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Massively Exclusive: SOE elaborates on Vanguard's F2P conversion
Vanguard news is ramping up in preparation for the August 14th free-to-play conversion date. In fact, Sony Online Entertainment quietly kicked off a soft launch of the revamped game yesterday, giving players a first glimpse of the new website, pricing matrix, and in-game station store. Massively sat down with Andy Sites, the game's director of development at SOE, to ask him what players can expect during and after Vanguard's F2P transition. We've got the official scoop on transition content, housing and boats, server types, and more beyond the break!
SOE answers Vanguard free-to-play questions
With the recent announcement from Sony Online Entertainment that Vanguard: Saga of Heroes will be going free-to-play sometime this summer, questions immediately began to surface. How will it effect current players? Will it be anything like the other free-to-play titles that SOE runs? Well, we were as curious as anyone else, so we fired off a few questions to SOE in the hopes of snagging some more insight into the transformation. We received our answers from Andy Sites, Director of Development, and the ever-familiar Salim Grant, Creative Director. It's an exciting time to be a Vanguard player, but will putting a free title on a game that has struggled in the past make any difference? Time will tell. In the meanwhile, click past the cut to check out what SOE had to say!
Vanguard going free-to-play this summer, beefs up dev team
With Sony Online Entertainment's heavy free-to-play push these past couple of years, Vanguard players hoped that they would not be overlooked by their digital overlord. Breathe easier, heroes, for this summer will bring thee and thine a F2P Vanguard -- and a big push for further game development! While specifics about the F2P conversion are hazy at the moment, SOE says that players should look to its work with previous MMO F2P adaptations (such as the recently relaunched EverQuest) for an idea how things will go down in Vanguard town. It's not just going to be a token change for this mostly forgotten title; SOE says that it has assembled a new team of Vanguard-loving devs to generate more frequent updates, including "general improvements and new content." The game's previous update was this past December. Coming on board to shape the future of the game are Director of Development Andy Sites, Creative Director Salim Grant, and Technical Director Todd Schmidt. The announcement concludes with a promise for team spotlights, more information on F2P, and development discussion to come in the near future.
Free Realms video shows off new pets
You know that whole cliche about wanting a pony as a Christmas or birthday gift? Thanks to Sony Online Entertainment, you can finally fulfill that wish for yourself and your friends. You can also fulfill their wish for a dragon, a dinosaur, a pegasus, or a unicorn while you're at it. Free Realms has introduced all of those animals as new pets in the game and they come with a variety of colors and emotes, from a fire breathing dragon to a dancing Tyrannosaurus Rex that blows bubbles to a unicorn that...wait, is that rainbow what we think it is? You can decide for yourself with the alternately adorable-and-hilarious behind the scenes video from the Free Realms development team, depicting the creative process and the auditions for new pets. Free Realms Producer Andy Sites describes the search for the perfect new pet, and shows off the winning choices. Follow along after the jump to view the video, and we hope you enjoy it as much as we did.
