SOE to Co-Publish With Sigil

Post by **Martrae** » Fri May 05, 2006 9:06 pm

VANGUARD: SAGA OF HEROES FINDS A NEW HOME
Sigil Games Online and Sony Online Entertainment In Talks To Co-Publish Sigilâ€™s Ground-Breaking New Game

May 5, 2006 â€“ Carlsbad & San Diego, CA â€“ Sigil Games Online and Sony Online Entertainment LLC (SOE), a global leader in the online games industry, today announced that Sigil is working with Microsoft Game Studios on an arrangement to acquire the rights to its highly anticipated massively multiplayer online (MMO) game, Vanguard: Saga of Heroes. These efforts have resulted in a tentative agreement for Vanguard to be co-published by both Sigil Games Online and SOE. All three companies will be showing the game at the upcoming Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) as they work closely together for a successful transition. Vanguard: Saga of Heroes is scheduled to launch this winter.

â€œAs the development process is ongoing and constantly shifting, it became clear that MGS and Sigil had varying visions and direction for the titleâ€™s development,â€

Tikker · Post by **Tikker** » Fri May 05, 2006 9:14 pm

jeje

I'm not sure if this is good or not

on one hand, all access pass just got a lot better

on the other, I can't believe mcquaid is bending over for sony again

Post by **Martrae** » Fri May 05, 2006 9:22 pm

All access is going up to 24.99 starting in June...perhaps this is why.

Tikker · Post by **Tikker** » Fri May 05, 2006 10:16 pm

well fuck that

Post by **Martrae** » Fri May 05, 2006 11:51 pm

Pretty much what I said too.

Captain Insano · Post by **Captain Insano** » Sat May 06, 2006 12:04 am

I think Vanguard is going to blow...I don't care who sponsors it.

Shneider · Post by **Shneider** » Sat May 06, 2006 12:47 am

Verant redux, lol? So when is McQuaid going to leave Sigil to start working on the next-next generation MMO?

Post by **Lyion** » Sat May 06, 2006 7:37 am

This is the death knoll of Vanguard. If the game were worth a damn, they wouldn't have to go to SOE with hat in hand.

Goose_Man · Post by **Goose_Man** » Sat May 06, 2006 10:41 am

VG just got wtfpwned

mofish · Post by **mofish** » Sat May 06, 2006 12:54 pm

Too much soe hate. This could be very good for Vanguard. Especially if Microsoft was demanding a premature release, or trying to strong-arm sigil into an xbox 360 port or something.

Just gonna ignore most of the hype around this game one way or the other til I see an open beta start.

Phlegm · Post by **Phlegm** » Sat May 06, 2006 1:26 pm

Would Sony keep two games, eq2 and vanguard, that are basically the same going?

Tikker · Post by **Tikker** » Sat May 06, 2006 1:32 pm

exactly

Smedley told me his biggest regret about EQ2 was calling it EQ2

it forced them to do a bunch of things that they really didn't want to do

maybe now they can abandon EQ2 and work on something else

Post by **Lyion** » Sat May 06, 2006 2:39 pm

A bigger question is why would MS abandon something they've funded for over four years? If Vanguard were likely to be a WOW type hit, does anyone believe MGS would've let them go?

I think MS was smelling another game a la the AC series, and did the best they could to recoup anything from it and wash their hands.

SOE essentially gets to publish a game and get a share in potential profits for no real cost, and without doing any real dev legwork.

I'm curious who bought out MS and fronted the cash for Sigil to escape their deal.

There are too many pieces of this puzzle that are missing.

Post by **Martrae** » Sat May 06, 2006 3:57 pm

Sorry...haven't used that yet and this was a perfect time for it.

Drem · Post by **Drem** » Sat May 06, 2006 7:30 pm

All SoE is doing is marketing etc. I'm sure Sigil went to them over MS because MS hasn't ever put out a MMO that was worth anything

Post by **Arlos** » Sat May 06, 2006 8:50 pm

It's not that simple, though, Drem. MS had spent boucoup $$$ on the game already, and had ironclad contracts. If Sigil is no longer under contract, SOMETHING must have gone down. Either Sigil bought its way out of the contract (major money there, and as Lyion said, where'd it come from?) or MS cut the strings for some reason, assumedly because they were tired of tossing money at a crap product, or something similar.

I'll have to get ahold of my contact at MS who was going to get me that Vanguard beta invite, and see what he can tell me.

To the Batphone!

-Arlos

Drem · Post by **Drem** » Sat May 06, 2006 10:13 pm

Because MGS definitely invests all of its money in quality products... I don't really think it's as complicated as you guys think.

Captain Insano · Post by **Captain Insano** » Sun May 07, 2006 3:32 am

lyion wrote:This is the death knoll of Vanguard. If the game were worth a damn, they wouldn't have to go to SOE with hat in hand.

hahah owned

Yah plain and simple if VG was going to be even halfway decent we would have heard it from the beta testers.

Even when WoW was at this point many people were extremely pleased with the game.

