Star Wars Galaxies switched offline

By Tom Phillips Published 16 December, 2011

Veteran MMO Hutt forever.

Eight year old MMO Star Wars Galaxies has been shut down forever by developer Sony Online Entertainment.

The last of the game's servers were switched offline yesterday, as promised earlier this year.

Galaxies was a subscription-based MMO that launched in June 2003.

The online role-player was a joint venture between Sony and LucasArts, who "mutually agreed" in June this year "that the end of 2011 is the appropriate time" to bring Galaxies to a close.

New Star Wars MMO The Old Republic launches next week.

"On behalf of the Star Wars Galaxies team, thank you", a message from Galaxies producer Tony Tyson reads on the game's official site.

"We have truly enjoyed getting to know you - our dedicated players - over the years. From in-game events to Fan Faires, we appreciate your continued loyalty and support. It would not have been possible without you.

"May the Force be with you. Always."

Picture of Tom.

About Tom Phillips

Tom joined Eurogamer in 2010 and has quickly made his mark writing news and columns and coming up with puntastic straplines. Questionable beard. @TomPhillips151 on Twitter.

Read more articles from Tom by visiting the Tom Phillips archive page.

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Comments (27) Latest comment 5 months ago

Comments for this article are now closed, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • J0rdan_KZ #1 5 months ago

    Giant Bomb did an amazing live stream last night. It just sounds the developers opened up all the completely broken elements of the game to the public for the last few days. Hilarity was had by all.

  • Desheep #2 5 months ago

    How did it end? These games normallg end in epic fashion, with rocks falling from the sky.

  • repeater #3 5 months ago

    A long time ago, in this very galaxy, SWG was actually a really good MMO. RIP etc, hope the emulation efforts come to something eventually..

  • ZuluHero #4 5 months ago

    Suppose it's a bit pointless having 2 star wars MMOs competing against each other, but it is a shame. I really enjoyed SWG back in the day :'(

  • Benno #5 5 months ago

    graphics look almost as good as The Old Republic to be honest

  • syra #6 5 months ago

    this was the only mmo i ever really wanted to play and regret not playing

  • wilson576 #7 5 months ago

    @ZuluHero I think your last sentence is the key: "Back in the day". It started as a young, but awesome experience and it turned into a mass with untested and unbalanced features, which is a shame. It could have been a milestone, with all the town making and other great ideas. Well... maybe next time.

  • Brodie #8 5 months ago

    Veteran MMO Qui-Gon forever would've been a better caption :D

  • login_name #9 5 months ago

    Normally this kind of stuff doesn't bother me but SWG got it's hooks into me. I can't help but feel just a little sad.

    Ahead of it's time and deserved better than SOE gave.
    /salute

  • levitate #10 5 months ago

    One of few MMOs I wished I had played when it first launched. Unfortunately I was too busy playing something else (no doubt Baldur's Gate 2) at the time.

  • kickerconspiracy #11 5 months ago

    @levitate

    Baldur's Gate 2 came out 3 years before Star Wars Galaxies. Man, you rpg slow :)

  • CableNut #12 5 months ago

    i played galaxies for the first 2 years and had a bounty hunter, jedi never interested me
    the days when i could hunter a real player jedi, me and a friend used to team up and hunt together

    i never laughed and had so much fu, it was great
    then the day came they nurfed the bounty hunter and you could no longer hunt a real player jedi only npc's
    the game never felt the same after.. I'm now just playing swtor..


    anyway it was great at the start, sorry to see it close...

  • Eurolamer #13 5 months ago

    I felt a great disturbance in the Force, as if 20 or so voices cried out in terror and were suddenly silenced. I fear something inevitable has happened.

  • Tuffty #14 5 months ago

    Going through those screenshots brings back some memories! SWG was the very first MMO I played and got super into it. But then I realised you had to do a lot of grinding, people just didn't show up for group quests and I had no hope against other players who clearly had the time to generate high level characters, which I didn't have. And being a Jedi by having to go through every class and max out? Wasn't for me. But still, a great experience playing it.
    Edited by Tuffty at 16/12/11 @ 12:47

  • mastablasta #15 5 months ago

    It was quite good, better than the new one. I preferred Vanguard but the userbase died off quickly.

  • Thedni #16 5 months ago

    I haven't played properly in years now but its still quite sad to see it taken offline. Would have liked to have walked around Ahazi a few more times.

    I guess in some ways its good to see the ol' gal put out of her misery. I don't think there will ever be anything quite like it ever again, which is a deep shame.

    Major props to the developers left working on it for adding awesome new features (freaking atmospheric flight!) right up until the switch off. I know most dev teams wouldn't have bothered once they had a closure date.

  • HL706 #17 5 months ago

    Awesome game back when it launched. The CU made it a bit more...meh, then the NGE destroyed it completely.

    I loved my Bounty Hunter :'(

  • Izer #18 5 months ago

    I played a combat medic back in the day but some of my fondest in-game memories was participating in space combat with my guild.

    Flying through hostile space on-board the guild leader's YT-1300 as a co-pilot - calling in bomb strikes against the enemy ship while also managing the ship's energy reactor to avoid an overload. A pair of fellow guildies would each man a gunner turret to blast away enemy fighters. Meanwhile our engineer was running all over the ship with a repair kit and desperately trying to keep our so-called "bucket of bolts" from breaking apart. Good times :)

    Looking forward to SWTOR although I'm a tad disappointed with the decision to use an on-rails shooter model for space.

  • Red930 #19 5 months ago

    @Eurolamer *Thumbup

  • Gl3n #20 5 months ago

    Real shame they fucked it all up so badly with the NGC/CU patch-disasters. Lots of happy memories dashing about in player cities or roaming some of the wilder planets with chums.

  • jogyourmind #21 5 months ago

    @mastablasta

    I am playing Vanguard at the moment and having an absolute blast. Albeit, completely alone.

  • mastablasta #22 5 months ago

    @jogyourmind It's easily one of the best mmorpgs out there but without other players its pointless. Loved building my boat and sailing about exploring.

  • defdaz #23 5 months ago

    @Benno Much prefer SWG's realistic look to SWTOR's WOW-style cartoons.

  • jogyourmind #24 5 months ago

    @mastablasta

    Me too. I play it as a 2 box which helps.

  • outy #25 5 months ago

    RIP SWG, we had a good year.

  • Warden86 #26 5 months ago

    Alongside DAOC, SWG (pre-CU) was one of the best MMOs I've ever played. The sad thing is, those titles are likely to remain in those positions until a dev does something revolutionary in the genre, not just evolutionary (and skinning a game in a different art style is not revolutionary).

  • Dr_Cowley #27 5 months ago

    Wont somebody please think about the younglings?