I really have mixed feelings about this news.  I played Galaxies for years, and sort of hoped that The Old Republic Online would spur them to return the game to its glory days...  I didn't think they would raise the white flag.

Pre-NGE (New Game Enhancements) Galaxies is the gold standard by which I judge all MMOs, and they all come up lacking.  Post-NGE they had a lot of highs and lows.  I just said last night that I thought they would go free to play, guess I was wrong.

What they got right

• None of the classes, races, or characters were faction locked.  You could play anything as anything.

• You could switch factions if you wanted

• Player cities that were involved in the Galactic Civil War.

• Guild wars

• The best crafting system I have ever seen.

• Non-combat classes that made the community form naturally.

• Varied game play

• Expansive worlds to explore and build in

• Character customization, you character was your character

What they got wrong

• They removed the sandbox characters with NGE.  You used to be able to build your own custom classes easily

• They focused on forcing large group play rather than making an amazing game that people talked their friends into playing.

• HORRIBLE customer service.  Ask anyone who played, they didn't care about you as long as you payed your bill.

• They never really updated the game after NGE, and game play started to feel dated

What now?

I suppose this makes the open source Pre-NGE project 100% legal after next year, since the game will no longer be playable in any other form.  I have some serious concerns about The Old Republic Online, so I hope this means that Lucas Arts is transferring the Film and extended universe content to another company.

This is sad, but not entirely unexpected news.