VG is taking way to long, there is too much hype and so far those who have experienced the game have nothing good to say about it. In the scheme of things it doesn't even really look that decent anymore graphics wise.

game over.

Granh · Post by **Granh** » Sun May 07, 2006 11:23 am

If more people had badass systems VG would have better hype. The problem is my halfway decent system runs like sh** and makes it hard to really test let alone enjoy the game. There are certain mechanics and game play that make it a lot of fun and unique, but the fact that I have to turn clipping down to the point of agro before I see it, makes it hard to get into. If you've got a good system this game brings a lot of what I miss about pre SoL EQ. Quests worth doing. Travel that's more than a click book. A world that's fun to look at and not cut & paste. Instances are fun and groups that are worthwhile vs solo. I will admit there's not a lot of solo content after a certain lv but hey...

As for Sony taking over the distribution... :wtf:

Ginzburgh · Post by **Ginzburgh** » Sun May 07, 2006 12:35 pm

Hey SOE makes a pretty good little hack and slash for the PSP.

Untold Legends Warriors Code pwns

Tikker · Post by **Tikker** » Sun May 07, 2006 1:04 pm

Granh wrote:If more people had badass systems VG would have better hype. The problem is my halfway decent system runs like sh** and makes it hard to really test let alone enjoy the game. There are certain mechanics and game play that make it a lot of fun and unique, but the fact that I have to turn clipping down to the point of agro before I see it, makes it hard to get into. If you've got a good system this game brings a lot of what I miss about pre SoL EQ. Quests worth doing. Travel that's more than a click book. A world that's fun to look at and not cut & paste. Instances are fun and groups that are worthwhile vs solo. I will admit there's not a lot of solo content after a certain lv but hey...

As for Sony taking over the distribution...

whole thing, QFT

Looking back, a big part of what kept me from really enjoying the beta process was that it ran like absolute shit on my machine(and I run oblivion ok)

my first reaction to almost every zone tho was "I remember this from EQ"

Post by **Martrae** » Sun May 07, 2006 1:20 pm

Anyone got a beta account I can try?

Tikker · Post by **Tikker** » Sun May 07, 2006 6:46 pm

what do you have for a machine?

Captain Insano · Post by **Captain Insano** » Sun May 07, 2006 7:48 pm

Granh wrote:If more people had badass systems VG would have better hype. The problem is my halfway decent system runs like sh** and makes it hard to really test let alone enjoy the game. There are certain mechanics and game play that make it a lot of fun and unique, but the fact that I have to turn clipping down to the point of agro before I see it, makes it hard to get into. If you've got a good system this game brings a lot of what I miss about pre SoL EQ. Quests worth doing. Travel that's more than a click book. A world that's fun to look at and not cut & paste. Instances are fun and groups that are worthwhile vs solo. I will admit there's not a lot of solo content after a certain lv but hey...

As for Sony taking over the distribution...

I don't agree with this. I know people running dual SLI Athlon 4800+ dual core systems that still say the game isn't great....They say even with that kinda hardware the game has major optimization issues.

Here's the thing I just don't fucking understand... WHAT in the hell is so hard about designing a MMOG that looks great and doesn't require IBM's Deep Blue to run?.... Cough up the cash and license the latest Unreal Engine, problem solved.

I mean look at FEAR, Oblivion and a hundred other games...They look sweet and I run em on my shatty Dell.

Drem · Post by **Drem** » Sun May 07, 2006 9:21 pm

captain_insano wrote:
Granh wrote:If more people had badass systems VG would have better hype. The problem is my halfway decent system runs like sh** and makes it hard to really test let alone enjoy the game. There are certain mechanics and game play that make it a lot of fun and unique, but the fact that I have to turn clipping down to the point of agro before I see it, makes it hard to get into. If you've got a good system this game brings a lot of what I miss about pre SoL EQ. Quests worth doing. Travel that's more than a click book. A world that's fun to look at and not cut & paste. Instances are fun and groups that are worthwhile vs solo. I will admit there's not a lot of solo content after a certain lv but hey...

As for Sony taking over the distribution...

I don't agree with this. I know people running dual SLI Athlon 4800+ dual core systems that still say the game isn't great....They say even with that kinda hardware the game has major optimization issues.

Here's the thing I just don't fucking understand... WHAT in the hell is so hard about designing a MMOG that looks great and doesn't require IBM's Deep Blue to run?.... Cough up the cash and license the latest Unreal Engine, problem solved.

I mean look at FEAR, Oblivion and a hundred other games...They look sweet and I run em on my shatty Dell.

This might sound extremely weird, but in EQ, lots of new zones work better for me than some old zones. I load them faster and they're less-choppy. The new zones with trees are the best example. Elddar Forest runs crystal clear, but Burning Woods I still get choppy... makes no sense. I always wondered why EQ ran shittier than any other game I ever played on my PC before. Not to mention it jews up my network connection for everything that isn't EQ. It's like for MMOs they use python scripts and the most un-productive gfx engine that they can find.