Sierra vs History

Some are speculating this is related to the recent Actard merger, but it's possible it's simply ruthless, Logan's Runny culling of the elderly. Whichever, the facts are these: come November 1st, the plug will be pulled on the official servers for 21 Sierra PC games (of varying classicdom).

Several RPS faves number amongst them: Jim's beloved Ground Control, my semi-beloved Aliens vs Predator 2 and the revered likes of No-one Lives Forever 2, Tribes 2 and Homeworld 1. Full list and more wittering from me below the cut.

1. Alien vs Predator 2
2. Arcanum
3. Caesar IV
4. Dark Reign 2
5. Emperor: Rise of the Middle Kingdom
6. Empire Earth
7. Empire Earth 2
8. Empire Earth: Age of Conquest
9. Ground Control
10. Ground Control2
11. Homeworld
12. Homeworld: Cataclysm
13. Nolf2
14. Red Baron
15. Sanity
16. Star Trek: Armada
17. SWAT3: EE
18. SWAT3: GOTY
19. The Incredible Machine
20. Tribes2
21. Vampire

Lo, how the mighty. Presumably unofficial servers can continue, but they'll require someone leaving their PC on in the hope someone comes and joins, rather than being able to check if anyone's on the official one and hop on when you want. The games' communities will doubtless find a way, but it does seem desperately sad.

A particularly odd inclusion in that list is Caesar IV, which unlike the others is only a couple of years old. It wasn't terribly well received, and certainly wasn't considered a worthy heir to its proud name (though it's great to see devs Tilted Mill off doing their own, far more ambitious things these days), so at a guess it didn't pick up enough of an audience to survive this mass euthanasia.

There are more important games in that list, though. So: do we form protest groups? Should we, en masse, go dwell on Homeworld and AvP2* and Tribes 2 servers in the hope that their sudden repopulation stays the execution? Can we, dare we Fight The Man?

(Via Blues via Eurogamer via Sierra)

*Gril, if you're reading, I still need my damned copy of that back.