The Sierra brand is back, as a "developer-led indie initiative" within publishing giant Activision. Director of external development Bob Loya says the revival — which will see Activision partnering with small teams to make mostly digital games — was a passion project from insiders. "It's been a long time in the making," says Loya. He has worked in the industry, effectively at the same company, since 2001, beginning with Universal Interactive (the company which would become Vivendi Games, later to merge with Activision), and he and several colleagues had long-time hopes of finding a way to return to smaller games even within the infrastructure of a publisher that currently only makes big budget, high-margin products. "We were always wanting to find w…