I am sure Sony is making a killing on Vanguard right now. They have probably depreciated the cost of all of their servers to 0 and have very limited cost. Even with just 2000 accounts they are clearing an easy 250k a year.
A new company would have to make it worth Sony's wild to sell it. The cost would most likely be so great that the new company would have to either:
1) Increase the player base hugely or go under. It would probably be the later considering the age of the game and the cost of doing upgrades on top of initial purchase and set up.
2) Go FTP, in which case it would be nothing like the game so many people love and just be a bastarized mess of itself.
The game is where it is and this is the best it can get. No one is going to throw millions of dollars at a project just because they want a few people to be happy. People who want to spend money to make people's lives better are not going to chose video games as the means.
“It's unwise to pay too much, but it's worse to pay too little. When you pay too much, you lose a little money - that's all. When you pay too little, you sometimes lose everything, because the thing you bought was incapable of doing the thing it was bought to do. The common law of business balance prohibits paying a little and getting a lot - it can't be done. If you deal with the lowest bidder, it is well to add something for the risk you run, and if you do that you will have enough to pay for something better.”
Buying vanguard for a few million would put a developer a huge leap forward in making a game, even if it is just an attempt to relaunch the game.
Vanguard is aimed at a segement of the market that really isn't being addressed at the moment. Something with a little more old school flavor and some non-combat activities.
It could rebound in the right hands, but it would take something to get people interested again. An expansion, even a lateral one might just do it.
i just did a thought exercise in which CCP purchased vanguard. it made me cry, for joy; in my mind they did a "ccp station pass" and i never had to deal with dopey SOE or arrogant SqE again.
RIP Ribbitribbitt you are missed, kid.
Currently Playing EVE, ESO
Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and not clothed.
They will not sell it for the same reason they bought it in the first place: If VG received polish it would be competition for Sony's other games.
QFT.
There is no chance Vanguard will ever be sold.
There is also no Vanguard 2 even on the most farest horizont, either. Meaning no game of compareable quality in sight.
There will be an EQ3 aka "EQ Next" - but personally I am not very interested in EQ. Vanguard is simply the much better game, and so far they said nothing about taking inspiration from Vanguard for EQ3.
They will not sell it for the same reason they bought it in the first place: If VG received polish it would be competition for Sony's other games.
QFT.
There is no chance Vanguard will ever be sold.
There is also no Vanguard 2 even on the most farest horizont, either. Meaning no game of compareable quality in sight.
There will be an EQ3 aka "EQ Next" - but personally I am not very interested in EQ. Vanguard is simply the much better game, and so far they said nothing about taking inspiration from Vanguard for EQ3.
SOE bought it because no one else wanted it (Mircosoft backed out, then SOE said they would distribute, then Sigil went bottom up and SOE got the game). They might not have developed any new content, but it took them years to fix the massive issues the game had at launch.
Great game, but it was the horrible launch that killed it. Only get one chance to make a first impression. To say this was all a plot to prevent Vanguard from competing with EQ2, or any other SOE games is a bit tin hatish. I'm just glad that its still around to play.
If Vanguard gets a desent group of developers and do a relaunch Vanguard would flatten EQ2 and several other resent MMOs like RIFT and others.
Not without significant investment, no. At this point, VG looks and feels dated. The code, from what I understand, is a total Gordian knot of shity design decisions that would take significant time and money to unravel and fix. Far more than what the game would be worth to any potential buyer, making that kind of significant work unlikely.
At this point, fans of the game are better off just enjoying Vanguard for what it is for however long SOE keeps the lights on. It's not going to go anywhere and it's not going to improve from what it is now. As long as it's profitable, SOE will keep the servers on. Once it's no longer making money, SOE will kill it. It's that simple.
But yeah I bet they'd sell it for the right price. Tis business afterall.
They'd offer to sell it. The question is, would it be worth it to anyone to buy it? Given the mess that is their code and the sheer amount of time and money it would take to basically remake the game from scatch, I doubt it.
That's why I think fans are better off just taking VG for what it is. It's not going to be sold. It's not going to be relaunched. It's not going to be getting an influx of developers at all. Vanguard got abandoned ages ago. It's obvious there's no one at SOE working on it, except maybe in terms of server resets when the hamsters get tired and in fixing any drastic crashes that might happen. That's it.
