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Would Sony Sell Vanguard?
KaalBlight
Member UncommonPosts: 10
Do you think Sony would ever sell Vanguard?
It would be nice to see another developer get a shot at re-launching it.
Comments
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.
Why on Earth would they sell it? They've done zero development on that game in years and people are still signing up to play the game. It can't be making much money, but it's probably very profitable for what it costs them to keep it running.
I can not remember winning or losing a single debate on the internet.
I seriously doubt it.
If another company took control of VG, fixed all the bugs and started adding content, they would lose even more EQ2 subs and they don't want that.
No, Sony bought Vanguard to snub out competition, gain talent, and have a potential expandable IP.
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You wouldn't understand
it would be awesome if they did, but i doubt they would. the potential buyer would have to drastically overpay for them to consider it.
RIP Ribbitribbitt you are missed, kid.
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This. Though I don't believe they were interested in the IP - just taking out competition for EQ and getting Brad back in-house.
Yes it would be awesome if someone took it over and gave it some love and attention, but it's not going to happen. I know Brad had no real choice, but the worst thing he did for Vanguard was to sell it to SOE. I like to imagine what kind of a game it would be now if Microsoft hadn't pulled their funding, or if Sigil had found some venture capital somewhere. We'd probably have something pretty amazing in the MMO market.
Two things have changes since SOE purchased Sigil to acquire Vanguard.
1) SOE no longer has a sizable population of players and healthy games to rely on for revenue.
2) EQ2 isn't anywhere near the size is was in 2006/2007
SOE may not be in a position like they were in the past, so it is possible that they do sell the game. Perhaps they are forced to do so by SCEA.
One can only hope.
The amount someone would have to pay to acquire VG would be unreasonable. Not only purchasing it, but getting a dedicated team on the game to de-face it to bring it back up to speed. Like most have said, just take the concepts, put it on another platform, start from scratch.
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Personaly i don't think that Sony would because Vanguard as many poeple has said is the real sequal to EQ2 and if a good company got a hold of Vanguard they could make it a top notach mmorpg
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Sony should just sell the whole SOE. From my experience and what I've heard for years, they don't really give a shit about their MMOs. Anyway, I doubt they would. They heald on to it for this long already.
Just imagine if games like SWG/EQ2/VG were given to companies with more active focus on their games like Blizz/Trion/etc.
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Why, Can you efford it ? You could argue that Vanguard is no longer as big a threath to SOE's other titles as it has been, so it might be possible. I doubt Vanguard makes any money worth mentioning, so the price would be the how much SOE think Vanguard could be a competition.
I also doubt your financial advicer would approve of such an investment
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No, it's the real sequel to EQ1.
They won't sell it because they're assholes.
I would play it if SOE sold it. I have tried it before I always got the feel that SOE doesn't care and won't fix anything so it's like blah....
I will not play a game with a cash shop ever again. A dev job should be to make the game better not make me pay so it sucks less.
MMORPGs do not recover from bad launches, it doesnt happen.
I tried the trial, those animations are ghastly, the collision on characters is like something from the 129k spectrum days and worst of all the graphics often look like a 4 year olds colouring book. Vanguard doesnt have the makings of a great MMO people, it sucked at launch and its dead in the water now. I pity you because i hold the same contempt for SOE's mismanagement with DCUO. But at some point we gotta let go, stop paying those station subs and vote with our wallets. Maybe if SOE goes bust, sony will sell off its assets and some one semi decent might do more than keep these games on life support.
But I doubt it, find a new game guys, VG is dead.
Well I still play EQ1, its dated gfx but still get updates almost weekly and an expac. a year. So to say SoE don't care about there mmo's i not right. I know some games gets new ui, talent, skill and spell resets every other month. I prefer it stays close to release but with room for improfement (Spelled wrong). Some games gets better attention, but is that so hard to understand wouldnt you put your money where the money is? And to the topic: Sell a brand they own and payed for, hell no. You think Blizz would sell thw warcraft brand even if it lost all its paying customers, I dont think so
Zoos the Slacker
That aside, the problem with Sony selling Vanguard is the fact that I doubt any major company would take an interest in it, so SOE would end up selling it to some tiny little development company I've never even heard of who pretty much only have enough money to keep the servers online. Basically, it won't help much.
Rumor has it that SOE has received at least 2 offers to purchase vanguard. One was rumored to be Raph Koster (or at least he inquired about it, I don't know which).
I doubt a massive company would take interest in buying the game, but in all honsety I think that is a good thing. Vanguard would need a small team of developers who are passionate about making the game fun and not some big business thinking of how to recoup their money.
Personally I think SOE is set with EQ2 and not really worried about the possible effect Vanguard will have on the game anymore. EQ2 has long since left its golden age and isn't going to carry SOE into the future. There isn't much reason to protect it from Vanguard anymore and SOE is hurting for money. At this point I think SOE keeping vanguard is more about pride than anything else. Once SOE has to go through another round of downsizing, perhaps a bookkeeper from SCE will bring up the possibility of selling off the title and SOE will be forced to.
No, they will se it dead first.
The sad thing about VG is that they blame no support at all on so few players, yet it has so few players because people see it has no support.
It is my opinion they are intentionaly letting it rot down to the point they can justifiably cancel it due to 'lack of demand', avoiding the PR backlash that would come even now. Why they are doing this is debatable... I personally feel it's because they don't give a shit about it either way and would rather it just be gone, but understand it has a small passionate vocal following.
Why would soe sell vangaurd. Think about it. They have ZERO dev staff, the eq2 dev staff works onit now when they have time. They have a skeleton sport staff that they share with eq2. They also use the same servers as eq2/eq1 so ZERO cost to keep the servers up as the other games already running support that.
Right now they are making a profitt, so why would they sale, it would be stupid as they are in a win win. Unless somebody came up with a boatload of cash.
No. Sony sees Vanguard the same as a despot king sees a blood brother relative. E.G. as a dangerous rival. So a king has said brother locked away in a velvet mask, where he will be quietly forgotton about. Sony has done the exact same thing with Vanguard. They now own it, are allowing it to wither away, and are still making a tiny percentage of profit from it off the diehards who let their wishful thinking that SOE would ever put any resources into this game that directly competes with both of their cash cows, EQ and EQ2, override their common sense.
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VG must be breaking even or making some kind of profit, there for its a plus to SOE on top of it bringing value to the station pass. It won't be sold. Making money off of something you can keep in maintanance mode. What company wouldn't do that?
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An ethical one? Oh wait we are talking SOE, nevermind.
"Gypsies, tramps, and thieves, we were called by the Admin of the site . . . "
Its unfortunate that ethical and business never land in the same sentence :
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At this point, I don't think Sony sees VG as anything other t han Station Pass fodder that boosts the perceived value of their game cards, since it's another name on the list. I doubt it's seen as a threat to anything anymore given the small audience that is still paying for a game that's clearly been abandoned. It's just free money for them now. Why would they sell anything that's breaking even with its server maintenace costs when they don't have to do a damn thing to it and people will still pay to play?
Besides, Sony as a company has bigger problems, especially after their service outage. VG is the very least of their worries.