14 DAY TRIAL // A group of players who have created a petition to keep the MMO Star Wars Galaxies running past its already announced end date have revealed that they are planning to launch a class action lawsuit against Sony Online Entertainment.
It seems that the group is 50 members strong at the moment and that the main reason for the suit will be that all petitions and threads posted on the official forums linked to keeping Star Wars Galaxies running in the long term have been eliminated by the company.
The MMO will be closed down by Sony Online Entertainment in December, presumably because of the strong competition that it will face from the set-to-launch-this-year Star Wars: The Old Republic from developer BioWare and publisher Electronic Arts.
It's not clear whether a lawsuit against SOE is possible given the fact that both the End User License Agreement for Star Wars Galaxies and the rules for the official forum of the game allow the company to eliminate all threads and to ban players as long as their behavior is judged to be “inappropriate” and ”in violation of the spirit of the game.”
One of the players who have posted petitions has even been threatened with legal action by Sony.
The group of players has suggested that Star Wars Galaxies be kept open in the long term under a freemium model, with all interested gamers allowed to experience the MMO and with a number of paid options available for those players who want access to more content.
The petition they have launched now has more than 3,000 signatures, but it's unlikely that SOE could reverse its decision and allow Star Wars Galaxies to remain open.
Star Wars: The Old Republic has been in development for quite some time and delayed for significant periods least two times and EA says that it will be launched this year but after the month of July.