Will my favorite mmo be cancelled like SWG or will sony try to make some money off of it and sell it? Or will they continue to kill this game with a slow and painful death? I honestly cant understand how SoE is ruining one of there last remainign hidden gold mines. If fixed up right Vanguard can become the best mmo on the market. It just makes me sad to have been witness to this games demise.

SOE do not have the staff or the money to invest in any of their games, they have fallen so far behind other MMO companies that it would not suprise me to see them stop making gmaes full stop. They have had the chance to make an inpact and have failed since they introduced cash shops people just don't play their games like they used too. I myself loved EQI and invested in EQII as well. I played VG and loved that more than any of the games SOE has ever made, but the lack of support for this games sadly means this will too died a death.

It's gotta be grim.

The destroyer of worlds wouldn't have it any other way.

As mentioned HERE and discussed HERE (by me,) there's just been a whisper out of SOE that Vanguard may not be quite as dead as everyone - with good reason - assumed.  The same (SOE) source said a few days back that there is no plan to cancel Vanguard.  Even without that, though (and I wouldn't think SOE would tell us in advance, but I also don't think they'd flatly deny it if it were being discussed,) there are several reasons to think Vanguard is not in any special danger becuase of the SWG announcement.  The most obvious one is that there's no LucasArts to capriciously pull the plug at their whim.

Originally posted by Ardwulf

The most obvious one is that there's no LucasArts to capriciously pull the plug at their whim.

You really believe that a company like SoE would allow an other company to pull the plug on there games at a whim? I am pretty sure there where some good agreements regarding this with LucasArts, protecting SoE.

Anyhow some of the devs from SWG might be transfered to Vanguard.

Infact this statement from "SOE developer Naylie" might make it seems more then possible

"Vanguard has gotten a lot of attention internally this past week. I do believe that a road map for the game is being worked on. When that road map will be agreed upon and ready for posting, I do not know. When that information is ready to be shared it will be posted as soon as possible."

I hope so I do not play vangaurd because of the lack of community, but when I played it the community that was there was really great and helpfull. The game itself is not bad at all and I REALLY hope that SoE sees the potentiol in this game and gives it some well deserved love.

Originally posted by Coman

Originally posted by Ardwulf

The most obvious one is that there's no LucasArts to capriciously pull the plug at their whim.

You really believe that a company like SoE would allow an other company to pull the plug on there games at a whim? I am pretty sure there where some good agreements regarding this with LucasArts, protecting SoE.

Yes, because that's how IP licensing works. SOE had a licence from Lucasarts which expires in 2012 and most likely there were options for renewal etc, but Lucasarts would always have had the right to decline to renew, in which case SOE could no longer have operated SWG. One can only imagine how this went down, but most likely Lucasarts said they did not intend to renew in 2012 because of SW:TOR and so they and SOE agreed to terminate SWG early (since SW:TOR might be released around the time of SWG's cancellation).

As far as VG is concerned, I hope this means something positive. SOE are struggling for sure and I doubt they will release something new for ages (if ever), so it makes sense they would try to optimise what they have - and to my mind this means VG and DCUO. If VG received something of a boost from the free 45 days and people rediscovering it out of boredom with current games or "lite" MMOs like Rift, then hopefully this will justify giving it some attention.

Originally posted by Coman

Originally posted by Ardwulf

The most obvious one is that there's no LucasArts to capriciously pull the plug at their whim.

You really believe that a company like SoE would allow an other company to pull the plug on there games at a whim? I am pretty sure there where some good agreements regarding this with LucasArts, protecting SoE.

Anyhow some of the devs from SWG might be transfered to Vanguard.

Infact this statement from "SOE developer Naylie" might make it seems more then possible

"Vanguard has gotten a lot of attention internally this past week. I do believe that a road map for the game is being worked on. When that road map will be agreed upon and ready for posting, I do not know. When that information is ready to be shared it will be posted as soon as possible."

I hope so I do not play vangaurd because of the lack of community, but when I played it the community that was there was really great and helpfull. The game itself is not bad at all and I REALLY hope that SoE sees the potentiol in this game and gives it some well deserved love.

 Vanguard hasn't had dev support for over a year now. They have given up investing in it. When was the last real patch? Rest my case.

The devs coming from SWG will either be laid off or moved to EQ Next and Planetside Next. All depending on SOE's financial situation.

As there were still enough people playing SWG, covering the dev costs and servers. But not enough to pay the hefty amount of money SOE would have to put on the table to LucasArts for a renewal of the Star Wars IP contract.

So when the game shuts down end this year, they will have a large income gap nonetheless, with excess personel.

I would not want to be in the shoes of the SWG devs right now. They must go through uncertain times now. Not fun at all.

Originally posted by JeroKane

Originally posted by Coman

Originally posted by Ardwulf

The most obvious one is that there's no LucasArts to capriciously pull the plug at their whim.

You really believe that a company like SoE would allow an other company to pull the plug on there games at a whim? I am pretty sure there where some good agreements regarding this with LucasArts, protecting SoE.

Anyhow some of the devs from SWG might be transfered to Vanguard.