Just play the game for as long as you enjoy it, or as long as SOE keeps the servers running. But don't expect anything more than what's already there, and don't expect a white knight to come in and save VG or give it some miracle relaunch. The game's dead in the water, but makes enough money for SOE to keep the lights on. For now, anyway.
But yeah I bet they'd sell it for the right price. Tis business afterall.
They'd offer to sell it. The question is, would it be worth it to anyone to buy it? Given the mess that is their code and the sheer amount of time and money it would take to basically remake the game from scatch, I doubt it.
That's why I think fans are better off just taking VG for what it is. It's not going to be sold. It's not going to be relaunched. It's not going to be getting an influx of developers at all. Vanguard got abandoned ages ago. It's obvious there's no one at SOE working on it, except maybe in terms of server resets when the hamsters get tired and in fixing any drastic crashes that might happen. That's it.
Just play the game for as long as you enjoy it, or as long as SOE keeps the servers running. But don't expect anything more than what's already there, and don't expect a white knight to come in and save VG or give it some miracle relaunch. The game's dead in the water, but makes enough money for SOE to keep the lights on. For now, anyway.
I wasn't impressed with the game even back when it was the hot ticket, and then a little while later when it was supposedly fixed. The fox people not having tails showed me a lack of attention for detail. And it's the little things that matter right?
The idea is nice.
There was fun to be had.
It was drawn out, and brief, at the same time, like this sentence. I don't think it'd have a market even as a gamepot free to play game now honestly.
If Vanguard gets a desent group of developers and do a relaunch Vanguard would flatten EQ2 and several other resent MMOs like RIFT and others.
As a Vanguard booster even I think that's a pretty silly thing to say. Vanguard was never positioned to be a big player in the MMO market, no matter what anyone thought before launch. It's niche - but that's fine; the key is embracing that niche and growing the market for it.
Do I think Vanguard would do better with a relaunch and development? Of course. And there's a lot of room for mid-level games doing, say, 50K subs. Darkfall has less than half of that and still has developers and releases, and it's a lesser game than Vanguard is, unless PvP is Your Thing. There's space in the market for Vanguard - a game that offers a lot that other games don't - to thrive without somehow magically getting 500K+ players.
They'd offer to sell it. The question is, would it be worth it to anyone to buy it? Given the mess that is their code and the sheer amount of time and money it would take to basically remake the game from scatch, I doubt it.
I am sure SOE would sell, and probably for a comparative song. But you're right - I don't think anyone would make such an offer. It might be better, cheaper and more efficient to make one's own MMO from scratch, inspired by Vanguard, than it would be to completely recreate and recode the game. That's what I would do if I were suddenly to come into eight figures of idle cash.
And I think you're right that folks need to embrace Vanguard for what it is, not in the hope that it might be "saved." There's a lot there to like and a lot that you don't see in many other games anymore, despite any problems it still has from the original mess or from the current lack of interest by SOE.
They'd offer to sell it. The question is, would it be worth it to anyone to buy it? Given the mess that is their code and the sheer amount of time and money it would take to basically remake the game from scatch, I doubt it.
I am sure SOE would sell, and probably for a comparative song. But you're right - I don't think anyone would make such an offer. It might be better, cheaper and more efficient to make one's own MMO from scratch, inspired by Vanguard, than it would be to completely recreate and recode the game. That's what I would do if I were suddenly to come into eight figures of idle cash.
And I think you're right that folks need to embrace Vanguard for what it is, not in the hope that it might be "saved." There's a lot there to like and a lot that you don't see in many other games anymore, despite any problems it still has from the original mess or from the current lack of interest by SOE.
They just shut down SWG or will by december, what makes folks honeslty think that will not happen to vangaurd. I think fols should be happy they still have Vangaurd after the events of the past few days.
They just shut down SWG or will by december, what makes folks honeslty think that will not happen to vangaurd. I think fols should be happy they still have Vangaurd after the events of the past few days.
I have to agree with this.
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Originally posted by Sigilaea They will not sell it for the same reason they bought it in the first place: If VG received polish it would be competition for Sony's other games.
A polished turd is still a turd.
