Sierra is far from dead. They still exist but were bought out by Vivendi Universal (a company which I absolutely hate, I have very strong feeling about them too)
IMHO, they are a pile of s***. They don't respond to your emails, (the auto respond bots give you real people's emails, but try emailing them and wait for a response)
Vivendi's whole aim is to be a big corporation that cares not about the player satisfaction but cares about making money.
(BTW... vivendi is also an advertising company. VUGames and the ads division of it are owned by the same company, Vivendi Universal)