The Old Republic blamed for Star Wars Galaxies shut off

Sony Online Entertainment’s community relations director Linda Carlson has detailed the reasons behind the recently announced decision to call time on long-running MMO Star Wars: Galaxieslater this year.

And amongst other things, the impending arrival of EA and BioWare’s MMO rival The Old Republic has been blamed.

"It was time to turn it off,” Carlson told The Escapist. We have a contractual relationship that’s ending in 2012, The Old Republic launching, a bunch of other business things with LucasArts.

And then you look at the odds of a pretty large portion of the audience moving to TOR, which looks like a terrific game. I think that’s going to be really well-received by the population."

However, Carlson is also saddened by the game’s demise.

"It breaks the heart of everybody that this world has to come to an end. When the final announcement was made, you could feel the reverberations through the company. We felt it here and it hurt.

"Jedi, bounty hunters, entertainers, the whole lot of you, I salute you. But you know what? We’re not done yet. We still have seven months to get together, we can celebrate the game, we can share our memories, we can still have a hell of a good time. I hope you join us all as we follow the last few months of Star Wars Galaxies."