Vanguard Rumors and Recriminations Begin Anew May 15, 2007
Posted by Wilhelm2451 in Sony Online Entertainment, Vanguard SOH.trackback
Yesterday there was a post up on F13.net about the majority of the Sigil team being let go and being invited to come back the next day to reapply for a small number of Vanguard development positions at SOE. A very unhappy situation that I have been in before, both as the person laid off and the front line manager who gets to deliver the news. (And then turns around and gets laid off.)
More news is expected on this from SOE or Sigil today.
Of course, the Fires of Heaven forum is brimming with comments on the subject.
Part of me wants to say that is life in high tech, and even more so in the volitile gaming industry. I have to lay off several people on my team come Wednesday, so I know the pain.
But part of me believes that something like Vanguard involves a lot more passion and dedication, which will make the pain that much greater.
Of course my belief might be naive. It seems that the Grouchy Gamer has some insight on the last days of Sigil Games Online. If his statements are true, there may be even more righteous anger in the community. Things can hardly fail to look better when SOE takes charge.
I will be interested to see how the Wikipedia articles on Vanguard and Sigil get updated over the next few days. It is always amusing to watch the history page to see what people write versus what ends up in the article.
Thanks to Darren at The Common Sense Gamer for keeping his eyes open and his ear to the ground on these things.
I’m just amazed really, at all of this. But, like in any entertainment business, when a highly anticipated project flops miserably… all hell breaks loose.
It’s fascninating to watch really, but also sad for all the innocents caught up in the whirlwind.
[...] reported everywhere, yesterday, the Sigil team was wiped clean. … at approximately 4:30PM today, Sigil employees [...]
[...] is a good amalgamation of links, in Wilhelm’s article. Here is the press release from [...]
I an off topic tangent, but related to something I mentioned above, I ended up not having to lay off any of my direct reports yesterday. Of course, because of that, I got left out of all of the managerial meetings about the layoffs, which made me wonder if I was going to be the one to go. Have to love that.
Today, the day after, everybody on my old team, including me, still has their job. I have, however, been given a new team in addition to the old team….