Sony Online Entertainment issues an official response to Star Wars Galaxies petitions

@Eamil So far Galaxies seems more interesting to me then SWTOR.

@Dunraven

To be fair, those kind of people are in EVERY MMO, not just SWG.

It's nice that they felt moved/touched by it. Lots of personal stories have come out of this which I've read, but like most things, life goes on. You just got to respect those feelings and hope they can move onto something else. The essence of life is change and while I do appreciate and want the static things in life, it forever progresses forward.

@Space Cobra Maybe but it seems like SWG has more of them showing up on youtube, from Sobbing girl to that old fat guy who dressed up like Joker and threatening to bring a a bomb to Fanfaire a couple years back.

No I stand by my statement..I know there are nutters in all MMO but SWG was a magnet for the worst of the worst.

@b3n
I suspect renewal wouldn't be possible at any cost. It seems that LucasArts wanted to see attention focused on newer games like SWTOR.

@Kalex716

There is a petition going out to LucasArts, too. It may bear fruit, but I doubt it.

Recently, one of the responders in another thread got me thinking EA may have something to do with this closure (and in light of the UO2 article with a link, I am getting more convinced EA may've had a say in this in Sony's ear. And EA will not care for petitions.)

@Kalex716

My assumption is that LucasArts doesn't want two competing MMO's under the same flag.

It would be incredibly interesting to see if they sing a different tune pending a negative response from TOR.

@Space Cobra

Meant to say EA may've had a say/word in LucasArt's ear, not Sony's.

@TheCasualSadist

You can blame me, I was the one that planted that little idea in the other thread. LOL

I'm not sure if it'd be LucasArts not wanting the competition, because at the end of the day they'd be getting cuts of the profits from both games. Having two Star Wars MMOs out there is a win-win for them, so long as both make money.

EA, on the other hand, would be looking at losing some potential profits for a Star Wars MMO to an existing game. And even though the other SW MMO out there is an 8 year old game with a troubled history behind it, it's still competition for money. And if the rumors of the budget on TOR are anywhere near accurate, they're going to want all the money they can get.

Also, EA has never really been shy about doing whatever they can to eliminate competition. Their grab of the exclusive NFL license to keep other companies from making comparable licensed NFL games kind of proved that point to me. That's why I had to wonder if EA might have been buzzing in LA's ear at all.

@willflynne

Having two *good* Star Wars mmos would be good for LucasArts. SWG:NGE isn't a good game and still garners a lot of hostility from the community. It was smart of them to shut down SWG and give TOR a clean slate for launch.

@smg77

As long as people remember SWG, that clean slate is going to be hard to come by. Even with SWG gone, there will inevitably be comparisons between the two games as to what one game had that the other didn't. And heaven help EA/BioWare/LA if by some chance they have to do an NGE-level change to their game for some reason. Any sort of clean slate they gained would be gone if they did that.

Of course, I find the idea of TOR (one of the most hyped and anticipated MMOs on the horizon) needed a clean slate from other Star Wars games a bit odd. Seems as though they'd need a clean slate from all the hype that's formed around the game more.

I am glad that you put "good" in quotations, though, as it is a subjective term. After all, you might feel that SWG isn't a good game, but the efforts of those who are doing their best to make their voices heard say otherwise. They wouldn't be trying to save it if they didn't think it was good and worth saving.

@smg77

Except it won't be clean slate now, with what they've done. There was nothing smart about this.

@Shadowhawke
Nothing smart? TOR gains all the SWG players who want their Star Wars fix, no matter which game it's in, and that particular group is probably much larger than the number of SWG players who MIGHT have played TOR but now won't out of hurt feelings. (If they weren't going to play TOR in the first place because they were happy where they were, they're not relevant to the equation, see? Why do they want the goodwill of a bunch of folks who weren't going to be customers anyway?) It's a net gain for TOR. Smart.

@Transientmind

Ummm, no. This SWG was looking forward to playing both games. Now, nothing could persuade me to play TOR - or any other Lucas Arts game, for that matter. I doubt I am alone.