 Sierra made its third consecutive showing at Macworld this year with a somewhat smaller presence than that in San Francisco in January. Sierra Studios took the limelight this time (the now defunct SierraFX was spotlighted in the previous two shows), giving gamers a taste of Caesar III on two kiosks. The big announcement of the show, however, was that not only is the highly anticipated Pharoah coming to the Mac, but it's coming as a simultaneous release with the PC version! Impressions Software (the developers of Caesar and Pharoah) seems to be making a considerate, devoted effort to develop for the Macintosh these days.
In other news, Half-Life is still being developed by Logicware, and when asked to the current progress of the port, Sierra would only go on record as saying that "as with any development, there are stumbles and smooth areas." Hopefully the game is still on track for a November release. When Logicware was questioned as to the current status, it mentioned that the game may even be completed as early as September or October, but it is up to Sierra to decide when to publish it.
We sat down and talked with the Sierra Studios people (both of whom previously worked in the MacPlay offices) for a time, and while they are ver excited about the iMac and iBook, they are worried that Apple isn't marketing the products very well. Sierra would very much like to see the iMac marketed as a gaming machine as well. And not just a passive gaming machine--a full-time competitor for the Playstation 2. Sierra sees the PSX2 as a threat to the iMac because it could very well include a hard drive of some sort, a keyboard, high speed internet access, and a plethora of games. Does this directly threaten the iMac? It could very well, and Sierra seems to be convinced. Only time will tell.
For more information on Sierra Studios, visit http://www.sierrastudios.com.
[Guroian] |