Games I've played/tried out:WAR, LOTRO, Tabula Rasa, AoC, EQ1, EQ2, WoW, Vangaurd, FFXI, D&DO, Lineage 2, Saga Of Ryzom, EvE Online, DAoC, Guild Wars,Star Wars Galaxies, Hell Gate London, Auto Assault, Grando Espada ( AKA SoTNW ), Archlord, CoV/H, Star Trek Online, APB, Champions Online, FFXIV, Rift Online, GW2.
Originally posted by Lidane They'd offer to sell it. The question is, would it be worth it to anyone to buy it? Given the mess that is their code and the sheer amount of time and money it would take to basically remake the game from scatch, I doubt it.
I am sure SOE would sell, and probably for a comparative song. But you're right - I don't think anyone would make such an offer. It might be better, cheaper and more efficient to make one's own MMO from scratch, inspired by Vanguard, than it would be to completely recreate and recode the game. That's what I would do if I were suddenly to come into eight figures of idle cash. And I think you're right that folks need to embrace Vanguard for what it is, not in the hope that it might be "saved." There's a lot there to like and a lot that you don't see in many other games anymore, despite any problems it still has from the original mess or from the current lack of interest by SOE.
They just shut down SWG or will by december, what makes folks honeslty think that will not happen to vangaurd. I think fols should be happy they still have Vangaurd after the events of the past few days.
They pulled the plug because Lucas Art's doesn't want people confusing SOE's SWG with the soon to be released game from EA. Thus they paid SOE to the plug on SWG. However with VG SOE actually owns the IP so they'll keep it around as long as there is money to be made from the game but you won't see any development money dumped into VG because it died a still birth at launch due to Sigil being a horrible developer that promptly went belly up and was sold to SOE soon after launch by Brad McQuaid.
Games I've played/tried out:WAR, LOTRO, Tabula Rasa, AoC, EQ1, EQ2, WoW, Vangaurd, FFXI, D&DO, Lineage 2, Saga Of Ryzom, EvE Online, DAoC, Guild Wars,Star Wars Galaxies, Hell Gate London, Auto Assault, Grando Espada ( AKA SoTNW ), Archlord, CoV/H, Star Trek Online, APB, Champions Online, FFXIV, Rift Online, GW2.
They will not sell it for the same reason they bought it in the first place: If VG received polish it would be competition for Sony's other games.
QFT.
There is no chance Vanguard will ever be sold.
There is also no Vanguard 2 even on the most farest horizont, either. Meaning no game of compareable quality in sight.
There will be an EQ3 aka "EQ Next" - but personally I am not very interested in EQ. Vanguard is simply the much better game, and so far they said nothing about taking inspiration from Vanguard for EQ3.
But they added quite a bit of content over the first year/year and a half of vanguard, and it kept bleeding subs. Now you can argue that it was content that people didn't want and/or should have been different content, but they gave it quite a bit of attention for the first year or so. If it had been profitable they would have continued. I keep hearing how greedy SOE is, and if they really were that greedy, then if they thought an extra buck of profit could be squeezed out of developing it vs. letting it whither on the vine, then the greed would have lead to the extra development to get that buck. But they evidently didn't think they would get the extra money, or SOE isn't as greedy as everyone claims. Either way I have yet to enjoy an SOE game so they are fairly irrelevant to me.
They'd offer to sell it. The question is, would it be worth it to anyone to buy it? Given the mess that is their code and the sheer amount of time and money it would take to basically remake the game from scatch, I doubt it.
I am sure SOE would sell, and probably for a comparative song. But you're right - I don't think anyone would make such an offer. It might be better, cheaper and more efficient to make one's own MMO from scratch, inspired by Vanguard, than it would be to completely recreate and recode the game. That's what I would do if I were suddenly to come into eight figures of idle cash.
And I think you're right that folks need to embrace Vanguard for what it is, not in the hope that it might be "saved." There's a lot there to like and a lot that you don't see in many other games anymore, despite any problems it still has from the original mess or from the current lack of interest by SOE.
They just shut down SWG or will by december, what makes folks honeslty think that will not happen to vangaurd. I think fols should be happy they still have Vangaurd after the events of the past few days.
They pulled the plug because Lucas Art's doesn't want people confusing SOE's SWG with the soon to be released game from EA. Thus they paid SOE to the plug on SWG.
I seriously doubt they "paid" soe to pull the plug. All they had to do was say "we're not renewing the Star Wars license." They said the license ended in early 2012 so they likely figured that it wasn't worth it to keep it open that long if they weren't going to be renewing the license anyway.
