Scott Lynch

By Andy Bellatti

Hello, Mr. Lynch, it is a pleasure to meet you. Could you please explain what your job is right now and what it was prior to Ken Williams's departure as CEO of Sierra?

Sure. Currently, I'm a Senior Vice-President of Sierra and the head of Sierra Studios. Sierra Studios is a business unit within Sierra and a new consumer brand division for our customers. I am responsible for the business, marketing and development of the Sierra Studios group. You can get more of the details on Sierra Studios at our web site, http://www.sierrastudios.com. Our group encompasses the internal development at Sierra Northwest (Leisure Suit Larry, Kings Quest, Gabriel Knight), Pyrotechnix (Return to Krondor), Impressions UK and Boston (Caesar, Lords of Magic) and two independent developers, Valve Software (Half-Life) and Relic Entertainment (Homeworld). Prior to this position and the reorganization that resulted in Sierra Studios, I ran development for Sierra Northwest.

Did Ken leave you with any "words of wisdom?" Is this your first experience in an executive position?

Ken's words of wisdom spread back over the many years that we have worked together. If I could sum it up, it would be "make great product and success will follow." I've had a fairly well-rounded career; prior to this I held an executive position in development. With Sierra Studios, my role has expanded to include the marketing of our products, so it's an exciting challenge for me.

For the past two months now, the big news seems to be the Sierra Studios. Could you please explain the purpose behind this Sierra On-Line branch and what it means for us gamers?

Our mission at Sierra Studios is to bring a new experience to gamers in each and every product we do. We'll be innovating along all lines, with technology, game design and even the way we market out titles. All of this will be done with the highest production values, something Sierra has always been know for. We'll only be releasing a limited number of titles each year, maybe 6 to 7, this way we can give each and every one the focus and attention they need to achieve the quality level we expect. Right now, we're focused in the adventure/RPG, action and strategy genres, and I would expect that to remain for the foreseeable future. It's where our strength is and quite frankly, these are the games we want to do.

We'll continue to expand on our long-standing franchises like King's Quest, Gabriel Knight, Leisure Suit Larry, Krondor and on the strategy side, Caesar, Lords, etc. Though these are sequels, each has to live up to our mission of being innovative. I think we're doing a good job of that. If you look at Gabriel Knight: Blood of the Sacred, Blood of the Damned and King's Quest: Mask of Eternity, both have a unique approach to the next generation of adventure games, but in each case they are bringing a fresh and innovative experience to the adventure game genre. Adventure games are definitely not dead.

In addition to our traditional franchises, we'll also be bringing new worlds to the market. This year we are releasing Half-Life and Homeworld. Both of these have been developed externally, but we also have some new things going on internally that we haven't announced yet.

Additionally, a big part of our story and mission is to work with experienced and proven designers and development teams, Roberta Williams, Al Lowe, Jane Jensen and their teams at Sierra Northwest, David Lester and the Impressions teams, Raymond Feist and Pyrotechnix and the independent developers like Valve and Relic. We'll continue to pursue this, and you'll see us hooking up with other top developers down the road.

When I spoke with Ken in late 1997, he told me how last year was pretty much a test year. 1998 seems to be extremely promising. What is Sierra's goal for this year?

Our goal for Sierra Studios is to bring these hit products to the shelf and establish ourselves again as leaders in game development. If you look at the 20-year history of Sierra, we helped build this industry with many landmark products. In 1997 we didn't live up to our reputation; for us this was a year of remaking Sierra and the products we developed with the goal of recapturing that status. Looking at our lineup this year, I think we've achieved that. Our other brand divisions at Sierra FX and Dynamix are making similar strides. It's an exciting period in our history.

Lately, petitions and request for adventure series have been sweeping the World Wide Web by storm! If there are enough requests, can gamers actually make a difference?

Yes, they can. The requests for Quest for Glory 5 played a big part in the decision to kick off this series again. The response to Space Quest has been enormous, and we really do listen. Space Quest 7 is still on hold but not dead. The interest shown via the 'net will play a big part in the decision to kick off Space Quest again. It's in limbo now, but I wouldn't expect that to last forever.

Is there anything which Sierra On-Line will never do, no matter what? For example, getting rid of all adventure games and making 3D action/strategy games?

As long as the fans are there, we'll be there. This year we have the best adventure games in the market in development with King's Quest and Gabriel Knight and even a 3D action/strategy game with Homeworld. We're a well-diversified game company with a long history. A big part of that history is our adventure games, and it's a big part of our future too.

That is all for now. Thanks!