Lucasarts: Making SWG free-to-play "just isn't financially viable"

Lucasarts has responded to the closure of Star Wars: Galaxies, stating both it and SOE "investigated every option to keep the game open," before deciding to shutter it completely.

According to a statement given to GamePro, both firms even discusses making it a free-to-play title, but decided it wouldn't be a viable business decision.

"Changing the business model for an experience like Star Wars Galaxies takes a major investment and overhauling of the existing infrastructure of the game," read the statement. "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.

"We have a lot planned between now and December and we want to make sure that from now until then, we send off Star Wars Galaxies in a style befitting such a great game. We'll be right there in the game with everyone else, counting down until the end, making sure we connect with all the friends we've made over the past eight years. It may be bittersweet, it may feel like it's happening before it should, but we have approximately five months remaining where we can all enjoy the game together. We sincerely hope the community will join us."

A petition has been started to try and save the game, and so far it has 3756 signatures.

GamePro also noted in the post that the SWGEmu project is available. It's a SWG emulator called Star Wars Galaxies: An Empire Divided, which recreates the Pre-CU, or Pre-Combat Upgrade version of the game before SOE changed it around.

SWG will shut down forever on December 15.