Originally posted by niceguy3978 Originally posted by M1sf1t
Originally posted by erictlewis
Originally posted by Ardwulf
Originally posted by Lidane They'd offer to sell it. The question is, would it be worth it to anyone to buy it? Given the mess that is their code and the sheer amount of time and money it would take to basically remake the game from scatch, I doubt it.
I am sure SOE would sell, and probably for a comparative song. But you're right - I don't think anyone would make such an offer. It might be better, cheaper and more efficient to make one's own MMO from scratch, inspired by Vanguard, than it would be to completely recreate and recode the game. That's what I would do if I were suddenly to come into eight figures of idle cash. And I think you're right that folks need to embrace Vanguard for what it is, not in the hope that it might be "saved." There's a lot there to like and a lot that you don't see in many other games anymore, despite any problems it still has from the original mess or from the current lack of interest by SOE.
They just shut down SWG or will by december, what makes folks honeslty think that will not happen to vangaurd. I think fols should be happy they still have Vangaurd after the events of the past few days.
They pulled the plug because Lucas Art's doesn't want people confusing SOE's SWG with the soon to be released game from EA. Thus they paid SOE to the plug on SWG. I seriously doubt they "paid" soe to pull the plug. All they had to do was say "we're not renewing the Star Wars license." They said the license ended in early 2012 so they likely figured that it wasn't worth it to keep it open that long if they weren't going to be renewing the license anyway.
This could very well be true but in the end it was Lucas Arts were the ones who pulled the plug not SOE.
Games I've played/tried out:WAR, LOTRO, Tabula Rasa, AoC, EQ1, EQ2, WoW, Vangaurd, FFXI, D&DO, Lineage 2, Saga Of Ryzom, EvE Online, DAoC, Guild Wars,Star Wars Galaxies, Hell Gate London, Auto Assault, Grando Espada ( AKA SoTNW ), Archlord, CoV/H, Star Trek Online, APB, Champions Online, FFXIV, Rift Online, GW2.
They'd offer to sell it. The question is, would it be worth it to anyone to buy it? Given the mess that is their code and the sheer amount of time and money it would take to basically remake the game from scatch, I doubt it.
I am sure SOE would sell, and probably for a comparative song. But you're right - I don't think anyone would make such an offer. It might be better, cheaper and more efficient to make one's own MMO from scratch, inspired by Vanguard, than it would be to completely recreate and recode the game. That's what I would do if I were suddenly to come into eight figures of idle cash.
And I think you're right that folks need to embrace Vanguard for what it is, not in the hope that it might be "saved." There's a lot there to like and a lot that you don't see in many other games anymore, despite any problems it still has from the original mess or from the current lack of interest by SOE.
They just shut down SWG or will by december, what makes folks honeslty think that will not happen to vangaurd. I think fols should be happy they still have Vangaurd after the events of the past few days.
They pulled the plug because Lucas Art's doesn't want people confusing SOE's SWG with the soon to be released game from EA. Thus they paid SOE to the plug on SWG.
I seriously doubt they "paid" soe to pull the plug. All they had to do was say "we're not renewing the Star Wars license." They said the license ended in early 2012 so they likely figured that it wasn't worth it to keep it open that long if they weren't going to be renewing the license anyway.
This could very well be true but in the end it was Lucas Arts were the ones who pulled the plug not SOE.
This I agree with, all they really had to do was say, you can keep the license for say triple the price. I'm sure they wouldn't mind the extra income, and I'm sure SOE would very much mind the extra expense, especially if it pushed them into the red for the game.
But .... the problem is, will there be that investor to come by and pay large sum of money?
No. There won't. Vanguard is essentially dead in the water.
Just take it for what it is. Enjoy it for as long as you can. It's not going to be sold. It's not going to get a white knight coming in to save it. VG had its chance four years ago and fell short. SOE abandoned it ages ago. However, it brings in enough money to justify keeping the lights on. As long as that stays true, VG will go on. Once it's not profitable anymore, they'll kill it. Simple as that.
But .... the problem is, will there be that investor to come by and pay large sum of money?
No. There won't. Vanguard is essentially dead in the water.
