As you can imagine, there is nothing like a game player scorned. The surprise announcement that Star Wars Galaxies is shutting down in December has rocked the gaming world and message boards across the internet. The game’s Facebook page has been aflame with new postings referring to the petition to keep the game going, as well as their discontent at the plan.
At last count, around 2100 had signed the petition to Sony Online to request that the game stays open, but rather than business as usual, their request is for Sony to go to a free to play model making their revenue by selling virtual goods and reducing the number of servers. This move is not unprecedented. Other companies have kept their MMO’s based on popular franchises such as Dungeons and Dragons and Lord of the Rings open for free, while still gaining users and revenue, sometimes even five fold. But unlike those other games, they didn’t have a major competitor for the same market breathing down their neck and a licensee that has say in which one gets preference.
Players tend to forget that it’s not just Sony that decides, but Lucas as well. And with The Old Republic from EA under a ton of pressure to succeed, it’s likely that Lucas does not want the competition. If their license is ending, then they may not be able to renew it or they may not want to pay what it costs to do so. Thus the “mutual” decision. But if this is not the case, switching to a free service may actually help in two ways. It will be a haven for those who just plain don’t like TOR for whatever reason, but still want their Star Wars fix and the good PR may push more players to both. Since it is rumored that TOR will be more story oriented and less exploration and socializing, it seems that there may very well be a market for an alternative world that is comfortable for many. On the other hand, shutting it down may cause a lot of sour feelings that will backlash against the new game.
Sony has been pretty adamant that the shutdown is going to happen, even going as far as deleting messages that promote the petition. For a company that could use a little good publicity at this point, probably not the best move. One thing the netizens hate as much as their services shutting down is trying to be squelched by the one that they are complaining about. Shutting people up is never a good move. Even if they don’t plan to act on the petition, at the very least, give people their say. Did they really expect people to just go away without rebuttal? If they did, they were sadly mistaken.
How this plays out over the next few months will definitely be something that is watched not only by the interested parties, but at the senior levels of game companies. And what this reveals will have ramifications for years to come.
