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Some older news Mar 24, 2006 2:52 pm PT ;)
Reklaw
Member UncommonPosts: 6,495
SOE losing Star Wars: Galaxies license?
What we heard: Of all the Star Wars games, Galaxies has been the most controversial. After releasing it to mixed reviews in 2003, Sony Online Entertainment was criticized for completely overhauling the massively multiplayer online role-playing game's combat system in Spring 2005. The publisher drew even more criticism last November when it implemented a series of allegedly buggy new game enhancements that eliminated several character classes.
Given Galaxies' bumpy ride, and the fact that many game contracts expire after three years, it is not inconceivable that LucasArts, holder of all Star Wars rights, might want to shop around the license. According to informed sources in the industry, that's exactly what the company is doing. Two shops have been mentioned as talking with LucasArts--Cryptic Studios, home to MMORPG City of Heroes, and Canada-based BioWare, maker of the action RPG Jade Empire.
Of the two, BioWare appears the more likely candidate. Besides the fact it developed the critically acclaimed and wildly popular Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, the developer just founded a new studio in Austin, Texas--home of SOE's Austin branch--which employs several ex-SOE staffers. The shop's sole project is an unidentified MMORPG set in a science fiction universe, just as Star Wars: Galaxies is.
What's the official line on all this? "The SWG license stuff is completely untrue," was a SOE spokesperson's terse response. "LucasArts and SOE have no plans to 'sunset' Star Wars Galaxies," said a LucasArts rep, referring to the practice of gradually phasing out a game. "It's had its fair share of hurdles, but it has also had its share of successes in its own right, so we aren't interested in abandoning it and focusing on the future."
However, what the LucasArts rep said next raised another interesting possibility--that another Star Wars MMORPG could be in the works. "We have had several developers approach us expressing interest in developing a future Star Wars online game," said the rep. (emphasis in the original.) However, if any such game is in the works, it will be a long time until it surfaces. "As of right now, it hasn't gone anything beyond that (that is, no conversations, no serious talks, no pitches, etc.)," assured the rep.
Despite the official denials, there is still much talk of all not being well at SOE Austin. Though potentially biased, a contact within another studio claims to have been peppered with resumes from SOE developers. The source claims that "over half of the [SOE Austin] coders and artists are scrambling for the lifeboats" because "they all seem to know they will be losing SWG." The studio has already seen one major departure--chief creative officer Raph Koster left this week "to pursue development interests outside of the company."
Bogus or not bogus?: Officially? Bogus. Unofficially? Who knows... http://www.gamespot.com/news/show_blog_entry.php?topic_id=24466266
Comments
Yes reklaw.. we know you like SWG's NGE. Besides.. I can fabricate things too.
But SWG dying is not one of them... thats truth. Now the rate at which its dying is arguable.
Go look in their forums for all the proof you need. People asking for pre-cu and that thread gets locked. People asking for server merges, locked... the game is not going in a positive direction, sir.
I really don't need to say more...
"Do not fret! Your captain is about to enter Valhalla!" - General Beatrix of Alexandria
"The acquisition of knowledge is of use to the intellect, for nothing can be loved or hated without first being known." - Leo da Vinci
What are you talking about man. I'm only sharing some older news/rumor in regards to bioware/lucasarts which was march '06 and thought it was relevant to the situation today.
Maybe you could try and stick to the topic instead of trolling with my name.
And i already know you fabricate things, proof look at this silly reply of yours. Sorry what did i make up or fabricate, show me please, but do show some relevant things i may have said. My bet is that you hardly understand why i posted it. Else why would you reply the way you did? Let me add the articel in my opinion only strengthen the possibilty that Bioware is indeed working on a star Wars MMO.
Think it'd be easier to avoid the BBQ if you provided a link to the original article. ^^
EDIT: Just noticed you had. That's what you get for posting right after waking up.
Interesting find anyway, remember when these news first came.. yet more fuel.
Wel i post/edit to place to link, but the link was already in the titel
SOE losing Star Wars: Galaxies license? and thought people would click on that, geuss not
Wel i post/edit to place to link, but the link was already in the titel
SOE losing Star Wars: Galaxies license? and thought people would click on that, geuss not
Aaahaa! now I see. :P Too tired and confused to notice.
I think this and other rumors about Bioware that have posted over the last 2 years have to be taken a bit more serious now.
I don't claim to be right, I'm just posting.
That was back then, and they can definetely still hold to their argument of not wanting to sunset SWG. But if the path SOE is taking with SWG is any indication, and the rumors of LA/Bioware making a new SW MMO end up being true, do you honestly think SWG will continue to live as it is? The game is already on life support, if KOTOR:O ends up being true, they'll HAVE to close SWG because they'll end up loosing their remaining players and I doubt SOE will want to waste money mantaining ghost servers.
