The MMO, which positioned itself as being for the “hardcore” gamer, originally launched with a host of bugs and negative reviews, with a paltry 242K sales. The game struggled over the next three years as the developer, Sigil Games, dealt with fixing the issues with the game, and at its lowest point, it ran on just two servers, one American, the other European.
The MMO finally started to find its voice last year when when new content and two updates were released. That is when Sigil started recruiting new talent that also happened to be Vanguard fans.
According to SOE director of development Doug Sites, ”We’ve had a dry spell of game updates over the past few months. That said, I’m happy to announce the drought will be coming to an end this week, with our first scheduled update since last December. We plan to roll out game updates MUCH more frequently than years past, which will include general improvements, new content and more.”
It makes sense that Sony would take this opportunity to transition the MMO to free-to-play, as the publisher had already done the same for DC Universe Online, Everquest, Everquest 2 and Free Realms. Those games will be showcased along with Vanguard at SOE Live this October.
Vanguard: Saga of Heroes is expected to go free-to-play this Summer 2012, where it should enjoy a new audience of gamers including those who passed on it five years ago.
