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Star Wars Galaxies: Community Spotlight: Star Wars Galaxies to Shut Down
BillMurphy
Former Managing EditorMember LegendaryPosts: 4,565
In this week's Community Spotlight, Mike Bitton shines the light on the recent announcement of Star Wars Galaxies' impending closure. The forums are ablaze with a wide mix of emotions and Mike lays on a few of his own as well. Check it out and offer your thoughts.
To be honest, my heart sort of sank a bit when I heard this news today, I'm one of those "SWG nerds" that many people like to poke fun at, but so what? I wear that with pride. Star Wars Galaxies was my first MMO and boy was it a hot mess at launch, but I loved it nonetheless. Some of the closest friends I keep in touch with and game with every day were met on Starsider back in the game's heyday, and while the game had its ups and downs from launch all the way through to the NGE I'm glad I got to take part in the experience.
Read more of Mike Bitton's Community Spotlight.
Try to be excellent to everyone you meet. You never know what someone else has seen or endured.
Comments
Its a shame they did'nt try a different buisness model before shutting it down . I wonder if they had either tried lowering subscription rates it would have brought in more revenue or echoed the successful freemium model that has rescued some other games . I guess in the end they just felt they could'nt compete with a new StarWars mmo . The same thing will proberbly happen to the likes of DDO and LOTRO when the eventual succesors to both franchises are released . I would still like to see a forgotten realms and a middle earth online set in the fourth age one day just in the same way I'm glad to see an old republic mmo . I would'nt be suprised to see Vanguard next for the axe .
Meant to post in the forums, not the actual blog, my bad. Try # two..
Definitely a very despondent moment, while I don't think I've ever been letdown as much by any business, I also do not think I've ever had a better gaming experience (while it lasted).
There are so many mixed feelings surrounding galaxies for me, strong bonds and friendships, great memories, I really don't think I'll ever find an experience in a game, like the one I had in galaxies.
My only postive from this is I know I'll see many friends from B-fin in TOR, maybe not as many as I'd like. I do know a good portion of my old guild is playing, and that's enough for me.
For every minute you are angry , you lose 60 seconds of happiness."-Emerson
The contract between LucasArts and SOE was ending next year and with Star Wars: The Old Republic coming in, it's logical dat LucasArts doesn't renew it. Even though SOE's CEO Smedley said both games could exist alongside, LucasArts disagrees so it seems.
Me personally don't give a damn about shutting it down, even am glad they finally do. I've played it for several years and was glad when I finally got myself away from it cause for the last few months I paid more than I played so I finally decided to drop the sub. Main reason was that the game world felt completey empty (for example I really had to go search for other players.. even Mos Eisely was empty more than once) and the devs didnt come with stuff that was interesting at all. I think they could have saved themselfs a lot of headaches and money if they had shut the game down back in 2005.
Too bad they cant pass off the preCU build to someone to run f2p. Or open source the precu and let anyone run their own servers.
Long Live the King !! SWG
You will always in my heart !!!! My fond 4 years of Architect/business man/Mayor!!
You will always have a spot in my heart!
Now I hope someone can do something similar to SWG, especially on housing and player economy. Now I have place my hand on GoH !!! hopefully they can deliver something similar!
Didn't get to play it before the whole big mess... People have had some great experiences in it and I would have liked to see it.
Heh, by now everyone should have realized that the Lucasfilm group shifted gears to mainly marketing right after the creation of the Original SW movies, so it's not a surprize that they won't touch anything even remotelly similar to FREE in any of their products, so SWG won't have a free future {mod edit}
May the Jar Jar Binks be with yer profits!
once the NGE hit SWG then this ending was always inevitable.. im surprised really that it dragged on this long. Though with reports of Sony losing money steadily over the last 3 years. I don't doubt that we'll see more game closures, i have no doubt that the only reason SWG was kept running even this long was because it was a 'political' decision within SOE.. they probably couldnt bear the fact that their game was as much of a failure as their players had told them it was.. They could have fixed it.. but they didnt.. imo, this is just the beginning, SOE, like SWG, may soon be just a footnote in MMO history.
This is really simple. Sony, in what, the last month or so has taken a very expensive hit fiancially. SWG has a very low and loyal playerbase that probably doesn't amount to much if any profit for SOE. Their contract with LA was coming to and end in the new year and it seems like they made a business decision that would allow them to not cut jobs on some of their employees while also saving money on not renewing that said contract. Even though some think that LA doesn't want competition for TOR, even though both LA and SOE said last year that wouldn't be a problem.
Is this a surprise to anyone? This game sealed its fate years ago. It died slowly but finally. No great loss. It was a sad day years ago but not today.
Rest in Peace SWG, you were abused by your creators so badly, I'm surprised you lasted this long. May there be justice one day, May SOE go out of business, and may John Smedly drown in a pool of his own urine.
RIP SWG
They really hurt you with the NGE, at least you were still around
Now you are leaving forever.
Thank you for all the Pre-CU memories of the greatest game ever made!!!
It's the only mmo, out of 10-15 mmo's that I've played I can tell you EXACTLY what my screen looked like the second I first logged on. Unfortunately is died when CU was introduced to me.
Game died with NGE, it has been on a respirator since then, about time they turn it off.
Although I haven't played SWG since 2006 (NGE), I have to admit that I got a tad choked up upon reading this news (even though it really died during the NGE).
SWG was my first MMO. I've played at least 10 MMOs since SWG. It's never been the same. Everything is so linear and spoon fed now, yet I play due to redundant impulses.
It's a shame that SWG's unique and complex system failed to make its mark within the MMO community. Now we're stuck with this WOW-like mentality of ease and simplicity.
I personally believe that SOE has the absolute worst management team within the gaming realm.
Good ideas... horrible management and exectution.
Pre-NGE SWG was the best game MMO ever made. Even my first game was UO. SWG was better. Iam sad for what NGE done. Where are all that genius developers that made swg so sandboxy and live universe. They should meet together and make a game with such features
Yes even though I dint like the NGE as much as pre-cu. I still found myself playing it 6 months out of the year. Mostly during the winter when it wasnt nice outside.
lets hope none of the SOE 'genius' who buried SWG with NCU and all that crap doesnt land near TOR, ever.
I considered resubbing for the sunset event, but ultimately decided to relive my experiences through my memories of the game from launch+7, unlocking Jedi just before the Village hit, and epic Jedi v. BH fights up until the NGE. Like the article's author, SWG was my first MMO and it's sunsetting is bittersweet, but hopefully the industry has learned from SOE/LA's mistake and EA/BioWare won't capitulate to any ill-advised, drastic changes from LucasArts.