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Star Wars Galaxies: vacant houses to be crushed by empire
If you've been eking out a virtual existence in Star Wars Galaxies, the 2003 Sony MMORPG which thrives just as much on self-destruction as it does on landspeeders and lightsabers, you may wish to check in on your neglected home away from home. If your account is found to have been inactive from 17 April 2006, any of the houses, factories, player associations or harvesters to your name will be scheduled for digital demolition. If you built it, they will come on June 5th to wreck it. Unfortunately, the Empire is not interested in doubling their efforts to wipe out the last remaining signs of civilization (read: active players). Instead, they'll split the work with you and dole out points, badges and all manner of in-game items in return. Once the vacant buildings have been reduced to nothing, Sony Online Entertainment will have successfully transformed the world into a barren wasteland with the aid of their own subscribers. Some believe that's what they've been doing since the game launched.[Via Opposable Thumbs]
Star Wars PC collection ships next week
While browsing the LucasArts store yesterday, I noticed a new collection that brought back fond memories of the LucasArts Archives from ten years ago. Star Wars: The Best of PC will be available starting next Tuesday (11/21), and will include the following titles: Jedi Knight II: Jedi Outcast (2002) Knights of the Old Republic (2003) Battlefront (2004) Republic Commando (2005) Empire at War (2006) Star Wars Galaxies 14-day trial Hardcore Star Wars fans may scoff at the "Best of" title when classics such as Tie Fighter, Rogue Squadron, and Shadows of the Empire are absent from the box. But this isn't a bad assortment at $40, and it offers a little bit of everything for PC gamers on your holiday shopping list who enjoy different genres. How many of you plan on picking this up, either for yourself or someone else?
SWG reaching for the stars!
In a desperate effort to bring back fans, SOE has just announced that the MMO with the mostest, Star Wars Galaxies, will be starting an epic, server-wide event called "The Battle of Restuss" that could "permanently alter the Star Wars universe!" You know, just like SOE permanently drove away tons of subscribers by blind-siding paying customers with a major overhaul. According to *ahem* the press release, guards will be placed in major empty cities throughout the SWG land. Exciting details ensue: Guards will be found in Theed, Mos Eisley, Bestine and Coronet, and will direct players to Restuss, a small city on the planet Rori. There, players who have dedicated their allegiance to the Rebels or the Empire will work together with their fellow faction members to build up their base and arms in preparation for the upcoming conflict. I bet this is the kind of clutch content that will bring back players by the dozens to this tragedy of a game. I cry for Lucas bathing in his millions.
SWG: Three glorious years of mediocrity
When Star Wars Galaxies came out, I really wanted to like it. I really did. But, after about an hour or so I found myself asking one question: WTF? Well, MMORPG.COM reminds us that, three years later, SOE's bastard child is still alive and kicking -- though at this point, half dead and twitching may be more of an appropriate analogy. According to the SWG main site, the devs plan on celebrating this momentous occasion by offering "events, parties, in-game gifts and even a sweepstakes!" Color me non-affected. My only question is if anyone still plays this game after that combat-overhaul brouhaha a few months back. Does anyone here actually still troll around in this virtual snooze-fest or am I the only one still sleeping?
Force may no longer be with SOE
GameSpot is reporting a disturbance in the Force at Sony Online Entertainment, and rumors have surfaced that the troubled Star Wars Galaxies franchise may soon have a new home. Speculation stems from a recent exodus of talent at SOE's Austin office, including the game's chief creative officer Raph Koster. Coincidentally, new neighbor BioWare Austin employs many SOE veterans, and is staffing up for a sci-fi MMO.A LucasArts rep denies any plans to phase out the current Galaxies, but did confirm they have been approached by other companies to develop a second Star Wars online property. How cool would a KOTOR-based MMO be?
Star Wars Galaxies coming to PS3, say Amazon and Buy.com
If this product page for a Star Wars Galaxies strategy guide from Buy.com (and Amazon.com) are to be believed, then one could reasonably deduce that the troubled MMO will be making its way to the PS3 sometime soon. The evidence? First, that parenthetical platform designation of "Console" for the strat guide. As Galaxies was cancelled for the PS2 a long, long time ago, and there would be no reason to order up a guide for a non-existing game, it would stand to reason that Sony's main MMO not named EverQuest would be seeing some action on the next generation system. And next, that pre-order release date of 4/30/2006. There's a chance that means Prima and the major e-tailers you see here forgot to update their product pages to reflect the delayed PS3 launch (from spring to early November of this year). Either that or they're actually referencing the cancelled PS2 version with a random future date to avoid any responsibility for the thing. Sometimes you just gotta read between the lines. [Thanks, David A.]
WoW vs Star Wars Galaxies
Joystiq reports on an interview with Sony Online Entertainment's head honcho John Smedley, in which he enlightens us as to SOE's team spirit:One thing that I love about our company is that there is no "quit" in this company. It's about making sure that we have pride in what we do. People within the company feel so much pride in this game that they want it to beat the crap out of World of Warcraft.Unfortunately, SWG's new changes don't seem to be going down well with the community, and with only 250,000 recorded subscribers, we wonder quite which world this guy is living in. WoW subscribers can breathe easily, unless Sony have some dark magic up their sleeves.
