Free to Play Would Not Have Been Viable for Star Wars: Galaxies

The video game arm of LucasArts, the company that holds the Star Wars license and it implicated in all projects that use it, has announced that it has thought about making Star Wars: Galaxies a free-to-play title and has decided that the model is not suited for the MMO before taking the decision to close it down before the end of the year.

It seems that the free-to-play model, which relies on making the game free in order to draw in a large player base and on getting a small percentage of them to play through micro transaction for in-game items, has been a successful one for titles like The Lord of the Rings Online and other MMOs.

A statement released by LucasArts says, “Changing the business model for an experience like Star Wars Galaxies takes a major investment and overhauling of the existing infrastructure of the game.”

It adds, “We’re unfortunately at a point in our life cycle where a change of this magnitude is just not possible. The harsh reality is that we’ve reached a point where the game is no longer a sustainable business. None of us wanted to see this point, but we’re extremely proud of the last eight years of the game and the community that has supported it.”

LucasArts says that the fact that Star Wars: Galaxies is being closed down on December 5 does not mean that players should abandon it now and that the company has a lot more content planned for launch before the end of the year.

They are also hinting that a big end of the game event is being planned in order to give the MMO an ending that befits its initial popularity.

Gamers have speculated that Star Wars: Galaxies is being closed down in order to give a larger potential player base to the upcoming Star Wars: The Old Republic, from BioWare and Electronic Arts.