Sony is hinting that the closure was out of their power to prevent, and it was LucasArts pulling the plug. According to CEO John Smedley, ”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. … That’s the problem with licenses: they end. We’re going to continue to do some licensed work, but we’re largely going to stick to original IP (going forward) because then we won’t have this issue. We’ll never have this problem with EverQuest. Back in 2001, not ‘03 when we launched, but back in 2001 when we (first) negotiated it, a five year license seemed like a really long g** time. EverQuest was only a year or so old at that point. Could we have renegotiated? Maybe, but I don’t think that would be the right thing for the company.”
In other words, Everquest is still around because Sony owns the IP, but if LucasArts doesn’t want to renew the Star Wars license for Galaxies, that’s the way it is. Of course, that doesn’t excuse Sony for threatening legal action against “unlawful petitions” from angry Galaxies members, but it does show that the petition shouldn’t be aimed in Sony’s direction.
