By Greg McNevin
The MMORPG Vanguard: Saga of Heroes has some interesting times ahead as its developer Sigil has reportedly sold the title to co-publisher Sony Online Entertainment (SOE).
Sigil CEO Brad McQuaid hinted in late April that the company would be getting a whole lot closer to its partner SOE. Shortly after this announcement SOE became a co-publisher, and now it’s taken the whole cake.
According to a post on F13.net by Eric Schild, “at approximately 4:30PM [May 14th], Sigil employees were told to meet outside. At which point they were terminated. On the spot.”
“People were told to come back tomorrow to do their paperwork and some may get hired by SOE.”
The next day SOE’s John Smedley made a formal announcement of the acquisition in a post on the Vanguard forums. “SOE has acquired the assets of Sigil Games Online, including Vanguard: Saga of Heroes. As a part of this acquisition, we are bringing on approx 50 people from Sigil in order to insure that Vanguard continues to grow.”
“We do not plan on making any major changes to Vanguard. Any changes are going to come from the team itself. We do plan on spending a lot of time cleaning up legacy issues with Vanguard and making sure the game's performance improves,” he added.
Released at the end of January this year, the game has sold almost 200,000 copies and despite some teething problems was quite well received. While there are some fears the layoffs and other acquisition turbulence could break the game’s back, SOE is positive about the future.
“Down the line we will of course be coming out with new expansion packs, but right now the focus is on making sure Vanguard is running the way it should be,” wrote Smedley.
The MMORPG Vanguard: Saga of Heroes has some interesting times ahead as its developer Sigil has reportedly sold the title to co-publisher Sony Online Entertainment (SOE).
Sigil CEO Brad McQuaid hinted in late April that the company would be getting a whole lot closer to its partner SOE. Shortly after this announcement SOE became a co-publisher, and now it’s taken the whole cake.
According to a post on F13.net by Eric Schild, “at approximately 4:30PM [May 14th], Sigil employees were told to meet outside. At which point they were terminated. On the spot.”
“People were told to come back tomorrow to do their paperwork and some may get hired by SOE.”
The next day SOE’s John Smedley made a formal announcement of the acquisition in a post on the Vanguard forums. “SOE has acquired the assets of Sigil Games Online, including Vanguard: Saga of Heroes. As a part of this acquisition, we are bringing on approx 50 people from Sigil in order to insure that Vanguard continues to grow.”
“We do not plan on making any major changes to Vanguard. Any changes are going to come from the team itself. We do plan on spending a lot of time cleaning up legacy issues with Vanguard and making sure the game's performance improves,” he added.
Released at the end of January this year, the game has sold almost 200,000 copies and despite some teething problems was quite well received. While there are some fears the layoffs and other acquisition turbulence could break the game’s back, SOE is positive about the future.
“Down the line we will of course be coming out with new expansion packs, but right now the focus is on making sure Vanguard is running the way it should be,” wrote Smedley.
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