Vanguard To Switch To Sony Online Entertainment News

Vanguard: Saga of Heroes developer Sigil Games has today confirmed that they and Sony Online Entertainment are in discussions with Microsoft Game Studios to acquire the rights to co-publish the MMO. The game is currently in the closed Beta stage of development and will be shown at this week's E3 2006 by all three parties as they work together towards a successful transition.

Explaining why the move has been made, Brad McQuaid, CEO of Sigil Games Online said, "As the development process is ongoing and constantly shifting, it became clear that MGS and Sigil had varying visions and direction for the title's development...In the best interest of Vanguard, it was decided that we would buy back the publishing rights from Microsoft."

"We are very excited to be working with so many old friends at Sigil," said John Smedley, president, Sony Online Entertainment. "Vanguard looks beautiful and has an incredibly rich game world. It's the type of game that will appeal directly to SOE's hundreds of thousands of players and should fit in perfectly with the current line-up of games available in Station Access."

"This decision was made mutually by Sigil and Microsoft, in the best interest of the long-term goals for the title," said Phil Spencer, General Manager at Microsoft Game Studios. "As a key Windows development partner, we will continue to work with Sigil to ensure Vanguard's ongoing success."

This isn't the first time that MGS has had second thoughts towards an MMORPG, with the fate of Level 5's True Fantasy Live Online still very much unknown despite the publisher registering a trademark for the title back in 2005.

Vanguard: Saga of Heroes is currently pencilled in for a Winter 2006 release, we'll have more news shortly...