On July 24, 2011, Sony Online Entertainment announced that Star Wars Galaxies would be shutting down it’s servers for good on December 15, 2011. An outcry of supporters of the game would do little to save the eventual fate.
Just under a year later, LucasArts and the Star Wars franchise was sold to Disney for over $4 billion. Disney shut down LucasArts on April 3, ending its 31 year lifespan. The closing of LucasArts left the gaming projects Star Wars: 1313 and Star Wars: Assault hanging in limbo, with rumors speculating whether these games would be cancelled outright or postponed.
With the exception of Star Wars: The Old Republic, the Star Wars gaming community has seemed scattered and lost in recent months. But there is a possible rebirth in the Outer Rim territories of the gaming world.
Several emulators and projects have been underway since the shutting down of Star Wars Galaxies in December 2011 that have caused a small but steady revival of the large-scale MMO.
The emulators are hosted by various operators who have their own servers to run the game. The way these emulators are set up is a legal way to play the 10-year-old Star Wars MMO. The emulators do nothing more than host servers that allow the game to be played. All any user needs is a copy of the game. These emulators are free to download and use. Any fee that may be charged would be in violation of copyright laws put on the game.
Each emulator is different, with the most simplest being from SWGEMU.com. This emulator offers two servers to play on. While the populations of both are small, they are growing in popularity.
Galaxies was released in June 2003 and received three expansion packs between initial release and the 2005 release of Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith. While the final expansion changed many of the original dynamics of the game and drove away many fans, it remained popular for many years.
As popularity waned, player-created cities began to look like ghost towns and server populations dropped. The decision to shut down the servers in 2011 sent many fans screaming for them to remain active, but their words fell upon deaf ears.
Galaxies was an MMO RPG game that allowed players to create highly customizable characters. The events of Galaxies took place between A New Hope and The Empire Strikes Back. Players could become bounty hunters like Boba Fett, smugglers like Han Solo, pilots, entertainers and medics. Before the final expansion, certain actions through the game would allow the player to create a Jedi.
Jedi characters were initially created to be difficult to obtain, since in the Star Wars timeline the Jedi were all but extinct. Even using Jedi powers put a mark on the player’s head. The final expansion, Trials of Obi-Wan, allowed users to create Jedi characters at the games outset.
The emulators are all different, as many have different playable incarnations of the game. A little research and knowledge about each server may help decide which is best for potential players. The SWGEMU servers are incarnations of the game before the final expansion, keeping the Jedi path unique and difficult to obtain.
For more information on Star Wars Galaxies emulators, visit www.SWGEMU.com or www.GalaxiesReborn.com.