Infact this statement from "SOE developer Naylie" might make it seems more then possible

"Vanguard has gotten a lot of attention internally this past week. I do believe that a road map for the game is being worked on. When that road map will be agreed upon and ready for posting, I do not know. When that information is ready to be shared it will be posted as soon as possible."

I hope so I do not play vangaurd because of the lack of community, but when I played it the community that was there was really great and helpfull. The game itself is not bad at all and I REALLY hope that SoE sees the potentiol in this game and gives it some well deserved love.

 Vanguard hasn't had dev support for over a year now. They have given up investing in it. When was the last real patch? Rest my case.

The devs coming from SWG will either be laid off or moved to EQ Next and Planetside Next. All depending on SOE's financial situation.

As there were still enough people playing SWG, covering the dev costs and servers. But not enough to pay the hefty amount of money SOE would have to put on the table to LucasArts for a renewal of the Star Wars IP contract.

So when the game shuts down end this year, they will have a large income gap nonetheless, with excess personel.

I would not want to be in the shoes of the SWG devs right now. They must go through uncertain times now. Not fun at all.

SWG devs will be moved to an unannounced sandbox MMO.   SOE currently has 3 MMO's in development.  SOE has stated before that no game will be shut down as long as there are enough players to cover the cost of running the servers.  That number is between 1K and 1.5K.  This was said at one of their fanfairs.

Its likely just a matter of time before $OE slams the door on a few of the games they have under their wing, i was considering getting the access when it dropped to $19.95 specifically to revisit VG and SWG but now i am once again weary of $ony and their anti gamer ways and its crystal clear why they are dropping the price on the access..

I will avoid $oe products altogether at this point as they are so blinded by greed first that they cant even do a freemium model right..

not that i am ever happy that a game gets cancelled, but VG's fate is probably better now that SWG got officially cancelled (it unoficially cancelled... you know when).

A SOE employee has recently said that they are working on a plan for VG moving forward and the same person said no, they're not going to cancel it.

(edit) if they actually load more people onto the devv team there might actually be reason to get the Soe 19.99 plan for POTBS vip and VG. 

It might mean a couple of things, which are:

1) SVG is going to die

2) SVG will receive a NGE and CU :)

1==2

Originally posted by gt4980b

Originally posted by JeroKane

Originally posted by Coman

Originally posted by Ardwulf

The most obvious one is that there's no LucasArts to capriciously pull the plug at their whim.

You really believe that a company like SoE would allow an other company to pull the plug on there games at a whim? I am pretty sure there where some good agreements regarding this with LucasArts, protecting SoE.

Anyhow some of the devs from SWG might be transfered to Vanguard.

Infact this statement from "SOE developer Naylie" might make it seems more then possible

"Vanguard has gotten a lot of attention internally this past week. I do believe that a road map for the game is being worked on. When that road map will be agreed upon and ready for posting, I do not know. When that information is ready to be shared it will be posted as soon as possible."

I hope so I do not play vangaurd because of the lack of community, but when I played it the community that was there was really great and helpfull. The game itself is not bad at all and I REALLY hope that SoE sees the potentiol in this game and gives it some well deserved love.

 Vanguard hasn't had dev support for over a year now. They have given up investing in it. When was the last real patch? Rest my case.

The devs coming from SWG will either be laid off or moved to EQ Next and Planetside Next. All depending on SOE's financial situation.

As there were still enough people playing SWG, covering the dev costs and servers. But not enough to pay the hefty amount of money SOE would have to put on the table to LucasArts for a renewal of the Star Wars IP contract.

So when the game shuts down end this year, they will have a large income gap nonetheless, with excess personel.

I would not want to be in the shoes of the SWG devs right now. They must go through uncertain times now. Not fun at all.

SWG devs will be moved to an unannounced sandbox MMO.   SOE currently has 3 MMO's in development.  SOE has stated before that no game will be shut down as long as there are enough players to cover the cost of running the servers.  That number is between 1K and 1.5K.  This was said at one of their fanfairs.

 And you belief that?  I mean come on. How long do you think they will be able to cope with three MMO's being in development?

They just recently laid off a third of their employees and closed several of their studios, canceled The Agency MMO, before it was released (wasted millions of dollars on that one on wasted development time).

After SWG closes down, EverQuest 2 is basically their only running MMO left bringing in any real income for them.

And EverQuest 2 doesn't have that high numbers of players anymore either. Not to mention that more and more EQ2 players are starting to burn out on the game.

AND..... then we are not even talking about both the financial as coorporate image hit they took with the whole security breach debacle back in April/May.

I seriously cannot see them continue having three MMO's in development, while they just had to lay off so many people, close down several studios and canceled one of their MMO's that was already very far into development.

How long do you think they will be able to fund three MMO's in development?

"Vanguard has gotten a lot of attention internally this past week. I do believe that a road map for the game is being worked on. When that road map will be agreed upon and ready for posting, I do not know. When that information is ready to be shared it will be posted as soon as possible.