Just take it for what it is. Enjoy it for as long as you can. It's not going to be sold. It's not going to get a white knight coming in to save it. VG had its chance four years ago and fell short. SOE abandoned it ages ago. However, it brings in enough money to justify keeping the lights on. As long as that stays true, VG will go on. Once it's not profitable anymore, they'll kill it. Simple as that.
+1
If you look at vanguard in it's present state, it would take more than a few bug fixes and a little polish to get it up to scratch for it to be a viable alternative to the other up and comming mmos on the market. For a start the character models need redone along with all the mobs and NPC. Some environments could do with some retouching and game physics also need fixing. And I haven't even mentioned game balancing or an upgrade to the quest system and the fleshing out of content. Add an expensive relaunch and advertising campaign and... well you get the picture. For it to survive VG needs a complete and expensive overhaul with no guarentee of success. It's not going to happen.
I would love it to happen, I loved the game and I would be amongst the first to sign up and pay. But there is no realistic chance of that happening.
Vanguard is never going to be a major player in the market regardless of who owns it. However it is good enough in its current state that it could attract enough players to support a small development team.
That is if players believed that the development team was going to support the game, which is the current problem for Vanguard.
Vanguards design is aimed at a segement of the market that really isn't being addressed at the moment and none of the future games look like they are going to fill that gap either.
Comments
Did we ever find out what SOE paid for Vanguard? I have been searching forever.
No.....No......No.
I am sure Sony is making a killing on Vanguard right now. They have probably depreciated the cost of all of their servers to 0 and have very limited cost. Even with just 2000 accounts they are clearing an easy 250k a year.
A new company would have to make it worth Sony's wild to sell it. The cost would most likely be so great that the new company would have to either:
1) Increase the player base hugely or go under. It would probably be the later considering the age of the game and the cost of doing upgrades on top of initial purchase and set up.
2) Go FTP, in which case it would be nothing like the game so many people love and just be a bastarized mess of itself.
The game is where it is and this is the best it can get. No one is going to throw millions of dollars at a project just because they want a few people to be happy. People who want to spend money to make people's lives better are not going to chose video games as the means.
--John Ruskin
Buying vanguard for a few million would put a developer a huge leap forward in making a game, even if it is just an attempt to relaunch the game.
Vanguard is aimed at a segement of the market that really isn't being addressed at the moment. Something with a little more old school flavor and some non-combat activities.
It could rebound in the right hands, but it would take something to get people interested again. An expansion, even a lateral one might just do it.
i just did a thought exercise in which CCP purchased vanguard. it made me cry, for joy; in my mind they did a "ccp station pass" and i never had to deal with dopey SOE or arrogant SqE again.
RIP Ribbitribbitt you are missed, kid.
Currently Playing EVE, ESO
Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and not clothed.
Dwight D Eisenhower
My optimism wears heavy boots and is loud.
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QFT.
There is no chance Vanguard will ever be sold.
There is also no Vanguard 2 even on the most farest horizont, either. Meaning no game of compareable quality in sight.
There will be an EQ3 aka "EQ Next" - but personally I am not very interested in EQ. Vanguard is simply the much better game, and so far they said nothing about taking inspiration from Vanguard for EQ3.
If Vanguard gets a desent group of developers and do a relaunch Vanguard would flatten EQ2 and several other resent MMOs like RIFT and others.
But sadly SOE is like an old sea captain they rather go down with the EQship than taking the consequence of thier poorly planned business model.
If it's not broken, you are not innovating.
SOE bought it because no one else wanted it (Mircosoft backed out, then SOE said they would distribute, then Sigil went bottom up and SOE got the game). They might not have developed any new content, but it took them years to fix the massive issues the game had at launch.
Great game, but it was the horrible launch that killed it. Only get one chance to make a first impression. To say this was all a plot to prevent Vanguard from competing with EQ2, or any other SOE games is a bit tin hatish. I'm just glad that its still around to play.
Not without significant investment, no. At this point, VG looks and feels dated. The code, from what I understand, is a total Gordian knot of shity design decisions that would take significant time and money to unravel and fix. Far more than what the game would be worth to any potential buyer, making that kind of significant work unlikely.
At this point, fans of the game are better off just enjoying Vanguard for what it is for however long SOE keeps the lights on. It's not going to go anywhere and it's not going to improve from what it is now. As long as it's profitable, SOE will keep the servers on. Once it's no longer making money, SOE will kill it. It's that simple.
No one would buy it.
