Rank 9: Star Wars Galaxies
Developer: Verant Studios and LucasArts | Platform: PC | Release Date: June 26, 2003 in the USA, November 7, 2003 in Europe | Payment Model: Buy2Play | Status: Closed (December 15, 2011)
What do I need to know about the license? Besides Marvel, Star Wars is the other major blockbuster franchise from Disney that has been milked thoroughly for many years. The Star Wars enthusiasm was triggered back in the 70s and 80s – by the original trilogy. Today, Star Wars is omnipresent with its countless movies, series, games, and influences.
One of the recent highlights from the Star Wars universe – the series Andor:
What do I need to know about the game? Star Wars Galaxies was an important prestige project for the people at LucasArts and Lucasfilm. For the implementation, they sought experienced people like Raph Koster (Lead Designer of Ultima Online). Sony Online Entertainment also received support from the developers at Verant Interactive (EverQuest).
That the new MMORPG felt so strongly audiovisual like Star Wars, was ensured by the creator of the franchise himself: All content for the game went through an approval process that often even reached George Lucas at the top. Everything that was once seen in the films had to be recreated down to the smallest detail.
In gameplay terms, the online role-playing game was quite far away from what one might experience in the films or many other Star Wars games, focusing on crafting, economy, and social interaction instead.
Thus, Star Wars Galaxies fell short of the high expectations of the authorities. First, they tried to solve this with the notorious NGE patch, which, among other things, made the powerful Jedi class much more accessible.
When the launch of Star Wars: The Old Republic was on the horizon, the people at LucasArts decided to take the MMORPG off the market. Nevertheless, Star Wars Galaxies lives on unofficially: The discontinued MMORPG for Star Wars is still so popular that during an event the private server crashes.
