Star Wars Galaxies releases first 'Game Update'

Since Massively launched we've been covering the development work done by the team at SOE-Austin on Star Wars Galaxies. We've chatted about Chapter 7, which added the much-loved collections concept to the game. We've discussed Chapter 8, the most recent update, which added the Nova Orion station and a fantastic encounter vs. a Star Destroyer. And just recently, we talked about the team's big plans for the rest of the year, shaking up the status quo. The first of those shake-ups happened this week, as Game Update 1 rolled out to the live servers.

There aren't any huge new game features to hang a title on, because Game Updates are aimed purely at getting old stuff polished up. So instead there are lots of micro-changes added on to the Spy and Smuggler classes, corrections to the Collection Reactors schematics, improvements to the UI, and a handful of improvements to the Space experience. An especially interesting one-line patch note jumps out: there are brand new animations for a bunch of Jedi skills! If you're interested in the player reaction to these changes, there's a brisk discussion on the official SWG forums – Smugglers seem especially underwhelmed. Can't please everybody ...

Still, with rumors of a new Star Wars MMO about, it's great to see real progress on our current door into the Galaxy Far, Far Away.