Was STAR WARS: THE OLD REPUBLIC The Final Nail In The Coffin For STAR WARS GALAXIES MMO?
After almost eight years of online ‘Far, Far Away’ role-playing, Sony Online Entertainment will be closing Star Wars Galaxies for good as of 15th December this year.
Sony Online Entertainment will be closing Star Wars Galaxies for good as of 15th December this year. The announcement came at the SOE Fan Faire 2011 and CEO John Smedley told The Escapist magazine: It was time to turn off. We have a contractual relationship that's ending in 2012, Star Wars: The Old Republic launching, a bunch of other business things with LucasArts. And then you look at the odds of a pretty large portion of the audience moving to TOR, which looks like a terrific game. I think that's going to be really well-received by the population. But it hurts. We knew, with the checkered past , that this would not be a popular decision, but it was just one that we had to make." The option to extend the license with LucasArts was apparently offered but rejected, largely because of SWTORs release later this year. Star Wars Galaxies suffered a rapid loss of gamers in the years since its release (largely to other MMOs such as World of Warcraft) and went through controversial game enhancements in 2005 to win back players. Twelve servers went offline in 2009, closely coinciding with the announcement of BioWares The Old Republic. SOE has plans for an epic send-off for the MMO, with Smedley adding, The team is working on all of the details," Smedley said. "I don't know about , but they've got something else in mind with the Galactic Civil War. I think is going to go out in a memorable way. With a bang, not a whimper, that's for sure.