That being said, I'm sure they'll end up sunsetting SWG anyway sometime soon and not necessarily due to the rumored KOTOR:O, all what needs to happen is for another really good and popular Sci Fi MMO to come along that has a number of the features we loved about SWG. Ssome are saying Star Trek would be its direct competitor, some are saying Star Gate, who knows... I personally would like a Babylon 5 or a Farscape MMO but I know it won't happen, not enough of a fanbase.
I don't know that they will sunset SWG soon. In fact I could see SWG running for a long time. If they are able to run the game with between 20k and 50k players now why would that change if the is another star wars mmo out there. I'm certain that if Bioware makes a great Star Wars MMO that there will still be 20-50k people that won't like it and many of those maybe current SWG players that if for no other reason stay with SWG simply because they have been playing for so long.
I know that one arguement is going to be that LEC would not want two MMOs competeing for players. Well last time I check there were 6 different Star Wars movies sitting on the self at bestbuy that competes with one another for sales and in fact there are two different versions of three of the movies. As long as there is some one to buy it, they will sale it.
However, if the numbers for SWG gets to the point where the game no longer makes money it will be gone faster than you can say NGE.
I don't claim to be right, I'm just posting.
As much as I'd like to see SWG die, I don't think it'll happen for a while, SOE Station pass is what keeps that and other titles like PlanetSide and MxO alive, so even if there is 20K station pass subscribers playing EQ2 then those 20K subs also count towards SWG even if the subs doesn't have the game installed. PlanetSide should have easily died well over a year ago and they shut down Konried (after the Markov-Johari and Konried-some other name merges), PlanetSide is lucky if they even have 10K subs. MxO had a huge downfall almost a week after SOE bought the game and they merged alot of servers without warning and without pre-testing the server loads which caused the game's population to drop from 50K+ to about 12-15K in a matter of 2 weeks.
BTW Reklaw do you still play? I remember BH'ing you in the old days alot, BH'ing sucks ass these days with everyone being a spy or a runaway Jedi that hides in Restuss riding on ganks.
What are you talking about man. I'm only sharing some older news/rumor in regards to bioware/lucasarts which was march '06 and thought it was relevant to the situation today.
Maybe you could try and stick to the topic instead of trolling with my name.
And i already know you fabricate things, proof look at this silly reply of yours. Sorry what did i make up or fabricate, show me please, but do show some relevant things i may have said. My bet is that you hardly understand why i posted it. Else why would you reply the way you did? Let me add the articel in my opinion only strengthen the possibilty that Bioware is indeed working on a star Wars MMO.
Ah I see, I misread all that then lol. Sorry man, I just remember in the days past that you were one of the pro-nge people. I could be mistaken. However. on another note, I do not fabricate things:
forums.station.sony.com/swg/posts/list.m
Anyway, thanks for pointing out that link, thats why i was so ticked off the first time. :P All these people saying stuff and not posting links tends to make one cranky.
"Do not fret! Your captain is about to enter Valhalla!" - General Beatrix of Alexandria
"The acquisition of knowledge is of use to the intellect, for nothing can be loved or hated without first being known." - Leo da Vinci
ehh being a Web Dev I know people have been unconciously trained to look for the underlined text for it to be a link. No kidding because I underlined and colored the expl.. im sure some will try to link to it.Even thoughI explain here that it is not. They wont read past it before they try it.
Even though no one will admit to it here prolly to prove me right.
"The most important thing is to have the design support the players in setting their own goals in both cooperative and competitive interaction with one another." - Ironore -
Article seems pretty spot on as of now...
Wow this seems great, so now lucas arts have denied cancelling SWG, and Bioware have denied making another KOTOR game?
Enough proof for me.
"Don't hold breath about another KOTOR game coming from Bioware" - Chris Preistly
"Bioware is more intrested in pursueing development of it's own Intellectual properties"
- James Henly
Proof of what? I don't think that LA is going to cancel SWG right now and all indication are that Bioware's MMO is based on Star Wars. But if you have proof of something it would be great to see it. Other wise it's just more speculation.
I don't claim to be right, I'm just posting.
I agree. It's like making an arguement that GM should only make 1 single type of automobile to avoid competing against themselves. It doesn't hold water. A customer gained is a customer gained. Period.
SWG Team Mtg.
Thanks for the info, good to see SWG isn't going to be shutdown.
"Don't hold breath about another KOTOR game coming from Bioware" - Chris Preistly
"Bioware is more intrested in pursueing development of it's own Intellectual properties"
- James Henly