But yeah I bet they'd sell it for the right price. Tis business afterall.
They'd offer to sell it. The question is, would it be worth it to anyone to buy it? Given the mess that is their code and the sheer amount of time and money it would take to basically remake the game from scatch, I doubt it.
That's why I think fans are better off just taking VG for what it is. It's not going to be sold. It's not going to be relaunched. It's not going to be getting an influx of developers at all. Vanguard got abandoned ages ago. It's obvious there's no one at SOE working on it, except maybe in terms of server resets when the hamsters get tired and in fixing any drastic crashes that might happen. That's it.
Just play the game for as long as you enjoy it, or as long as SOE keeps the servers running. But don't expect anything more than what's already there, and don't expect a white knight to come in and save VG or give it some miracle relaunch. The game's dead in the water, but makes enough money for SOE to keep the lights on. For now, anyway.
I wasn't impressed with the game even back when it was the hot ticket, and then a little while later when it was supposedly fixed. The fox people not having tails showed me a lack of attention for detail. And it's the little things that matter right?
The idea is nice.
There was fun to be had.
It was drawn out, and brief, at the same time, like this sentence. I don't think it'd have a market even as a gamepot free to play game now honestly.
As a Vanguard booster even I think that's a pretty silly thing to say. Vanguard was never positioned to be a big player in the MMO market, no matter what anyone thought before launch. It's niche - but that's fine; the key is embracing that niche and growing the market for it.
Do I think Vanguard would do better with a relaunch and development? Of course. And there's a lot of room for mid-level games doing, say, 50K subs. Darkfall has less than half of that and still has developers and releases, and it's a lesser game than Vanguard is, unless PvP is Your Thing. There's space in the market for Vanguard - a game that offers a lot that other games don't - to thrive without somehow magically getting 500K+ players.
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I am sure SOE would sell, and probably for a comparative song. But you're right - I don't think anyone would make such an offer. It might be better, cheaper and more efficient to make one's own MMO from scratch, inspired by Vanguard, than it would be to completely recreate and recode the game. That's what I would do if I were suddenly to come into eight figures of idle cash.
And I think you're right that folks need to embrace Vanguard for what it is, not in the hope that it might be "saved." There's a lot there to like and a lot that you don't see in many other games anymore, despite any problems it still has from the original mess or from the current lack of interest by SOE.
Ardwulf's Lair | Ardwulf's YouTube Channel | Ardwulf on Twitter
They just shut down SWG or will by december, what makes folks honeslty think that will not happen to vangaurd. I think fols should be happy they still have Vangaurd after the events of the past few days.
I have to agree with this.
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Serph toze kindly has started a walk-through. https://youtu.be/UIelCK-lldo
A polished turd is still a turd.
Games I've played/tried out:WAR, LOTRO, Tabula Rasa, AoC, EQ1, EQ2, WoW, Vangaurd, FFXI, D&DO, Lineage 2, Saga Of Ryzom, EvE Online, DAoC, Guild Wars,Star Wars Galaxies, Hell Gate London, Auto Assault, Grando Espada ( AKA SoTNW ), Archlord, CoV/H, Star Trek Online, APB, Champions Online, FFXIV, Rift Online, GW2.
Game(s) I Am Currently Playing:
GW2 (+LoL and BF3)
They pulled the plug because Lucas Art's doesn't want people confusing SOE's SWG with the soon to be released game from EA. Thus they paid SOE to the plug on SWG. However with VG SOE actually owns the IP so they'll keep it around as long as there is money to be made from the game but you won't see any development money dumped into VG because it died a still birth at launch due to Sigil being a horrible developer that promptly went belly up and was sold to SOE soon after launch by Brad McQuaid.
Games I've played/tried out:WAR, LOTRO, Tabula Rasa, AoC, EQ1, EQ2, WoW, Vangaurd, FFXI, D&DO, Lineage 2, Saga Of Ryzom, EvE Online, DAoC, Guild Wars,Star Wars Galaxies, Hell Gate London, Auto Assault, Grando Espada ( AKA SoTNW ), Archlord, CoV/H, Star Trek Online, APB, Champions Online, FFXIV, Rift Online, GW2.
