SOE to own VG - Sigil fires employees

[Itzena]

Creative advisor = "Get him the fuck away from the game and lock him in an office somewhere until he quits".

[Borzak]

I think we haven't seen the last of Brad. People like him never go away. He's like the guy at work who gets promoted for being an "idea" guy who dreams up the craziest shit in the world that has no possible way of becoming reality - or has no possible clue as how to make it reality. But it sounds good to people in charge or the people with the money to spend....

[Twobit Whore]

Originally Posted by Itzena

Creative advisor = "Get him the fuck away from the game and lock him in an office somewhere until he quits".

He won't have an office. I believe the word 'external' was used. He won't be a SOE employee, he will be a contracted consultant and only paid for input when needed. What it likely means is that they will use him when they need expansion material and he can go look up his wonderous 7 year plan and let them know the names of what barren chunk to create next.

[Draegan]

Originally Posted by kcxiv

VG wont be that bad to raid in once they fix the debuff/weakness lag. It wont be smooth sailing but it wont be horrible either. Tons of people are doing the POA/Shidreth mines quest to get Skelle and/or Panther Illusion mask. Its going to be ok.

What i wanna know, is what Dev's that currently do talk with the fan base got axe'd.

lol, keep on keep'in on brother.

[tad10]

Originally Posted by Borzak

I would hope SOE paid pennies on the dollar for VG. What exactly is VG worth? It's not like they bought a game with a big history that could be turned into future profit like say EQ1 if EQ2 had not been made.

Actually I read Smed's comment as:

"We bought VG primarily to get the good Sigil dev's like Nino to use for our own project. But we'll see what we can to make a buck with it."

[Jabberwhacky]

Originally Posted by Kaylena

Good call. You're better off not.

Is that sarcasm, or are you serious? Here are the choices Eomer had:

1. Quote what the guy said
2. Paraphrase it (you know, hearsay)
3. Don't talk about it

I guess you're right, going with #2 is a much better option. Let's maintain the high level of speculation and conjecture on this board; why bother with things like "facts" or "restraint."

[Witoubo]

Originally Posted by kcxiv

Not all bad for him. He got his debt paid off and is still being paid. I know no one will ever lend him money again, but he's still getting paid.

First, I'd guess Brad lost a fair amount of money on this venture. IIRC he made a good amount on the back end of EQ and the Verant buyout. I would imagine he sunk a good chunk of that into VG before they picked up Microsoft as a publisher.

Second, consultant doesn't mean "regular paid employee." Consultant means he does shit when they need it, maybe he gets paid, maybe he is bound by some terms of a contract to provide the service.

[kcxiv]

Originally Posted by Draegan

lol, keep on keep'in on brother.

Hey, it happened in EQ, why wont it happen in VG? I played through it on that game. I enjoyed it more then i have in ANY OTHER game to date.

[Itzena]

Originally Posted by tad10

Actually I read Smed's comment as:

"We bought VG primarily to get the good Sigil dev's like Nino to use for our own project. But we'll see what we can to make a buck with it."

You've actually got a good point here - SOE hired half of what used to be Sigil, but they didn't say how many will still be working on Vanguard.

10 person VG dev team, the rest to wherever.

[kcxiv]

Originally Posted by tad10

Actually I read Smed's comment as:

"We bought VG primarily to get the good Sigil dev's like Nino to use for our own project. But we'll see what we can to make a buck with it."

Couldnt they just have offered Dev's like Nino money without having to buy the whole damn game? All they had to do was say no, and alot of Devs would have been jobless, then just take the cream of the crop for FREE.

[Witoubo]

I read it more as.

"We bought VG because it was incredibly cheap and could add value (or perceived value) to the Station Pass. This came at the right time as we were already contemplating a price increase."

[Quineloe]

I'm looking for the "5/05, the 9/11 of this forum?" Thread. I can't remember the title or how exactly the dates were written, so search can't find it

[Tabris]

Originally Posted by Quineloe

I'm looking for the "5/05, the 9/11 of this forum?" Thread. I can't remember the title or how exactly the dates were written, so search can't find it

The threat and the promise of that thread have finally born their bitter fruit?

[tad10]

Originally Posted by kcxiv

Couldnt they just have offered Dev's like Nino money without having to buy the whole damn game? All they had to do was say no, and alot of Devs would have been jobless, then just take the cream of the crop for FREE.

Sure. But this way (a) they get better PR within the dev community and (b) they will make a buck or two off the game--even if it means going down to 1 PvE server and running it just for the diehard fans with 1 dev and 1 artist to provide a few content updates now and then (is that what the do with MxO).

Its clear from his gamespot comments that Sigils team will be fully merged with SOE eventually and moved to other MMOs as needed. They're probably only keeping it sorta seperate right now because of things like lease obligations and finding room at the other SOE studios.

[Danth]

Originally Posted by tad10

200k box sales in 3 months is fine by anything but WoW numbers. The original VG plan had breakeven in with 250k subs. You know that as well as I 2bit so I don't know why you're bitching. What is NOT good is retention--at best they had 70k or so retained in (mid?) April (don't ask me to find this it was on SV somewhere go find it yourself).

I'd guess (and it would be a guess) -- there's no more than 60k subs now (down at least 5-10k from april) with most of the bleeding at the high-end---could be as low as 50k or as high as 65k. With maybe half logging on several times a week and half logging on only a once or twice a week.

Consider this: The bleeding can't be comming mostly from the high end because they don't have that many high end players to lose. According to VGplayers (which seems to show characters on cancelled accounts), there are only about 1750 level 50 characters total and only about 4100 at 45+.

I agree that Vanguard is likely hovering around ~70K active accounts, which would mean the vast majority of those who left (if they sold 200K boxes, do the math) got fed up and threw in the towel long, long before they got even remotely close to the high end. Sobering thought....fixing the high end won't matter if most people never reach it.

In the short term, I figure Vanguard will continue losing players until it reaches the level where it's mostly the die-hards remaining. Just what subscriber level that represents is anyone's guess.

Danth