In a move sure to raise a few eyebrows, it was announced today that Jon Grande, formerly Lead Producer of Vanguard on the Microsoft side of the fence, has now joined the Sigil team as Vice President of Business & Legal Affairs. While congratulations are surely in order, the question of who Jon's successor will be and how this will affect the Sigil/Microsoft relationship still remains to be seen. A quote from one of the forum members in the announcement
thread nicely summarizes our concerns.
Secondly let me voice my concern that Vanguard has lost such a person at Microsoft who is as passionate about the game as they are. I do hope that your replacement at Microsoft holds even a tenth of the passion about gaming and Vanguard specifically. I'm not a huge fan of Microsoft, but I always felt comfortable about the marriage mostly in part because Jon Grande was at the wheel on the MS side. Now I find myself sitting here, holding my breath, in hopes that Microsoft realizes the synergy that Jon had with the Sigil team and strives to put an equally passionate fellow in his place.
We'll keep you up to date as Jon's successor is announced.