The end of SWG?

Well if you read the O boards you will ntice allot of talk about the game shutting down. Im not here to say the game is doomed or its not doomed I am here to give some insight on who to watch for news.

So lets start with the 2 people to watch for and see what they post!
Rich Schmelter
rschmelter@soe.sony.com
Director, Global Community Relations

Linda "Brasse" Carlson
lmcarlson@soe.sony.com
Senior Community Manager
Sony Online Entertainment
Tel. 858-790-3611 ~ Fax. 858-577-3200

I think Rich Schmelter makes the decisions here and then its enforced by Brasse! One of the latest things that was posted by Brasse was server merges http://forums.station.sony.com/swg/posts/list.m?start=225&topic_id=986099
An quote from SOE Brasse

"Hello all!

Believe me, you are not the only ones to notice the population shifts between the servers. We have access to the same metrics and more. =)

Consolidating servers is a very complex process, involving game code, virtual goods, hardware, player accounts and achievements, economies, unique resources, server first claims and more; a veritable laundry list of "what-ifs" as well as a number of legal and procedural hoops to jump through. We cannot provide any definitive solutions until all issues have been addressed internally so that any action we announce can be carried out, and carried out well.

The free Character Transfer service was the first step of this process, instituted to allow existing players to move to more heavily populated servers, and a great many of us have done so.

For more on the free Chracter Transfer Service: http://forums.station.sony.com/swg/...topic_id=941533

Since the FCS was instituted, SOE has been closely monitoring populations and working on internal strategies to address the remaining population issues.

Your concerns are valid, and they are our concerns as well. We’ve been working on this for some time, and thank you for bearing with us. An announcement will be made as soon as we have all of our checklists and processes complete… but no sooner.

All the best,

This got many thinking that there is about one year left in SWG! SWG should be able to last through TOR and a few years after words if not longer. Some really big deciding factors though players will have to conider with SOE.

What needs to be considered here are a few things for starters for the game to end. SOE denies for starters any expansion that is in the making currently. For the most part that is true they atleast though have one expansion done and completed if not 2! The first expansion that was near completion was when the NGE hit for that summer. This expansion would have opened up Tanaab that is allready in the TRE files. The second expansion is also completed although never confirmed as a SOE project. That is City In the Skies



Here is what to actually look for if this game is going to stick around. There is rumor out there that SOE is rather upset with Lucas Arts for giving Bioware TOR and yes it is confirmed SOE did put a bid on this one! If the rumor is correct there is a lawsuit against Lucas Arts over all this the agreement was that SOE was going to host all of SOE's mmo needs this is key if SWG will survive. The reason that is is its SOE's move on what is done next and close to time of release they do for TOR.

So here is what I think will take place! We will see a GCW update around next year with something else added in with it. This will take place right before Beta starts off with TOR. We should also see consolidation of the servers I would say before the end of the year. Days before the release or near the time of TOR release date we will see one of these expansion come out for SWG. The wait for the GCW update is being done for a reason and that reason is hype was its redone and released SOE wants to get the most bang for the buck with a steady line of a new expansion new content and a good GCW war!

SWG and TOR will basically feed off of one another. If all lines up and SOE is in this game things will progress like this in the near future. If SOE has still a bad taste in there mouth with Lucas Arts we will not see to much movement and the GCW update will be pushed out sooner then later and no expansions.

This is just my opionon no actual facts. Im just taking this from past SOE experinces and making my own assumption on it. The 2 names I layed out here will be the ones who make the final decision on what happens and there is also one more player the lead producer and its not the lead DEV for SOE! This gu is from Lucas Arts and he makes the main calls to the 2 main SOE employees I mentioned!