This weekend, in a surprise announcement made near the close of business Friday (therefore guarunteeing the community guys had a hellish weekend), it was announced that Sigil was divorcing itself from Microsoft, and working their way into a ‘copublishing’ agreement with Sony.

The Vanguard faithful are upset primarily about SOE’s involvement in the deal. This is unsurprising, given that Vanguard’s community has basically been built by promising a version of Everquest true to its original vision (read: before being sullied by the hands of the unwashed heathens that currently run it). This positioning by Sigil is, in fact, what was so surprising about the change in bedfellows.

SOE is not what should have the Vanguard faithful concerned.

Yes, SOE will try to change things in the original vision. The publisher ALWAYS try to change things. Sometimes for the better, sometimes for the worst, frequently merely to make irrelevant changes so that product managers can assert their authority. 3D0 meddled with Meridian before we shipped, and Ubi helpfully provided ‘design consultants’ to Shadowbane to ‘help’ us get out the door. Whether that company is SOE, Microsoft or just a Howard Hughes-style billionaire is pretty irrelevant.

And as far as publishers go, SOE is pretty good. They have a proven track record with billing, CS, technical support, operations and distribution. They’ve now got a worldwide distribution channel. They have existing customers they can market to easily.

And perhaps most importantly, online games is all that SOE does. They aren’t going to change their minds about online games. They are, for better or for worse, ‘all in’ into the online space. By comparison, Microsoft was always going to be worrying about the XBox first. In terms of the business of helping Sigil support an online game, SOE could reasonably be viewed as superior.

The real question for any observer should not be about SOE, but rather Microsoft. Publishers don’t just let developers walk away. Not after an immense expenditure in time, resources and cash. So the real question is… what spooked Microsoft? THAT should be the question that concerns the faithful.