Star Wars Galaxies Shutting Down December 15
UPDATE: The date is December 15, not September 15. Sorry about that!
After nearly 8 years of operation, Sony Online Entertainment will be pulling the plug on Star Wars Galaxies December 15.
In an interview with Massively, SOE president John Smedley explained that decision to axe the MMO was purely a business decision “mutually agreed upon between SOE and LucasArts.”
Smedley went on in the interview to squash any speculation that the closure had anything to do with the recent SOE hacks, saying:
The hackings had nothing to do with it,” he said. “We have been in talks with LucasArts for a while about this, and we’ve just been trying to figure out the exact timing for a while now. None of that stuff had anything to do with this.”
Unfortunately for Star Wars Galaxies fans, there’s more bad news beyond that. Not only did he state in the interview that there would be nothing players could do to bring it back, he also confirmed that SOE and LucasArts would not be releasing the game’s source code.
“There are going to be a lot of fans that are going to say, hey can’t you give us the source code, or can’t we run a server, and the answer is going to be, I’m sorry — we have to decline that. It’s just not possible.” he said.
There is at least some good news to come out of the situation, though. In a posting over on the official Star Wars Galaxies website, SOE detailed some end-of-game festivities. During the last week of service, players will get the chance to participate in a “galaxy-ending” world event.
Additionally, active subscribers “in good standing” will get fully-paid subscriptions for a number of SOE MMOs from October 15 to December 31. The list of MMOs you’ll be able to try out in Star Wars Galaxies‘ stead include Free Realms, Star Wars: Clone Wars Adventures, EverQuest, EverQuest II and DC Universe Online.
While I never played Star Wars Galaxies, it’s never pleasant to see any MMO, regardless of perceived quality, bite the dust. Plenty of players invest a lot of time and, in some cases, money into MMOs, so having that stripped away has to be pretty rough.
Sad to see Star Wars Galaxies go? Let us know!
