Star Wars Galaxies - Development

Development

On 16 March 2000, LucasArts Entertainment announced a partnership with Verant Interactive Inc. and Sony Online Entertainment to create the first massively multiplayer Star Wars online role-playing game. The then unnamed game would be developed by Verant with online play supported by SOE, the same team responsible for creating and supporting the popular fantasy MMORPG EverQuest, and LucasArts would be responsible for all distribution of the Star Wars online game. The announcement included an expected release date some time in 2001 and that the game would take place during the original trilogy era. LucasArts officially announced the brand name of the game to be Star Wars Galaxies on November 29, 2000. The announcement claimed the first round of testing was expected to start in late 2001 which would push back the official release date to an unknown time. The game's official information site was launched on November 30, in conjunction with SOE and featured frequently asked questions about the game and message boards fielded by members of the development team.

We see this Web site as an important step toward building a strong community for the Star Wars Galaxies line of games. We firmly believe that consistent and open communication with fans will be one of the keys to the success of the Star Wars Galaxies experience. —Simon Jeffery, president of LucasArts

On 17 May 2001, even before the game went into public beta testing, the first expansion's development was announced. The yet unnamed add-on, which was expected to be available six months after the initial product release, would be a space simulation and enable players to own and fly starships which would allow interplanetary travel and space combat. The release date of the initial product, the ground-based component, was updated to the second half of 2002. The staggered release schedule of the space component of the Star Wars Galaxies series was said to benefit players because they would have time to establish their characters and explore different elements of the core game before adding the space layer. Traveling between planets would be accomplished through the use of public shuttles, which would ferry characters from world to world. A new official site was also released on the same day that put more of an emphasis behind the community of the game. It included new screen shots, movies, an updated FAQ, concept art, development team member's profiles, features about the game, and a new forum. The site reached 100,001 users by December 2001. Throughout the next year after the release of the new site, new content would be revealed. This content included information on species and locations, new images and movies of different game elements, and 360 degree QuickTime VR panoramas of different locations.

Verant began accepting applications from users in May 2002 who were interested in participating in a closed beta test for SWG. The closed beta test would begin in July 2002. SOE would share more information on the game as the beta moved forward. This would include more screen shots, information on match making services, the fact that players would be permitted only one character per server, and skill trees and how the skill-based system would function. LucasArts also announced on 20 May 2002 that both the Xbox and PlayStation 2 would get a version of the game, however both versions were cancelled.

LucasArts officially confirmed a release date of April 15, 2003. They also announced on December 20, 2002, that the ground-based component of Star Wars Galaxies would be called An Empire Divided and that the game's online community had grown to over 400,000 users since its inception in November 2000. At the time, this represented one of the largest ever fan communities amassed for any game prior to retail availability. An Empire Divided would later be delayed to an unknown time, but on 17 June 2003, LucasArts confirmed Star Wars Galaxies: An Empire Divided would be released on June 26, 2003.

SWG after the NGE

The game has gone through two major upgrades: the "Combat Upgrade" (CU) and later the "New Game Enhancement" (NGE), its final form. Gameplay mechanics for combat and armor/weapon systems received a major update in April 2005 when SOE released the Combat Upgrade that replaced a system that allowed players with combat professions to stack defensive abilities from various skill sets, while also fixing an exploit that allowed players to have their character attack freshly spawning non-player characters (NPC) and creatures while away from their computers in order to gain combat skill experience. The New Game Enhancements were implemented in November 2005. Major changes included the reduction and simplification of professions, simplification of gameplay mechanics, and Jedi becoming a starting profession.

On 27 August 2008, following the success of SOE's Legends of Norrath, LucasArts and SOE released Champions of the Force, an online trading card game based on Star Wars Galaxies.

On 16 September 2009, SOE informed all current and past account holders of the forthcoming closure of 12 servers (galaxies): Corbantis, Europe-Infinity, Intrepid, Kauri, Kettemoor, Lowca, Naritus, Scylla, Tarquinas, Tempest, Valcyn and Wanderhome. Character creation on these servers was disabled on September 15, 2009, with the final closure of the servers on October 15, 2009. Players with characters on the affected servers were offered free character transfer to one of the 13 remaining servers.

On May 3, 2011, SOE issued a press release stating that all SOE have been isolated from the Internet, due to massive and widespread security infiltrations of various games, servers, databases (and likely more unmentioned). Security teams (and the FBI) were called-in and at that time no information was available regarding when the services would be restored. Initial reports indicated personal data of 20-30 million customers has potentially been compromised, none within the USA. The information compromised was old information including addresses and CC information from 2007. All SOE webpages were re-directed temporarily to a customer announcement and a press release page. On 14 May 2011, SOE declared everything safe and reopened all servers. SOE offered a free 30-day membership for gamers with memberships and a 1:1 ratio of days lost. Once opened they have given every account 45 free days as well as a minor object of decoration as a "perk" for waiting out the cause.

On May 17, 2011, SOE released Hotfix 19.17 which introduced the new feature of bounty-hunting in space. This allows players to place a bounty on players of the opposite faction who have recently destroyed their ship in space combat. This allowed bounty hunters to pick these targets up as missions and pursue them in space for the monetary reward (up to 1 million credits) the player has placed on the target.

On 24 June 2011, SOE and LucasArts announced that they had mutually agreed to shut down Star Wars Galaxies on 15 December 2011. According to the SOA announcement, both LucasArts and SOE came to the agreement that "If you are an active subscriber in good standing as of September 15, 2011, then you can play for free for the final months. Players wishing to play through the end of the game and participate in the galaxy-ending event planned for the last week of live service in December will need to re-activate or join the game on or before September 15th. No new or reactivated accounts will be accepted after September 15, 2011." The closure of Star Wars Galaxies was in contradiction to previous statements by LucasArts representatives going back as far as 2008 when LucasArts executive Tom Nichols stated regarding the development of Star Wars: The Old Republic: "We have many other features planned to support Star Wars Galaxies. We see no reason why the two games can't exist together."

On December 15, 2011 at 9:01 PM Pacific time, the servers of Star Wars Galaxies shut down, disconnecting those still playing and not allowing any entry back to the game. The final five hours were broadcasted in a live stream by Giant Bomb, with Kotaku reporting events as they happened on the Giant Bomb stream, including a final player versus player event between the Galactic Empire and The Rebels, as well as an appearance from the Force Ghost of Obi-Wan Kenobi as depicted in Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back and Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi.