In the latest Producer Letter, Vanguard Director of Development Andy Sites announced that Vanguard would be going free to play.  And if that were not exciting enough, Andy said Vanguard's game update drought is ending and introduced new and returning development team members!

You can read the Vanguard: Saga of Heroes Free to Play Announcement FAQ on the Vanguard forums.  Read the entire Producer's Letter after the jump.

Vanguard is hosting a Bonus XP Weekend! This bonus will be applied From 7:15 am PST on Friday, April 22 through 7:15 am PST on Tuesday, April 26.This includes XP for Crafting, Adventuring, and Diplomacy.

Will you be spending your weekend in Vanguard?

In honor of President's Day, Sony Online Entertainment is hosting special events in many of its games throughout the weekend. We've covered most of these events in separate posts, but here's a handy list of all the festivities, including bonus experience and item sales!

• EverQuest: Double Experience Weekend from Feb. 18-21. There's also a sale on Marketplace items, including the House of Thule expansion.
• EverQuest II: Bonus XP Weekend from Feb. 18-21. Enjoy the bonus on adventure, tradeskill and AA experience.
• Star Wars Galaxies: Bonus Everything Weekend from Feb. 17-22.
• Vanguard Saga of Heroes: Bonus Experience Weekend from Feb. 18-21. Crafting, Adventure and Diplomacy will all gain bonuses.
• Star Wars: Clone Wars Adventures: Get the Attack Cruiser Bundle for just 800 SC from Feb. 19-21. The Bundle includes Attack Cruiser House, 10 Medium Crates, 4 Red Light Globes, 3 Triple-Paned Windows, and 2 Red Spotlights.
• Free Realms: All housing items, including lots, are 50% off from Feb. 18-21.
• Legends of Norrath: This weekend, save 50% off special bundle sets. For a limited time you can buy special Inquisitor, Oathbreaker and Ethernauts bundle sets and get a guaranteed mount loot card.
• PoxNora: A different item will be available at a discounted price each day from Feb. 18-21.
• Magic: The Gathering - Tactics: Get 50% off the Four-Chapter Single-Player Campaign Bundle from Feb. 18-21.
• Wildlife Refuge: Get 50% off the Desert Camo Truck, Forest Camo Truck  and Zebra Print Truck from Feb. 18-21.

SOE has announced that Vanguard Saga of Heroes players will be treated to a Bonus Experience weekend! Starting Friday, February 18 at 7:15am PST, players will see the bonus applied to all XP including Crafting, Adventuring, and Diplomacy.

The event will end on Tuesday, February 22 at 7:15am PST.

Sony Online Entertainment is celebrating the 4-year anniversary of Vanguard: Saga of Heroes. The winter solstice event is back in Telon for players to enjoy. Make sure you visit Edric Nichols in the courtyards of New Targonor to participate.

The Community Team will also be hosting an anniversary party on the Telon server on January 21 starting at 4 p.m. PST. Stop by the Ahgram outskirts to visit and pick up some goodies.

Congratulations on your milestone Vanguard!

If you're looking for a last-minute holiday gift, you may want to head over to Direct2Drive. All Sony Online Entertainment titles (excluding DC Universe Online) are 50% off until Monday, Dec. 27 at 10 a.m. PST. Games that are offered in the sale include PlanetSide, Vanguard: Saga of Heroes and expansions for EverQuest and EverQuest II.

Direct2Drive is also currently offering sales on all sorts of indie games, including Plants vs. Zombies and Torchlight. You can grab both of these games for $5 each this weekend!

If none of these deals sound appealing to you, check out the above promo codes to save up to 25% off your entire order until 2011. Happy holidays!

Lead Designer Salim "Silius" Grant may have announced last month that the Vanguard team was shelving some planned features due to limited resources, but that's not stopping them from acknowledging the game's third anniversary this month. In honor of the occasion, the Vanguard Anniversary Gift Pack is now available to pick up from the Historian of Telon in New Targonor, Ahgram, or Tawar Galan.

The gift pack contains numerous items and a scroll that grants the anniversary title of "Luminary." You can read the full contents of the pack after the jump.

Lead Designer Salim "Silius" Grant has has made a lengthy post outlining the future of Vanguard, and it honestly looks a bit rough. "We are trying to pull back on some of the more ambitious features due to resource limitations," Grant said. He followed that statement by confirming that Alternate Advancement, the Halls of Shattered Souls, Stiirhaad Mountains, Pankor Zhi and Nexus have been "shelved indefinitely."

Grant said that the team will be focusing on bug fixes and more frequent content releases, and also noted that a server merge is being considered. Players don't appear happy with the news, and the post has already received 24 pages of generally unfavorable responses.

You can read Grant's full letter after the jump. What do you think the future holds for Vanguard?

Once again, the Vanguard development team has taken the time to answer the top 10 questions from the community. While the Q&A doesn't provided many concrete details, it does confirm that the team is currently reevaluating some planned projects and hopes to have a plan finished soon in regards to the "next big project on the table."

In addition, the team states that the proposed haste change for the auto attack system has been shelved. You can read the full Q&A after the jump.

The newest edition of the Telonian Tribune has been posted on the official Vanguard site, and this one is actually a Q&A with the development team. The questions were selected by the community as the top 10 questions that currently need answers.

The answers are mainly short and to the point. For example, the cost of POTA T2 and T3 armor will be lowered as part of the Christmas patch, and the ability to equip harvesting bags on the harvesting character sheet has been approved. You can read the full Q&A after the jump.