TOR Was An Accomplice In Galaxies' Death

There's been a fair bit of grumbling and grief about the upcoming closure of olden MMO Star Wars: Galaxies, with some players reckoning the decision makes no sense and wasn't necessary. I should probably insert some sort of Star Wars quote here, but I'm a 32 year old man - can't I stop doing that now? There's a petition against the closure, of course. There's always a petition. Whether 3000 signatures are enough to change SOE's mind seems unlikely - especially given SOE boss John Smedley has shone a little more light on just why Galaxies was fed to the Sarlacc pit.

Clarified was the Star Wars license rented from LucasArts, which expires next year. Had that not happened, Galaxies might have hung around:"That's the problem with licenses: they end," Smedley said at event attended by the Escapist. "We're going to continue to do some licensed work, but we're largely going to stick to original I because then we won't have this issue. We'll never have this problem with EverQuest."

However, also noted was "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." Who knows, eh? I'm quite sure most Galaxies players would have checked out TOR, but whether they'd have stayed, given its apparent non-sandbox nature and seeming WoWosity, could well have been another matter.

At least SOE seem pretty cut up about it too. "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."

Seventh months of the game remain, and SOE are promising a blow-out finale. That's something I'd like to be there for. I hope it involves the Jawas taking over the universe.