Gaming Signal: Sigil leaves Microsoft for SOE?

Sigil leaves Microsoft for SOE?

In the MMO news of the hour, Sigil Games Online have bought back the publishing rights to Vanguard and has worked a deal with Sony Online Entertainment to publish the game. For me this news is summarized as holy crap - honestly this is almost a complete redirection from Brad McQuaid who originally left Everquest and SOE based on differences of vision. Microsoft is now out of the MMO business again after cancelling Mythica and Asheron's Call 2 - and the sale of Asheron's Call back to Turbine Entertainment.

Well, this is what your friendly curmudgeon (okay its an oxymoron) thinks about this:

Sony will embrace the hard core MMO gamer. This was the original audience for Everquest and ultimately those are the folks who will flock to Vanguard. From a money making perspective - this will work and since they (Sigil) know the audience well. Combine that with a focus on a specific class of gamer and Sony will not be trying to compete with World of Warcraft on a one to one basis. I know Everquest 2 has tried to become more friendly to a casual audience, but ultimately has not been a rousing success. Some will say that they still have a decent base, but I firmly believe that Everquest should be viewed as the game for the hardcore MMO gamer. Everqiest was a game where being a certain high level was a badge of honor and the encounters were truly epic. I remember my time in Everquest and I remember levelling my Shadowknight to 60ish and what a badge of honor that truly was, but hard core gaming is not my idea of a good time.

Blizzard has done a fine job with WOW and they took all the things that worked from previous games like Dark Age of Camelot and Asheron's Call and even Everquest and then combined that with thier universe to create a title that is accessable to a large audience. But it does not have the epic uber feel that EQ did - for me that is bad, but there is an audience that fits with. Those are the folks who will be playing Vanguard.

On a personal note, I think that McQuaid does not get how the market has changed and instead of bringing out a title that either revolutionizes the MMO market (admittedly very hard) or evolves and improves upon WOW (also pretty hard) - he is focusing on rebuilding the vision that was Everquest and a game that is extremely difficult and will only appeal to certain folks. I do wish him luck and at least look forward to seeing how the game evolves. If Brad is reading this, I would be willing to help test the game just to see how it compares to the original EQ and WOW.