I put up a short post about the above teaser over on the WtFBlog, and noted in passing that the JavaScript for the suddenly-alive-again Sierra.com site included the ASCII-art words “King’s Quest” and “Geometry Wars” in a comment at the end of one file.

Since that time, it has been officially confirmed that Sierra has indeed been resurrected as a publishing label, and that the first two titles from the studio will be — yes — a new King’s Quest and a sequel to Geometry Wars.

Liverpool-based Lucid Games will be developing the Geometry Wars sequel, while Los Angeles-based The Odd Gentlemen will be developing the new King’s Quest title. In fact, they had a few things to say about their plans for the game on their company blog:

Today is a great day in the history of The Odd Gentlemen. We are ecstatic to announce that we are working on a new King’s Quest game. We are huge King’s Quest fans, and personally, it is my favorite game series of all time.

I grew up playing the games at my Uncle’s house, and still remember the joy of discovering you could type in “eat carrot,” and Graham would actually respond. The day when I solved the Cliffs of Logic before my Uncle could was an accomplishment I’m still proud of today. These games were brimming with wonder, humor, engaging puzzles, and delightful gameplay all wrapped up in a charming story for players of all ages to explore. We are proud to continue this tradition in a new and fully reimagined King’s Quest.

In the new story King Graham – revered as the greatest adventurer to ever live – shares his life’s adventures with his curious granddaughter, Gwendolyn. It is through these tales that Gwendolyn discovers the true greatness of her grandfather.

No, this isn’t Ultima-related news…although the original Sierra On-Line did publish Ultima 2. But I figure if our friends at the CIC saw merit in reporting on it, then it’s worth a mention here as well.

Because the folks at the CIC make a good point in their report:

Sierra will apparently function as a type of quasi-publisher that will be primarily partnering with independent developers to bring classic franchises back to life. Sounds like a great business model to us! Come on EA, you’re already half way there!

They’re referring to EA’s Origin digital storefront, of course…and the point is a valid one. Like as not, the new King’s Quest will probably be modest in scope; The Odd Gentlemen is certainly not a thousand-strong, globally-distributed team, of the sort that makes the Assassin’s Creed games. Sierra is farming the game out to an indie studio.

But modest scope is perfectly acceptable if it means that a King’s Quest game that is faithful to that series gets released within a reasonable span of time, and for a relatively small budget (relative, that is, to the cost of other notable Activision titles in this day and age). Indeed, Ubisoft did something similar with Might & Magic X, which game was also reasonably well-received.

And that’s a point that EA should consider. It’s nice to hope for a full-scale, 100-hour AAA Ultima reboot, or a similarly grand Wing Commander reboot for that matter. But what if EA farmed out the Ultima IP to a plucky indie studio — or, heck, Obsidian — and let them build a modest-sized Ultima adventure — for PC! — on a modest budget? I mean, something on the scale of Ultima 6 wouldn’t be a massive undertaking for a competent development studio. And if it means that we can once again explore an interactive Britannia, and once again save the land from some peril…well, wouldn’t that still be a desirable end?