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In an interview today with Gamespot John Smedley, President of Sony Online Entertainment announces that they officially have taken over Sigil studios, makers of Vanguard: Saga of Heroes. He talks about future plans for the game and layoffs at the company.
Parts of the Gamespot interview are quoted below, For the exclusive warcry interview Warcry Interview on SoE purchase of Sigil
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GameSpot: The big news is that SOE is acquiring Sigil, and Vanguard: Saga of Heroes along with it. In your own words, why?
John Smedley: We feel like it's an excellent time and place to do this. We like the people over at Sigil, and we respect the creative work they've done on [the game].
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GS: Brad McQuaid has been quoted on public message boards admitting that the game shipped in a nonideal, incomplete state. How will Vanguard's upkeep be handled once the acquisition is complete? Will development on the game continue, or will it be immediately shuffled onto SOE Station as part of a subbion package?
: The game is already on Station Access, and since January, many of the bugs and issues in the game have been addressed, and the rest will be as well. Vanguard is an SOE product and we're going to make sure it gets taken care of. As for the state of the release, well, Sigil only had a certain level of funding, and we contributed as well. But the game is in good shape now. We sold 200,000 copies...I'm not sure many people realize that. It's actually a very healthy game.
GS: What are the longer-term plans for the game? Was there other content planned and in development for the game, or expansion packs?
: Absolutely. First and foremost, we have a lot of updates in the works to enhance the existing game and put in new content. Very shortly, a new content release schedule will be posted with more details. The idea is to make the game even better and make the customers happy.
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GS: Is there anything else to add about Vanguard or the Sigil acquisition?
: Obviously, I'd like to comment on the fact that some Sigil people lost their jobs. We at SOE did our best to keep as many people employed as physically possible. We went out of our way to hire as many people as possible, in some cases, more than budgetary constraints allowed. I'm hoping people feel like they were treated fairly.
GS: One last question: This isn't the first time SOE has "rescued" an online game in a flagging state. Some time ago, SOE picked up The Matrix Online, which seemed to be in a similar situation. Is this sort of thing also a part of SOE's overall strategy, or are they just chance occurrences?
: Here's the thing: In many parts of the industry, you're seeing layoffs. In our company, you see growth. We do what we do because of talent, because of people who are good at what they do. You may see games that aren't as successful as [the developers would] like [them] to be, but to us, what are most valuable are the people and the talent.
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