“I think the people above were making bean-counter decisions,” Georgeson said.

Vivendi, a diversified collection of media, software, environmental and beverage ventures, is prospering overall.

Last year, it reported a profit of roughly $2 billion on sales of about $37 billion. Vivendi has some 250,000 employees.

Dynamix released “Tribes 2” in March and so far the game has made $7.2 million through U.S. retailers, according to NPD Intelect, a market research firm. “Tribes 2” is the 10th best-selling PC game so far this year, said Steve Koenig, senior analyst with NPD Intelect.

Given that success, Koenig said, “I’m very surprised to see that Sierra is pulling the plug on Dynamix.”

It may be a business decision by Sierra to rein in its subsidiaries and bring them into the corporate office to save on rent and on information technology support costs, Koenig speculated.

Another factor, he said, may be the push by computer game publishers to develop content for console systems, including Sony’s PlayStation 2, and two new systems expected to be released this fall: Microsoft Corp.’s Xbox and Nintendo Co.’s GameCube.

Last year, U.S. retailers sold $1.5 billion worth of PC games, Koenig said. This year, he predicts sales will be flat or decline slightly because of the emphasis on developing games for console systems. Most of Dynamix’s games are designed for play on PCs, not consoles.

The closure of Dynamix caps several rocky years for the company.
Sierra bought Dynamix in 1989. Since January 1999, Sierra has been a division of Vivendi Universal Publishing.

At its peak, Dynamix employed nearly 200 workers. But when Sierra restructured in 1999, it cut 90 jobs at Dynamix.

“Regretfully for us, the series of acquisitions and mergers that Dynamix and Sierra went through over the last few years finally caught up with us here in Eugene, and sealed or fate as just being too small to survive the bigger picture,” said Stambaugh, the network administrator. He said he hopes to line up work at the UO.

Workers seemed satisfied with their severance packages.

They said they will receive 60 days’ pay, plus two weeks’ pay for every year of service with the company.

When Dynamix moves out of the 40,000 square feet it leases at 1600 Millrace Drive in the Riverfront Research Park, it’s unclear what tenant - if any - might move in.

Ken Coombs, president of Research Park Associates, the Salt Lake City-based owner of the building, said Monday afternoon that Dynamix had not yet contacted him about the pending closure.

He said he didn’t know whether it would be difficult to secure another tenant.

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