SOE to own VG - Sigil fires employees

[Regime]

Originally Posted by Nino

There is much I would love to unload about right now, but seeing as I am feeling pretty emotional while trying to respect the wishes of remaining Vanguard management, I will refrain.

I knew this was coming months ago, as did most others, so I made arrangements prior to the whole unfolding of events today. Sony was kind enough to invite me and a few others to form a small team and to start prototyping a 'new' project. While we've done some 'secret' preliminary work, we begin in earnest tomorrow after we officially sign on with SOE. Don't bother asking about details, because you won't get any.

I became increasingly disenfranchised with the situation since the forced premature launch, which then culminated several weeks back when I decided I could not, in good conscience, continue serving the Sigil management staff in my over-extended capacity and stepped down. I would have walked away completely if this recent opportunity had not presented itself when it did.

I did the best I could with the time and resources I had at my disposal, but in the end it simply wasn't enough to bring the game up to the standards we all had hoped for in the time we had remaining. I apologize for any disappointments players have experienced. During the final year, I was pulling 80-100 hour weeks, and I was not at all alone in the building. I wish things could have been different.

While I was fortunate to stay employed, there were near 50 people today who were not, and it was painful watching the procession of stunned coworkers packing their belongings into little cardboard boxes with blank looks on their faces. I've never had to endure something like this, and I hope to never have to do it again. I know it is easy to point fingers at 'why' things ended up this way, but the vast, vast majority of the folks losing their jobs today had very little control on how events unfolded and many were skilled and creative people who simply wanted to make a great game.

The Vanguard team, obviously now much smaller, will go back to improving and fixing the game tomorrow. Myself and four others will be moving to a new location and beginning anew. The others will begin the process of trying to find a new place to work.

I promised not to be publically scornful, but I will say this: I hope those truly responsible for the deep rooted failings of the company lay in bed tonight and relive the events that transpired today in their heads, over and over. For not ONE of you is without your job come tomorrow morning.

amen

[Dildo Faggins]

Originally Posted by Nino

There is much I would love to unload about right now, but seeing as I am feeling pretty emotional while trying to respect the wishes of remaining Vanguard management, I will refrain.

I knew this was coming months ago, as did most others, so I made arrangements prior to the whole unfolding of events today. Sony was kind enough to invite me and a few others to form a small team and to start prototyping a 'new' project. While we've done some 'secret' preliminary work, we begin in earnest tomorrow after we officially sign on with SOE. Don't bother asking about details, because you won't get any.

I became increasingly disenfranchised with the situation since the forced premature launch, which then culminated several weeks back when I decided I could not, in good conscience, continue serving the Sigil management staff in my over-extended capacity and stepped down. I would have walked away completely if this recent opportunity had not presented itself when it did.

I did the best I could with the time and resources I had at my disposal, but in the end it simply wasn't enough to bring the game up to the standards we all had hoped for in the time we had remaining. I apologize for any disappointments players have experienced. During the final year, I was pulling 80-100 hour weeks, and I was not at all alone in the building. I wish things could have been different.

While I was fortunate to stay employed, there were near 50 people today who were not, and it was painful watching the procession of stunned coworkers packing their belongings into little cardboard boxes with blank looks on their faces. I've never had to endure something like this, and I hope to never have to do it again. I know it is easy to point fingers at 'why' things ended up this way, but the vast, vast majority of the folks losing their jobs today had very little control on how events unfolded and many were skilled and creative people who simply wanted to make a great game.

The Vanguard team, obviously now much smaller, will go back to improving and fixing the game tomorrow. Myself and four others will be moving to a new location and beginning anew. The others will begin the process of trying to find a new place to work.

I promised not to be publically scornful, but I will say this: I hope those truly responsible for the deep rooted failings of the company lay in bed tonight and relive the events that transpired today in their heads, over and over. For not ONE of you is without your job come tomorrow morning.

classy

[kcxiv]

use the SV dev tracker there's a few more devs that posted, 1 bieng on the wrong end of it

[Laerazi]

Great post, Nino; I look forward to whatever project it is you're working on (keep in mind you haven't proven yourself in this front, so good luck; I'm definitely rooting for you guys). I'm a bit sad that we won't get any clear resolution as to what actually happened, from the sounds of it, but I think most of us get the gist of it (Brad took a shit on the company).

[Destructis]

Nino, even in beta I thought you were one of the best devs there. I don't usually post here but I wanted to write a response. Hang in there dude, you have lots of talent and knowledge. I know the release wasn't your fault and you seemed to be one of the ones who really had a vision there. Let us know when you can, what game you will be working on because I will definitely check it out.

I was hard on VSoH in beta, but I just wanted it to be a good game, just like you guys did.

Best of luck in your future endeavors. Can you tell us anything about Cylus and Avair? I really liked both of them also.

I came over to post because someone copied your post over at Graffes.

[Mahes]

Wow...

[Xaxius]

Nino... thanks for everything you did while trying to make Vanguard a great game. I wish you the best and hope you have the privilage to work on a project that gets the support you deserve. You have a bright future ahead of you, chalk this up as something to learn from.

Great post btw.

[woqqqa]

Well said. Here's hoping that at some point the contract you signed allows you to reveal what actually went on behind the scenes at Sigil. Best of luck in the future.

[kcxiv]

I am sure someone will speak out on what happend. Kendrick seems to give people the most information behidn the scenes.

[Twobit Whore]

Sigil could have paid off the debt in 3 minutes flat if they just wrote a tell-all book.

[Algrinon]

How do I get to SV dev tracker? Sorry for the moronic post.

Nino, was nice to meet you back in the day. I really hope we cross paths again.

/salute

[Xaxius]

More info from Firingsquad.com. The interesting part is bolded below.

FiringSquad has learned a few more details on the just announced purchase of developer Sigil Games and their fantasy MMO Vanguard: Saga of Heroes by its publisher Sony Online Entertainment. According to what SOE's PR folks told us, the majority of the 50 people who were hired by Sony Online will still work out of Sigil's offices in Carlsbad, CA. However a small team of five people will work out of SOE's San Diego's offices. One of those five people is Sigil Games' co-founder and president Jeff Butler and we were told that the five person team will be working "on an undisclosed new MMO". We were also told that Sigil Games had a total of 100 people employed before the purchase, so simple math should tell us that about 50 Sigil team members were not brought in to work at SOE. Finally we got some clairification on Sigil Games' co-founder and CEO Brad McQuaid's status as a consultant to the game. We were told, "Brad is now an advisor on the Vanguard game only and his expertise will be called upon as needed."

[Itzena]

Well, that narrows down the 'those truly responsible' remark a little more.

[Nebuchadnezzar]

That should be a great work environment...

[The Hiram Key]

Originally Posted by Nino

I promised not to be publically scornful, but I will say this: I hope those truly responsible for the deep rooted failings of the company lay in bed tonight and relive the events that transpired today in their heads, over and over. For not ONE of you is without your job come tomorrow morning.

Oh the humanity.