Five years after launching Vanguard: Saga of Heroes for Windows, Sony Online Entertainment has announced that it will convert the subscription MMORPG to free-to-play.
SOE has had plenty of success picking up millions of users with the free-to-play model in online games such as Free Realms and Star Wars: Clone Wars Adventures, and has been converting many of its subscription titles to free-to-play like DC Universe.
It's not been shy making that change with older MMOs either, as was the case with 2004's EverQuest II and 1999's EverQuest. The new business model has breathed new life into those old games, spurring huge increases in user sign-ups and item sales.
While Vanguard's userbase isn't nearly as large as the aforementioned titles, SOE hopes to bring more players to the game after it rolls out the free-to-play update this summer. It also intends to put out updates for the game much more frequently" now.
To support the free-to-play switch and future updates, SOE has brought in a number of developers who previously worked on Vanguard back to the development team, including creative director Salim Grant, technical director Todd Schmidt, and development director Andy Sites.
I'm very curious to see what happens with this. Vanguard:SOH had the greatest potential of all the fantasy based MMOs, IMO. Perhaps a case of too much ambition out the gate. I hope the FTP model gives it some steam to realize its vision.
