Let me start by saying this is "Just" Rumor.

[Li Quan Kane]

I know I should not be greasing the gossip wheels after all Rumor is a nasty beast that leads Past The swamps of heresay, through the forest of tittle-tattle to the Dark Castle of Speculation, and pretty soon your in the Lost Dungeons of assumption blindly flailing about for the lost chalice of Scandal......err anyway.

Okay I have a good acquaintance that is a semi-regular contributor to the Force.Net, and has even had a couple articles in Star Wars gamer, and Star Wars Insider. He told me this evening that He has it on good authority that SOE and Lucasarts are about to end their relationship. He said that the New SWG and JTLS sites on LA's homepage are the first hint of this, Apparently Lucasarts is less than happy with SOE, because SOE has drifted too far from Raph Kosters original Vision of SWG and wants to go solo. (No Not Han silly) SOE from what I have heard is more than willing to say adios because Lucasarts has been less than willing to let them Drive so to speak. (Which I think is insane because Lucasarts has basically been there in name only since Beta) and SOE has its eye on being part of another Space based MMORPG (Could that be Star Trek Online??)

But wait there's more... He said that The day after JTLS is Live they will announce Expansion pack II, and Thank SOE for all of there hard work, and announce that the Game is going to be handled form hence forth by Lucasarts, they will give a schedule about Billing changes, and server Migration, and that will probably include some server consolidation.

Okay is it real or fantasy...at this point who knows, I have as have many other fans heard that at Some Point Lucasarts will go solo with SWG, it is no small secret that they are considering another MMORPG, and a Premium game service, and I have to say that my friend is not given to flights of fancy (Except for that long weekend in Dublin with the Tibetan Contortionist, and her Twin sister ) Personally I think that while the timeline is a bit suspect the over all story has some foundation. How do you think this would effect the game?


Raph Koster originally wanted RPG to actually mean something in SWG, in fact his "Vision" was a computerized version of the SW Role Playing game with no Player Character Jedi. It has been said that George Lucas is not happy with the product, and that at first he was very excited about the potential of the game. True or not the whole concept is interesting to say the least. I must admit I do not know what SWG would be like without SOE. But it looks like we may be finding out.

[Oeree]

If this happens... what would be the next expansion?

[Keer]

Waiting to see.

[Jabe Adaks]

Yikes... I am not sure if the potential rumor is good or bad..

Jabe

[Jotun]

Hmmmmmmmm.......I have to go with what Jabe said.

[Novall]

Well, as long as they dont make Gungan a player race...then its all good as far as I can forsee.

I think SOE has done a piss poor job as far as giving the players what they want...Starwars. I think Beta was probably some of the most fun I ever had in SWG (the real beta...not what were playing :P).

As long as they dont ask us to start over on some other server...then I'm cool with it.

[Li Quan Kane]

I agree that SOE has done a less than stealer job with SWG, which is a shame considering the potential. The first slippery slope they went down is the whole Jedi Fiasco. Raph knew that if PC's became Jedi there would be nothing but problems. I don't know if you guys are keeping up with Thunderhawks threads on the Official forums, but it looks like Jedi are in for yet another huge change.

The second issue is no Galactic Civil War. We were shown pictures of AT-AT fight with Stormtroopers, and told about these epic Star Wars Battles, and they just don't exsist, and are not looking to make the scene anytime soon.

And we have SOE's constant Kowtowing to the l33t d00d community. Instead of giving us something more in a mission besides a really dumb NPC who doesn't shoot back standing next to this dumb flag. The give the missions PHAT LEWT drops.

Player: Uh...but the missions are still lame...

SOE: Yes but now you have Phat lewt isn't that what you want??

Player: No I want a mission that isn't stupid, that makes me feel like I'm in Star Wars.

SOE: OH we have that its called the Corvette Mission, but you have to be l337 to succeed there.

Player: So I have to grind all of these stupid flag missions to get to the fun part.

SOE: Exactly! Cool huh?

Player: Not really no.



SOE just can't broaden there game appeal. The l337 d00ds made EQ a success and that's all they can see, never mind that even the most die hard loot whore thinks the Galaxy missions are stupid.

There is also the little known fact that SOE isn't doing that great financially. EQ has been hemorrhaging subscribers, Star Wars Galaxies has not been the cash cow they hoped, EQ2 is having major issues in beta, and is not finding its audience (So of course SOE will run back to the d00ds) Lords Of Everquest was an abysmal failure, and EQ online adventures has an extremely small audience, so Sony is sitting on one blockbuster hit that is no longer that, and a string of Failures. If EQ2 has anything less than stellar success look for a lot of other supported titles to go by the wayside. I look for Planetside and EQ Online Adventures to be the first to go, and then you will probably see things like price drops in the EQ subscription.



But to get back on track with Novall's comments. I don't think we would have to start over, I do think that you will see the hunting down and destruction of a lot of Jedi PC's though. The original plan was to allow Five per server. Lucasarts knows they can't get rid of Jedi, but they hate the fact that there is Jedi under every Rock. I got that Impression when I was at Fanfest.

As far as the Gungan race, to me the Gungans are no more offensive than the Ewoks, and niether was as offensive as Little Annie Yippee! But we al have things we love in hate in the SW universe.

[Jabe Adaks]

Seems like LucasArts is going for a localized version of Galaxies for the Japanese market. They aren't using Sony either, they're using EA. The press release is on Sony's site:

http://starwarsgalaxies.station.sony.co ... %20Release

It is rather strange if you ask me.

Jabe

[Novall]

EA isnt much better then SOE. After spending 7 years in an EA ruled game (UO), their just as bad as far as the "We want money, screw you." Catagory.

[Lok'i Vidaar]

Aren't all MMO Game "distrobution" companies? like EA/Dice/Valve/SOE/ID...

[Li Quan Kane]

Seems like LucasArts is going for a localized version of Galaxies for the Japanese market. They aren't using Sony either, they're using EA. The press release is on Sony's site:

http://starwarsgalaxies.station.sony.co ... %20Release

It is rather strange if you ask me.

Jabe

Yep there using EA, because EA has just built a huge data center in Japan, and its really not EA if you follow the paper trial its Square/Enix.

But I have to say its looking like SOE is going to be having less and less to do with SWG. if you look at Lucasarts career sites the most notable listing is...

Sr. Director of Star Wars Galaxies
Manages all aspects of the Star Wars Galaxies online business, from Product Development through Marketing, Public Relations, and Finance.


They are shopping on the street for a new SD for Galaxies. The old SD was a SOE employee, and this is the guy who decides what direction the game will go in... I have to say this Rumor is growing legs awfully quick.