Sony Online Entertainment is killing off 12 Star Wars Galaxies servers.
Is it a sign of the times, or has the rocky history of Star Wars Galaxy finally caught up with the MMORPG? According to this official forum post, Sony Online Entertainment plans to gather a garrison of Stormtroopers and terminate twelve of the game's twenty-five servers execution style, killing off just under half of the entire SWG subscriber network. Apparently, the shutdown has been extended due to SOE's "overwhelming success" with the recent Free Character Transfer Service.
"In accordance with the server closure date, the Free Character Transfer service has been extended through October 15. 2009," SOE said in its official announcement. "Between September 15, 2009 and October 15, 2009 at 4:59 PM PT all characters on the affected servers are eligible for a one way, one time Free Character Transfer to any of the remaining thirteen (13) Star Wars Galaxies servers. After October 15, 2009 at 5:00 PM PT, any characters and their associated items and structures remaining on the identified servers being closed will no longer be accessible on your Star Wars Galaxies or Station Access account."
Sony said that character creation will be disabled on the servers due for termination effective immediately (September 15, 2009 at 4:00 AM PDT). For those not wanting to click on the forum link, here's the list of servers SOE will shut down next month:
- Corbantis
- Europe-Infinity
- Intrepid
- Kauri
- Kettemoor
- Lowca
- Naritus
- Scylla
- Tarquinas
- Tempest
- Valcyn
- Wanderhome
Star Wars Galaxies currently costs a monthly subscription fee of $14.99 USD, although SOE offers discounts for 3-month, 6-month, and 12-month block payments. SOE also offers a 14-day free trial for the uninitiated. You really, really want to play this game; you are SOE's only hope.
I was just wondering if SWG was still going and I admit that I am surprised that it is. I figure SWG might fall victim to the same fate as MxO and other MMOs with dwindling numbers. Even though most of those were not that great, it is sad to see a game get shut down.
anyone with common sense wouldn't even go buy an expensive game when they know they would have to continue paying for it on a monthly basis
I think SciFi games are going to be hard to make into an MMO unless they can ditch the level grind and switch to other motives to get people to play.
UUmm.. I think ya better fix your webserver....
Forbidden
You don't have permission to access / on this server.
Additionally, a 500 Internal Server Error error was encountered while trying to use an ErrorDocument to handle the request.
I'm surprised they're deactivating accounts on old servers. When they did this with EQ2 they just merged players onto a different server.
In the end they do give good service for that 14.99 price. They also offer a good plan for 29.99 I think for the station pass, that will give you access to all their games and you can buy all the games really cheap too.
MMOs aren't that expansive, especially the monthly fee isn't much, when you consider games at 40+ bucks on the pc or 60+ on the console that gives you 10 hour pleasure. 1 night in the bar that cost you 5x as much (unless you are a leecher, who drinks from his friends). Any hobby costs you more per month than a MMO. Everyone always complains about the monthly fee, but forget that 14.99 is almost nothing, when compared to other things they open their wallet for with no second thought.
WEBBWBB: Thanks for the info on the pre-CU server, I'll definitely have to check that out!