When the launch of Star Wars: The Old Republic was on the agenda in December 2011, the last nail was driven into the coffin of Star Wars Galaxies. Nevertheless, the first MMORPG for the Star Wars universe is still being played by thousands of fans on unofficial servers to this day. Is Disney missing a great opportunity here?
What is the state of Star Wars Galaxies today? The official servers of the MMORPG from Sony Online Entertainment and LucasArts went offline on December 15, 2011. This was due to the unmet expectations of SOE and the impending release of Star Wars: The Old Republic from Bioware – LucasArts wanted to avoid the two games interfering with each other.
Thanks to the enthusiastic fan base of SWG, you can still play the first MMORPG for the Star Wars universe today on various unofficial servers. Among the most well-known fan projects are certainly SWG Legends and Star Wars Galaxies Restoration. There are also smaller offshoots, such as the roleplay server of Borrie.
How many players are still playing SWG today? In an interview with editor Ryan Easby from the website MMORPG.com, the operators of SWG Restoration explain that more than 1,000 players roam the server daily – the all-time high was 3,072 players in a day.
The daily population of SWG Legends is likely even higher, with a total of 5,566 accounts and more than 700 currently active players (as of April 30, 2024, at 2:12 PM). In addition, there are various smaller projects.
LucasArts had high hopes for Star Wars: TOR, which meant the end of Star Wars Galaxies:
The lasting popularity speaks for itself
Thousands of players seem to find something in Star Wars Galaxies even more than twelve years after the shutdown that does not exist in any other MMORPG (not even in Star Wars: The Old Republic). Does that not justify a re-release, a modernized remaster, or at least official support – as recently happened with NCSoft and City of Heroes?
The assessment of the operators of Restoration: “I cannot say anything about the commercial interests of Lucasfilm, but I think that the loyal fan community for this game after two decades – one of which the game was not even live – speaks volumes about its success and should be a lesson for game developers everywhere.”
Interestingly, the creative minds behind the original version of SWG have a similar view. During a panel at GDC 2021, Creative Director Raph Koster and Executive Producer Richard Vogel stated: “If Galaxies were an active title today, it would have enough active users to still be among the top 100 titles on Steam.”
What is in it for Disney? That it can be worthwhile for MMORPG operators to listen to the community and offer official alternatives for the unavailable player experiences is proven by WoW Classic for many years.
Without the loud feedback from fans after the shutdown of Nostalrius, there would never have been a re-release of Vanilla WoW. The Blizzard decision-makers had to be persuaded first by petitions, countless posts in the forum as well as on social media, and by notable support. The risk has paid off for Blizzard.
At the same time, various MMORPG oldies like Ultima Online, EverQuest, Runescape, or Eve Online prove that it can also be worthwhile for comparatively small communities to provide official servers.
What makes Star Wars Galaxies special? The MMORPG from SOE offered great Star Wars atmosphere and a sandbox player experience that particularly shone with its complex crafting system and roleplay possibilities. According to the developers, about a third of the players owned an in-game shop in the early days.
What was the biggest problem of SWG? From the perspective of the responsible developers, the MMORPG appeared too early despite the hard crunch phase; various planned features had to be cut, including a system that was supposed to document how players could develop into Jedi.
In the final version that ultimately made it into the game, players had to choose the right five skills from the large selection to level up to Jedi. However, the five skills were determined randomly. It was therefore a mystery how one could reliably embark on the career of a lightsaber wielder.
The marketing department did not like this, criticizing that craftsmen and dancers cannot be marketed as a Star Wars MMORPG. More Jedis were needed, which led to the infamous NGE patch. Suddenly one could choose the Jedi as a simple class option. The community was outraged, and the subscription numbers plummeted.
More information about the NGE update can be found in the following special: Reboot – These 7 online games wanted a second chance – What happened?
