How Stock Fraud almost destroyed the Gaming Industry

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:

Stock Footage from Getty

Game footage by used:

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

[ugh.idontwanna]

Two golden rules of doing business:
- Never go public
- Listen to Roberta Williams

[picblick]

Valve not being a public company really gives me peace of mind in so many ways and that's just really sad.

[h-hues]

Love it when your videos go from a few unknown people and then suddenly... bam, household names and everything gets connected.

[Infamous-quests]

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.

[arciks]

There's something absurd that the sentence "Sierra got CUC'ed" can actually be uttered and be truthful at the same time.

[michaelcorleone]

Low spec gamer uploads 4k vids, we have been betrayed. Only 360 and below is acceptable.

[CanIHasThisName]

Wow. Somehow I never actually even bothered to look up what exactly happened to Sierra. Great story.

[DeeSnow]

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.

[TheRatlord]

I miss Sierra. they published the majority of my favourite games.

[lewa]

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

[svankensen]

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.

[cabokenw]

I've been waiting for this! Curious to see it! - Ken Williams

[AhadShuja]

LowSpecGamer is a prime example of how changing your YouTube 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!

[werdfeefs]

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!

[dougkinzinger]

Ken & Roberta got the short end of that straw but ended up OK, thankfully!

[douro]

The hospitality division of Cendant is now four separate companies: Anywhere (formerly Realogy), Travelport, Wyndham Worldwide and Avis Budget Group.

[HandheldHardware]

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

[anon_y_mousse]

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.

[nicolascommisso]

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.

[RetroGameSpacko]

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.