Game(s) I Am Currently Playing:
GW2 (+LoL and BF3)
But they added quite a bit of content over the first year/year and a half of vanguard, and it kept bleeding subs. Now you can argue that it was content that people didn't want and/or should have been different content, but they gave it quite a bit of attention for the first year or so. If it had been profitable they would have continued. I keep hearing how greedy SOE is, and if they really were that greedy, then if they thought an extra buck of profit could be squeezed out of developing it vs. letting it whither on the vine, then the greed would have lead to the extra development to get that buck. But they evidently didn't think they would get the extra money, or SOE isn't as greedy as everyone claims. Either way I have yet to enjoy an SOE game so they are fairly irrelevant to me.
I seriously doubt they "paid" soe to pull the plug. All they had to do was say "we're not renewing the Star Wars license." They said the license ended in early 2012 so they likely figured that it wasn't worth it to keep it open that long if they weren't going to be renewing the license anyway.
I am sure SOE would sell, and probably for a comparative song. But you're right - I don't think anyone would make such an offer. It might be better, cheaper and more efficient to make one's own MMO from scratch, inspired by Vanguard, than it would be to completely recreate and recode the game. That's what I would do if I were suddenly to come into eight figures of idle cash.
And I think you're right that folks need to embrace Vanguard for what it is, not in the hope that it might be "saved." There's a lot there to like and a lot that you don't see in many other games anymore, despite any problems it still has from the original mess or from the current lack of interest by SOE.
They just shut down SWG or will by december, what makes folks honeslty think that will not happen to vangaurd. I think fols should be happy they still have Vangaurd after the events of the past few days.
They pulled the plug because Lucas Art's doesn't want people confusing SOE's SWG with the soon to be released game from EA. Thus they paid SOE to the plug on SWG.
I seriously doubt they "paid" soe to pull the plug. All they had to do was say "we're not renewing the Star Wars license." They said the license ended in early 2012 so they likely figured that it wasn't worth it to keep it open that long if they weren't going to be renewing the license anyway.
This could very well be true but in the end it was Lucas Arts were the ones who pulled the plug not SOE.
Games I've played/tried out:WAR, LOTRO, Tabula Rasa, AoC, EQ1, EQ2, WoW, Vangaurd, FFXI, D&DO, Lineage 2, Saga Of Ryzom, EvE Online, DAoC, Guild Wars,Star Wars Galaxies, Hell Gate London, Auto Assault, Grando Espada ( AKA SoTNW ), Archlord, CoV/H, Star Trek Online, APB, Champions Online, FFXIV, Rift Online, GW2.
Game(s) I Am Currently Playing:
GW2 (+LoL and BF3)
This I agree with, all they really had to do was say, you can keep the license for say triple the price. I'm sure they wouldn't mind the extra income, and I'm sure SOE would very much mind the extra expense, especially if it pushed them into the red for the game.
Well, to be honest.... Any problems that can be fix by spending Money .... there will be no problem!
I'm sure if some investor willing to give out an interesting ammount sum of money !! I'm pretty sure SOE will cash in!
But .... the problem is, will there be that investor to come by and pay large sum of money?
No. There won't. Vanguard is essentially dead in the water.
Just take it for what it is. Enjoy it for as long as you can. It's not going to be sold. It's not going to get a white knight coming in to save it. VG had its chance four years ago and fell short. SOE abandoned it ages ago. However, it brings in enough money to justify keeping the lights on. As long as that stays true, VG will go on. Once it's not profitable anymore, they'll kill it. Simple as that.
+1
If you look at vanguard in it's present state, it would take more than a few bug fixes and a little polish to get it up to scratch for it to be a viable alternative to the other up and comming mmos on the market. For a start the character models need redone along with all the mobs and NPC. Some environments could do with some retouching and game physics also need fixing. And I haven't even mentioned game balancing or an upgrade to the quest system and the fleshing out of content. Add an expensive relaunch and advertising campaign and... well you get the picture. For it to survive VG needs a complete and expensive overhaul with no guarentee of success. It's not going to happen.
I would love it to happen, I loved the game and I would be amongst the first to sign up and pay. But there is no realistic chance of that happening.
Vanguard is never going to be a major player in the market regardless of who owns it. However it is good enough in its current state that it could attract enough players to support a small development team.
That is if players believed that the development team was going to support the game, which is the current problem for Vanguard.
Vanguards design is aimed at a segement of the market that really isn't being addressed at the moment and none of the future games look like they are going to fill that gap either.