Vanguard: Saga of Heroes
McQuaid and Butler formerly worked for Sony Online Entertainment on the team developing "EverQuest". After their departure, they formed Sigil; on May 16, 2002, Sigil announced that they had reached an exclusive publishing deal with Microsoft and they began work on "Vanguard: Saga of Heroes". With the pedigree of the "all-star" team at Sigil and the bravado of CEO Brad McQuaid, there were very high expectations for the game among MMO fans and the press.
An early marketing fact sheet for Vanguard included the following: "Vanguard: Saga of Heroes will be the premier third generation massively multiplayer RPG. A vast, seamless, immersive virtual world filled with elements of familiar High Fantasy, including traditional themes and more, all depicted using cutting-edge graphics technology. Sigil's expertise and experience in the field will bring groundbreaking static and dynamic content to the genre. Vanguard will build upon the successes and strengths of earlier MMORPGs to improve popular game mechanics and features, but also address these pioneering games' mistakes and deficiencies. Vanguard will focus heavily on interdependence, challenge, and reward, while simultaneously addressing tedious and annoying issues, including camping, excessive downtime and more."
Originally, Sigil worked with Microsoft to co-publish "Vanguard" but after 4 years, and less than one year before the game's release, the partnership was quickly dissolved. On May 5, 2006 Sigil announced that they had negotiated a deal to purchase the rights to "Vanguard" back from Microsoft, and at the same time announced that they had arranged a co-publishing deal between Sigil and Sony Online Entertainment. "Vanguard: Saga of Heroes" was released on January 30, 2007, co-published by Sigil and Sony Online Entertainment. While initial preview coverage was positive the launch lead to disappointing reviews.
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