Message edited by Naylie on 06/27/2011 11:46:04."

you can find the quote here: http://forums.station.sony.com/vg/posts/list.m?start=15&topic_id=55686

Originally posted by chelan

 

"Vanguard has gotten a lot of attention internally this past week. I do believe that a road map for the game is being worked on. When that road map will be agreed upon and ready for posting, I do not know. When that information is ready to be shared it will be posted as soon as possible.

Message edited by Naylie on 06/27/2011 11:46:04."

 

you can find the quote here: http://forums.station.sony.com/vg/posts/list.m?start=15&topic_id=55686

Perhaps they are jumping to a F2P model? Expansion?

Originally posted by Vonatar

Yes, because that's how IP licensing works. SOE had a licence from Lucasarts which expires in 2012 and most likely there were options for renewal etc, but Lucasarts would always have had the right to decline to renew, in which case SOE could no longer have operated SWG. One can only imagine how this went down, but most likely Lucasarts said they did not intend to renew in 2012 because of SW:TOR and so they and SOE agreed to terminate SWG early (since SW:TOR might be released around the time of SWG's cancellation).

Most licences include a termination clause which can be riggered at will by the IP holder.  That would be an unpleasant way to do business, though, and I suspect that things actually went down just as you suggest.  The idea that SOE had any choice in the matter is not believable.

Originally posted by Vonatar

As far as VG is concerned, I hope this means something positive. SOE are struggling for sure and I doubt they will release something new for ages (if ever), so it makes sense they would try to optimise what they have - and to my mind this means VG and DCUO. If VG received something of a boost from the free 45 days and people rediscovering it out of boredom with current games or "lite" MMOs like Rift, then hopefully this will justify giving it some attention.

This has been a banner year of fail for SOE.  Any kind of good news, however small, would be good for them.

Originally posted by chelan

 

"Vanguard has gotten a lot of attention internally this past week. I do believe that a road map for the game is being worked on. When that road map will be agreed upon and ready for posting, I do not know. When that information is ready to be shared it will be posted as soon as possible.

Message edited by Naylie on 06/27/2011 11:46:04."

 

you can find the quote here: http://forums.station.sony.com/vg/posts/list.m?start=15&topic_id=55686

That's the best news I've heard all week.

Originally posted by JeroKane

 

 And you belief that?  I mean come on. How long do you think they will be able to cope with three MMO's being in development?

They just recently laid off a third of their employees and closed several of their studios, canceled The Agency MMO, before it was released (wasted millions of dollars on that one on wasted development time).

After SWG closes down, EverQuest 2 is basically their only running MMO left bringing in any real income for them.

And EverQuest 2 doesn't have that high numbers of players anymore either. Not to mention that more and more EQ2 players are starting to burn out on the game.

AND..... then we are not even talking about both the financial as coorporate image hit they took with the whole security breach debacle back in April/May.

I seriously cannot see them continue having three MMO's in development, while they just had to lay off so many people, close down several studios and canceled one of their MMO's that was already very far into development.

How long do you think they will be able to fund three MMO's in development?

EQ1 has more paying subs than EQ2

How do you use the 45 free days?  It says pending on my account but I can't get it approved.  Do I just try to log in?

Originally posted by itchmon

Originally posted by JeroKane

 

 And you belief that?  I mean come on. How long do you think they will be able to cope with three MMO's being in development?

They just recently laid off a third of their employees and closed several of their studios, canceled The Agency MMO, before it was released (wasted millions of dollars on that one on wasted development time).

After SWG closes down, EverQuest 2 is basically their only running MMO left bringing in any real income for them.

And EverQuest 2 doesn't have that high numbers of players anymore either. Not to mention that more and more EQ2 players are starting to burn out on the game.

AND..... then we are not even talking about both the financial as coorporate image hit they took with the whole security breach debacle back in April/May.

I seriously cannot see them continue having three MMO's in development, while they just had to lay off so many people, close down several studios and canceled one of their MMO's that was already very far into development.

How long do you think they will be able to fund three MMO's in development?

EQ1 has more paying subs than EQ2

 You got any proof for that?

Originally posted by DSWBeef

Will my favorite mmo be cancelled like SWG or will sony try to make some money off of it and sell it? Or will they continue to kill this game with a slow and painful death? I honestly cant understand how SoE is ruining one of there last remainign hidden gold mines. If fixed up right Vanguard can become the best mmo on the market. It just makes me sad to have been witness to this games demise.

Well VG is in a much different position than SWG. SOE had to purchase a license from Lucas Arts to be allowed to make SWG, which is why SWG is dying. LA seems to have decided SWG wasn't worth a renewal. A decision I'll bet they made a long time ago but had to wait out the contract  they and SWG made first time round. VG is very different, SOE owns the VG IP lock stock and barrel.

Sadly though it looks like SOE has no interest in actually doing anything with VG except to leave it on life support to milk back as much of their investment money as they can from the diehard VG fans. I'm sure SOE has no interest in selling the VG IP to another company as it would then become a direct competitor to their two main cash cows EQ and EQ2.

So while I think it is safe to say "don't worry, VG isn't going anywhere." At the same time, lament because VG isn't ever going anywhere.