John Smedley, Sony Online Entertainment President, made a post/update on what’s going with SOE, Sigil Games and their MMORPG Vanguard: Saga of Heroes . He confirms that SOE has acquired Sigil Games and Vanguard. It will kept 50 people from Sigil to continue their work on the MMORPG. Smedley goes on to mention that Sigil Games’ CEO Brad McQuaid, who previously gave an update about the game late last month, will be a consultant to SOE in the capacity of creative advisor for Vanguard and SOE.
There are no major changes planned for Vanguard by SOE since Sigil will be handling these matters (let’s not forget SOE’s ill-fated involvement with Star Wars Galaxies’ new game enhancement) other than improving game performance. Smedley says that the Sigil team is approximately the same size as the Everquest II team and notes that the EQII team has done wonders on maintaining EQII.
According to unconfirmed reports, there are some lingering issues about the acquisition. McQuaid, apparently, has not shown up for work in over 8 months and despite SOE keeping 50 Sigil employees, ironically, that same amount was fired yesterday. Since SOE became co-publisher of the game, McQuaid has stopped showing up for work. A few key members of Sigil are moving on to SOE to work on an unannounced online game.
[Via Shacknews]
