From SEMC’s 1 April 2020 announcement of VGCE:
What to expect and when
Stage 1a – Everything breaks…but you will get access to almost everything
- Target timing: End of this week (maybe as early as Thursday)
In Stage 1 we will make all heroes and all skins (except LE versions) available for everyone. You should still be able to play most game modes in solo queue, but almost everything around them will not work correctly including: parties, social, chat, quests, progression, glory, ice, login-logout, market, event-based game modes etc. Everything except the play menu, really. You will press buttons that do nothing or, worse, produce unexpected results. Bear with us.
Stage 1b – A new, cleaned up community edition client update
- Target timing: 1-2 weeks from Stage 1a
Here we clean up much of what broke in stage 1. The functionality mostly does not come back, but the UI should be clean and the worst bugs from Stage 1 should be resolved.
Stage 1c – Further cleanup and party UI (party codes) returns
- Target timing: 1-2 weeks from Stage 1b
Here you should, again, be able to form parties via a new party code system. Note, friend lists, chat etc will not come back. This version will now form the core of Vainglory Community Edition. We will build up from here.
Stage 2 – Introduction of community hosted servers
- Target timing: to-be-confirmed
Here we are looking to introduce a function where community members or organizations can choose to host their own Vainglory server through a partner organization – similar to other games with community hosted servers. If you are unhappy with the ping of the SEMC servers, you can host your own in the location you choose. This phase will finish with adding a “server browser” into the game so players should be able to choose which server they want to connect to. Over time these servers should be configurable with custom balancing parameters, bringing back the event game modes we lost in Stage 1 etc but that will come much later.
Stage 3 – SEMC servers moved into a backup role
- Target timing: to-be-confirmed
Here we gradually remove SEMC from the central server hosting role in favor of committing fully to community run servers and matchmakers. This will all depend on our experience in Stage 2 .
Stage 4 – Re-importing your old Vainglory profile
- Target timing: to-be-confirmed
We know progress is important and our games’ history is meaningful. In Stage 4 we attempt to make it possible for you to re-import all your old trophies, progress, LE skins etc.
Stage 5+ – We are still figuring this out
We will see what the feedback looks like from the earlier phases and act accordingly. We continue to love Vainglory and would love to evolve it into an independent, community driven cross-platform ecosystem. What shape this will take will depend on what feedback you give us, and how phases 1-4 go. More later!
Here’s what actually happened:
April 1 - VGCE announced
April 3 - Stage 1a (user profiles removed, most out-of-game features break)
June 5 - Stage 1b client released for Android (~6 weeks late)
June 25 - Stage 1b client released for iOS (> 2 months late)
July 1 - Development ceases pauses, PC versions pulled from Steam & direct DL
I’ve played a couple of matches this week out of nostalgia, and the game is still quite enjoyable after a fashion. (I played 3v3, because as most of you know, I can’t stand VG’s 5v5 modes.) Unfortunately, without any advancement system, without stats, without any social features like a friends list … there’s really no incentive to actually play regularly.
I hate that this is how this all has turned out. I don’t see SEMC returning to VG even if CB succeeds. I guess I’m glad that the game isn’t completely dead, though this weird, zombie-like state is sad to see. I don’t see any other mobile game ever capturing my imagination and passion like VG did back in its heyday.
