🥰
And there I was happily playing Sierra's games in the 1990s, not knowing that the company was being destroyed.
King's Quest VII is maybe my first real video games (if I don't count educational ones like Adibou) with Days of the Tentacles (or at least it's the two oldests games I remember) so I have a ton of respect for the Williams couple. Sad to see how one bad decisions destroyed their dreams, but at least they've indeed quit at the right time.
Btw, that KQVII poster really bring back memories ahah
Honestly the fact that Valve still to this day remains a private company is one of the many reasons i continue to love and fanboy over them. i own a Valve Index, i own a Steam Deck, i bought a Steam Controller back in the day and i have an ever increasing library of games on my steam account. the moment Valve becomes a publicly traded company is the moment i consider* selling all of my valve paraphenelia, gaming pc and steam account and move into the woods.
stonks!
What is the name of the song at the start of the video?
I've heard it before.
Man, como extraño Sierra. Mi primer videojuego de caja que tuve de niño fue Lode Runner Online publicado por Sierra. Buenos recuerdos.
FYI to future viewers: the old videos are in an unlisted playlist linked in his changing content video.
Man everything I played back then was from sierra, then they suddenly disappeared and I never knew why.
That's so cool that the Williams are going back to their roots and designing a game now, ironic that they were a household name which at the time would've been considered AAA titles and are now an Indie developer
*King's Quest, not King Quest. Other than that, fantastic video!
14:24.... as Ken and Roberta watched everything they had built burn up from the sidelines.....
I wanted to see them turn and hug each other. Because in the end, they still had each other.
You should watch Mythic Quest S01E05 titled "A Dark Quiet Death" if you haven't already. It's a standalone episode story based on the two played by Miloti and Jake Johnson. The production and the experience is movie grade. Amusingly Mythic Quest is produced by Ubisoft Films.
skonks
I'm so confused.. I didn't get a notification for this or last video even though I am subscribed with them turned on.
Why I didn't get the notification for this video. I randomly seach for the channel to rewatch the PlayStation video and found that a new video is uploaded 2 weeks ago. Seriously, whats wrong with YT this days
2:09 I thought something flashed for a split second
at 03:21 you saying feb 1992 but in video its written feb 1982..which is correct?
Walter Forbes walked so that Gabe Newell could run. Metaphorically speaking, of course.
Speaking of Valve, can somebody confirm if Valve really ended up with the IP of Gunman Chronicles? It _was_ made with Half-Life's engine, but that means nothing as they're both Sierra's IPs when Valve sued. Because otherwise it'd be a huge, constantly perpetuating misconception that Valve owns Gunman and intentionally not selling it on steam, when in reality the IP is buried deep in Activision Blizzard's catalog.
"It's the early 80's"
Sadly, no 😔😔😔
Time will tell if Microsoft gets Activision blizzard. If the procurement goes through, I hope they put the sierra catalogue on game pass ultimate
Mr. Stonks in the thumbnail makes me want to file a restraining order.
Also, that appearance by John Romero makes me look forward to when this channel covers the time he tried to make everyone his bitch.
Sierra closed Timegate studios just to NOT do anything with the properties. I will NEVER give them a dime.
Where did the old vids go
Special playlist the vids are all set to unlisted czcams.com/play/PLp-6MMWURCz3FMshMrq60zuAXbpP7zk6n.html
Roberta @ 3:50 gives off Komi vibes.
What's the name of the game with Roberta on the game cover?
So one thing I wish everyone would grasp from this, is that being CEO is extremely hard and sometimes exhausting work. People have this idea that the "The CEOs do nothing! The workers do all the work! Why are CEOs paid so much!"
No, CEO is hard hard work, with long hours and sometimes little appreciation.
I don't remember Vivendi was bought by Activision. It was the other way around.
Eventually Activision Blizzard was sold by Vivendi.
I was there and I can't keep it straight! It was a very confusing time...
Why didn't i see this vid till now