http://www.f13.net/

fairly credible source from what i hear

Recent statements by Nino:



Source:
http://www.fohguild.org/forums/mmorpg-general-discussion/28627-soe-own-vg-sigil-fires-employees-4.html#post731058

This was in response to a thread on the Fires of Heaven site regarding the recent firings. Teclisen later responded in same thread with:


Unfortunately I think its beyond speculation now, and pretty much can be accepted as fact due to these statements. If it actually unfolded like that it is likely due to Sony buying out Vanguard, Sigil now without a product lets go of a bunch of employees, most of which are then hired on as the new development team on Vanguard, some folks actually end up losing their jobs but most people are retained along with new developers from Sony to work on Vanguard's continued development. Least thats how it looks to me, supposing it is true, an official statement should be surfacing soon.

It's official;

smed:

Hello Everyone,

Today I would like to formally announce that 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. SOE is dedicated to making sure that Vanguard is well taken care of and that we provide the same level of service we do for our other titles. In the near future we will come out with a publishing plan that will largely be driven by the strong player community that Vanguard has already built up. We plan on supporting Vanguard for many years to come, and you can expect many content updates as part of your subscription. 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.

We are also officially opening up forums. In the past, our deal with Sigil didn't allow for this, but as with our other games we fill this is an important part of communicating with the playerbase. You can expect a strong presence from our community team as well as the development team members. While we realize that Sigil had said they wouldn't open up general forums, at SOE we fill this hampers our efforts to communicate effectively with the players. We will continue to support the fansites in a big way, and will be contacting many of them directly to discuss what this change means. By no means do we want to lose the strong fansite support by making this change, but we do think it's important to have a forum for players to communicate directly with SOE.

A few other items I wanted to mention

1. Brad McQuaid will be consultant to SOE as a creative advisor for Vanguard. Dave Gilbertson will be the person directly responsible for the day-to-day management of both the Sigil Carlsbad office as well as Vanguard.

2. We do not plan on making any major changes to Vanguard. Any changes are going to come from the team itself. We aren't mandating any big changes to the game. We've learned a thing or two with our experiences with the NGE and don't plan on repeating mistakes from the past and not listening to the players.

3. We do plan on spending a lot of time cleaning up legacy issues with Vanguard and making sure the game's performance improves.

By way of comparison, this team is approx. the same size as the EQ2 team and I feel like that team has done an amazing job improving EQ2 since it's launch. We intend to do the same thing for Vanguard and it is our hope that the players feel like we're doing right by them.

I'll be looking into who's going where and doing what, stay tuned.....

~QTM

I completely agree.  The EQ2 team did phenomenal re-tuning of the game after launch.  EQ2 beta was horrendous compared to Vanguard beta.  I am hopeful with proper management and financing, the VG team will steer the ship away from the rocks.

Keep Aradune away from the office, he is toxic.  Dave Gilbertson is a nice guy and good management material (something Brad was NOT.)

SOE understands Monks.  Hopefully the EQ teams will rub off on what happens to our class.

I so, so wanted to believe that Sigil could actually build a house in the dragon's mouth and not get swallowed.

This blows.  SOE meddled with EQ after gobbling up Verant and now (as I see Sigil as largely a reborn Verant) they get to do it all over again.

SOE doesn't play nice and if this doesn't come to total blowage, I'll be amazed.

This can only be a good thing, if they stick to the promise of not changing, but improving the game with fixes/content.  I am very excited right now.  I just hit 50 today, so I am anxious for some new content and monk fixes.  Yay SOE!

Very well said. 

Not like we could be crappier than we are now? lol  I didn't even attempt a monk in eq2 because it was no where near an eq1 monk, didn't want to be a halftank.  Any word on if Talisker is still in or not?