EPTDear Star Wars Galaxies™ Community Member,
We write to you today to inform you that on December 15, 2011, Sony Online Entertainment (SOE) and LucasArts will end all services (MMO and Trading Card Game) for Star Wars Galaxies (SWG). The shutdown of SWG is a very difficult decision, but SOE and LucasArts have mutually agreed that the end of 2011 is the appropriate time to end the game.
We are extremely grateful to all of the SWG fans. We have had the rare opportunity to host one of the most dedicated and passionate online gaming communities and we truly appreciate the support we’ve received from each and every one of you over the course of the past eight years.
In recognition of your incredible loyalty, we are extending special Fan Appreciation offers to the current SWG community. We also plan to go out with a bang with a galaxy-ending in-game event in December and hope to see you all there. The details relating to these offers and events as well as the timeline and specifics regarding the discontinuation of the service, are provided below.
Again, we want to extend our heartfelt thanks to our player community for making SWG one of the best online communities in gaming history.
Sincerely,
Sony Online Entertainment & LucasArts
Though this has been known for quite a while, this is a rather sad for event of us. I myself spent several years of my life playing this game, and I LOVED every minute of it. The game was so versatile, and there was so much to do. The game had so much potential, and now it's just ending.
I haven't played for a long time, but I'm watching a stream and I'm just sad. There's so much waste there. There were so many good ideas, and I'm going to miss a lot of it. Especially space. Space was one of the very best aspects of this game. You controlled almost every aspect of your ship, and there was so much that you could do with it. You could decorate your ship (assuming your ship was big enough for more than just a cockpit), you could fight rebels, imperials, or both. You could fight against a corvette, or a star-destroyer. In order to achieve ace pilot status, you had to.
I myself played a Rodian named Etik. I was an ace neutral (rebel-aligned) pilot, and pre-CU (where the game was at it's best) I did pretty much everything. As I was 9 when this game came out, I didn't have the longest attention span.
My reason for writing this is that I just enjoyed this game a ton, and with SWTOR coming soon, it's just kind of depressing. Like I said, the game had so much potential, ESPECIALLY pre-CU (combat update). I wish Sony hadn't been stupid enough, and had taken the steps to fix the game. Instead, it's ending, and all the potential that it had, will be gone.
SWTOR, while it is an amazing game, won't fill the hole that SWG left in my heart.
Reading the letter left on the SWG website, I almost cried. I loved this game.
+ Show Spoiler +
A Thank You to the Star Wars Galaxies™ Community
Looking back on Star Wars Galaxies and all these years I am so thankful for being able to be a part of the Star Wars Galaxies community both as the Producer and as a fan. It would not have been the incredible experience that it was without you, the players and fans, the dedicated team of people who worked on it over the years and the fantastic Star Wars® galaxy itself, which offered us a very unique and compelling place to explore, fight, play, make friends, and build our homes.
This is a book of memories, so let me start with a few of my own.
When I was a little boy, my father brought me to the movies to see a new science fiction film that he heard was pretty good. What I remembered most was the feeling of awe I had back then, and still feel to this day. Once I had experienced Star Wars, my life would never be the same again. In May of 2004, I walked into the office at Sony Online Entertainment to start a new job working on a game based on the very same story that had amazed me in my youth. Cool! I was very excited. All I wanted to do then was learn how this thing worked, and I spent the next seven years doing just that. I can say that not a day passed in the development of Star Wars Galaxies where I didn't learn something new. Each day presented different challenges and solving them was always a rewarding accomplishment. It is everyone's hope to find a job that you look forward to each and every day. Being a developer on Star Wars Galaxies was just that kind of job for me.
Star Wars means something different to each of us. That's why we played Star Wars Galaxies. On June 26th, 2003, SOE and LucasArts released Star Wars Galaxies and, for the first time, you could play online with your friends in the Star Wars universe. I was amazed at how much there was to do in the game - player housing, crafting, entertaining, combat, and more. One of the most exciting times for all of us on the team was the launch of the Jump to Lightspeed expansion, which let players fly and battle it out in space in a true 3D simulation. Now we could all truly live out our Star Wars fantasies. It was like being a kid again.
Giving players a chance to live out that Star Wars fantasy has been the best part of the job. Some of my favorite memories include fighting Imperial forces on Hoth in the Battle of Echo Base, seeing those first player-created quests in the Chronicle Master System, fighting the undead in the Death Troopers update and, probably best of all, taking part in invasions and actually getting to make a difference for my faction in the Galactic Civil War.
From my first day to the last, Star Wars Galaxies was, and will always be, a meaningful and memorable part of my life, an experience I'll treasure and share with anyone who wants to hear a good story. It has been an honor to take this journey with you, the community and all of the team members who have made Star Wars Galaxies such an awesome game.
On behalf of the Star Wars Galaxies team, thank you. We have truly enjoyed getting to know you - our dedicated players - over the years. From in-game events to Fan Faires, we appreciate your continued loyalty and support. It would not have been possible without you.
May the Force be with you. Always.
- Tony "Teesquared" Tyson
I understand that this blog is pretty pointless, but this is a depressing time for those of us who loved the game.
