Star Wars Galaxies support to continue

By Ellie Gibson Published 23 October, 2008

Even though SWTOR's on the way.

LucasArts executive Tom Nichols has confirmed there will be continuing support for Star Wars Galaxies - even though new MMO Star Wars: The Old Republic is on the way.

Nichols was speaking at the recent press event for Star Wars: The Old Republic, currently being developed by BioWare. "We have many other features planned to support Star Wars Galaxies," he told Eurogamer. "We see no reason why the two games can't exist together."

Star Wars Galaxies was published by Sony Online Entertainment in 2003. SOE faced heavy criticism after releasing an update that made major changes to the game, much to the irritation of many players. According to Nichols, LucasArts will work hard to ensure the same mistakes are not made twice.

"We've learned how important it is to listen to your community and act on that feedback," he said.

"We also realised what players expect from an online Star Wars game - they expect to be that iconic Star Wars hero as soon as possible. They don't want to play for hundreds of hours just to become a Jedi."

Which is why, in Star Wars: The Old Republic, you'll be able to start out right at the beginning as a fully-fledged Jedi. Or a Sith, or as a member of one of the other character classes in the game, which they're "not talking about today".

For everything that is known about The Old Republic so far, visit the gamepage and our full preview.

Picture of Ellie.

About Ellie Gibson

Since joining Eurogamer in the mid 2000s, Ellie has written about subjects as diverse as the fall of Gizmondo, the rise of Hollyoaks actresses in Red Alert games and the noise a bear makes under NSFW circumstances.

Read more articles from Ellie by visiting the Ellie Gibson archive page.

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Comments (10) Latest comment 2 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • quantumsheep #1 3 years ago

    I've no doubt that most SWG peeps will just switch to SWTOR. We're seeing the death of galaxies starting right here.

  • SaitanMar #2 3 years ago

    "We also realised what players expect from an online Star Wars game - they expect to be that iconic Star Wars hero as soon as possible. They don't want to play for hundreds of hours just to become a Jedi."

    wha! that guy as no idea. I recall a lot of people finding it cool that there were so few Jedi in SWG. This is what worries me with SW:TOR. Not Bioware or the game but LucasArts.... who are nothing but useless and with this Tom Nichols I worry more.

  • zozart #3 3 years ago

    "We also realised what players expect from an online Star Wars game - they expect to be that iconic Star Wars hero as soon as possible. They don't want to play for hundreds of hours just to become a Jedi."

    I'm sure that's what people want but the way it was executed (being that it was executed in a way that negated hundreds of hours of many peoples' progress) was idiotic.

    I have faith that Bioware will come up with a good solution to having Jedi as a class whilst making other classes desirable too.

  • Psi #4 3 years ago

    well i must be old and remember this argument years ago SaitanMar. Your totally right, the old swg people were worried the game was going to turn into KOTOR online. It started to get that way... their were never ment to be any jedis. I found this very cool! every person running around as a jedi just wouldnt look like the star wars i remember as a kid...

    the whiners got their own way the game was killed off when holocubes arrived.

  • Mr_Dodger #5 3 years ago

    I recently went went back to SWG for the first time since the first combat upgrade (CU), mostly to try the new card game, but also as I had a hankering for the space stuff.

    I found the way they do Jedi now to be a reasonable compromise. You don't get a lightsaber until level, erm 22? 26? Somewhere around there anyway. It's not like everyone's running around at L1 chopping people in half.

    But this really is Star Wars in name and look only. The timeline is completely ignored. It's like an Alternative Universe version.

    But there's fun to be found there if you're willing to overlook it's many and evident problems.

  • actionfitz #6 3 years ago

    "We also realised what players expect from an online Star Wars game - they expect to be that iconic Star Wars hero as soon as possible. They don't want to play for hundreds of hours just to become a Jedi."

    holy shit! who'da thunk it?! gee willickers! gadzooks! etc

    'you mean playing for months on end to get to be a jedi then perma death after getting jumped by a 14yr old asshat ISNT fun? :o'
    /shock

    guess theres hope for the game as so much wentwrong with SWG that there cant be that many more mistakes to make...
    oh and Bioware are involved

  • Gaol #7 3 years ago

    Lucasarts confirm they have learnt exactly FUCK ALL from the NGE debacle.

  • SpaceMidget75 Verified Senior Software Developer, Minerva Computer Services #8 3 years ago

    What a idiot. The biggest fuss with SWG was WHEN they let people pick a Jedi.

    All the people I played with were happy playing other SW classes and when the first Jedi's arrived it was an awesome awesome thing.

    It wasn't Jedi's we wanted so much as Bounty Hunters being able to Bounty Hunt (was added) and Smugglers being able TO BLOODY SMUGGLE!!!

    Sound's like this blokes on a different time line, not the fucking game.

  • Karatan #9 3 years ago

    "We also realised what players expect from an online Star Wars game - they expect to be that iconic Star Wars hero as soon as possible. They don't want to play for hundreds of hours just to become a Jedi."

    Or, as many tried to tell this tool, many gamers wanted nothing to do with the Jedi, and thought Jedi detracted from the game overall... especially since there were only two Jedi in the time frame of the game.

    Then there's the entire dumbing down of the character classes. They might as well call it Starcraft Online for all the good that
     did to the game.

    What people wanted was an actual "sandbox" Star Wars game. Meaning, they wanted to have a character (read: live) in the Star Wars Universe. If people wanted to play a Jedi, there is always the multitude of games where Jedi are the forefront.

    Besides, the real hero that people loved was the smuggler... not the whiny prat with a laser sword.
    Edited by 1 at 28/10/08 @ 04:58

  • Wilagins #10 2 years ago

    So wait, they lost MILLIONS of dollars a month when they switched SWG to the NGE because people didn't wanna play that kinda game (somewhere around 70% or the subscriptions). And now say they've learned from that by announceing THE EXACT SAME THING?! They realy need to start drug testing at LucasArts. The death of Galaxies began long long ago when they changed the game and lost most of it's subsrciptions. They obviously believe the gamers who quit so long ago forgot what happend and will suck up this new product. Thankfully no product I actualy want is comeing from them again since KOTOR 3 was tanked. I'll test the game if they let me in, but it better be awsome if they want me to play it, and I better be able to SMUGGLE with my smuggler, not just be a rogue or ranger with a different name. If it's not what I want, and I don't expect it to be, I'll continue with my never giving lucasarts another dime after that screwover years ago.