111-589: Star Wars Galaxies ( Galaxies ) was a Star Wars- themed massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) for Microsoft Windows , developed by Sony Online Entertainment (SOE) and published by LucasArts . The open world Star Wars game was released in stores on 26 June 2003. Galaxies spawned several expansions and updates through 2005. The servers shut down on 15 December 2011 due to contract expiration. There are several private emulator projects in various stages of development that intend to allow users to experience Galaxies in different incarnations of
222-475: A free-to-play Galaxies circa April 2005, Publish 14.1, pre-Combat Upgrade, such as the SWGEmu project or Project SWG. This first expansion, Jump to Lightspeed , was released on 27 October 2004. In many ways, this is the spiritual successor to the hit LucasArt's space combat flight simulation game Star Wars: X-Wing vs. TIE Fighter , as the theme, interface and objectives are quite similar. The reviews for
333-434: A 10-episode adaptation of The Empire Strikes Back debuted in 1983. Billy Dee Williams joined the other two stars, reprising his role as Lando Calrissian. In 1983, Buena Vista Records released an original, 30-minute Star Wars audio drama titled Rebel Mission to Ord Mantell , written by Daley. In the 1990s, Time Warner Audio Publishing adapted several Star Wars series from Dark Horse Comics into audio dramas:
444-483: A character reached level 90, they would gain access to collaborative "Heroic" missions. The five heroic missions were: Tusken Invasion, IG88, Axkva Min, Imperial Star Destroyer, and Exar Kun. Characters could erect, own, and decorate a variety of communal, personal, and governmental buildings. These buildings, when grouped, could be organized into cities. Players held elections via ballot box for Mayor. Elected mayors granted city members permission to place structures within
555-624: A dynamic virtual economy and other real-life social phenomena like a complicated division of labor . In this virtual economy, players were responsible for creating many in-game items including blasters , starships , clothing, armor, food, housing, furniture and even a wide variety of droids . According to Star Wars Galaxies and the Division of Labor , the division of labor in Star Wars Galaxies produced in-game results similar to those in real life. The game events were set following
666-430: A master and their apprentice. The franchise is set against a backdrop of galactic conflict involving republics and empires, such as the evil Galactic Empire . The Jedi and Sith prefer the use of a weapon called the lightsaber , a blade of plasma that can cut through virtually any surface and deflect energy bolts. The rest of the population, as well as renegades and soldiers, use plasma-powered blaster firearms . In
777-472: A mixed reception from critics and audiences. Several Star Wars films have been produced separately from the Skywalker Saga. In 2008, Lucasfilm released the animated film The Clone Wars , which is set during the prequel trilogy and serves as the theatrical pilot of the television series of the same name . Following Disney's acquisition of Lucasfilm in 2012, an "anthology" film series set between
888-572: A series of murders of Jedi Masters. The Star Wars canon fictional universe spans multiple eras, of which three are focused around each of the film trilogies. The following eras were defined in January 2021, and further refined and expanded in April 2023: The Expanded Universe of spin-off media depicts different levels of continuity, which were deemed non-canonical and rebranded as Legends on April 25, 2014, to make most subsequent works align to
999-450: A single Novice level, four independent branches with four levels, and a Master level which required completion of all four branches. Characters purchased these skills with experience points gained through a related activity. After the NGE, the developers added nine new professions: Jedi, Bounty Hunter, Smuggler, Commando, Spy, Officer, Medic, Entertainer, and Trader. Progress in these professions
1110-534: A single profession was healer. The Jump to Lightspeed expansion made individual ships attainable by players for the first time. This allowed players to acquire and pilot ships of various sizes. Ships ranged in size from fighter crafts to gunships with up to three decks. This gave players the option between space-based or planet-based gameplay. Each character and creature possessed three "pools" (called Health, Action, and Mind; or "HAM") that represented his or her physical and mental reserves. When any one of those pools
1221-442: A theme for Obi-Wan Kenobi for the miniseries and Han Solo's theme for Solo: A Star Wars Story . Williams also created the main theme for Galaxy's Edge . Several other composers worked on other soundtracks, including John Powell ( Obi-Wan Kenobi ), Michael Giacchino ( Rogue One ), and Ludwig Göransson ( The Mandalorian ). The first Star Wars audio work is The Story of Star Wars , an LP using audio samples from
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#17327869080411332-437: Is an American epic space opera media franchise created by George Lucas , which began with the eponymous 1977 film and quickly became a worldwide pop culture phenomenon. The franchise has been expanded into various films and other media , including television series , video games , novels , comic books , theme park attractions , and themed areas , comprising an all-encompassing fictional universe . Star Wars
1443-514: Is common due to lightspeed hyperspace technology. The planets range from wealthy, planet-wide cities to deserts scarcely populated by primitive tribes. Virtually any Earth biome , along with many fictional ones, has its counterpart as a Star Wars planet which, in most cases, teem with sentient and non-sentient alien life. The franchise also makes use of other astronomical objects such as asteroid fields and nebulae . Spacecraft range from small starfighters to large capital ships, such as
1554-453: Is divided into a small central area with several instanced "dungeon" areas. Other content added in this expansion included: the ability to add cybernetic limbs to a character, resource mining in space, quests for two new creature mounts, and three new starships. A substantial portion of the content for this expansion was adapted from the film Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith which
1665-721: Is impossible for the Force. These superpowers are wielded by two major knightly orders at conflict with each other: the Jedi , peacekeepers of the Galactic Republic who act on the light side of the Force through non-attachment and arbitration , and the Sith , who use the dark side by manipulating fear and aggression. While Jedi Knights can be numerous, the Dark Lords of the Sith (or 'Darths') are intended to be limited to two:
1776-654: Is known as the Rishi Maze, but they are very lightly settled or explored. The canon map depicts a top-down view of the galactic disk, with "north" as the side of the galactic center that Coruscant is located on. As the capital planet of the Republic and later the Empire, Coruscant is used as the reference point for galactic astronomy, set at XYZ coordinates 0-0-0. Standardized galactic time measurements are also based on Coruscant 's local solar day and year. According to
1887-512: Is one of the highest-grossing media franchises of all time. The original 1977 film, retroactively subtitled Episode IV: A New Hope , was followed by the sequels Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back (1980) and Episode VI: Return of the Jedi (1983), forming the original Star Wars trilogy . Lucas later returned to the series to write and direct a prequel trilogy , consisting of Episode I: The Phantom Menace (1999), Episode II: Attack of
1998-472: Is still under development by a small team and is several years away from completion. Both SWGEmu and Project SWG are regarded as the primary emulation projects for Galaxies with other communities utilizing their source code to run their own server, sometimes contributing specific code to create their own content or by using shared content from resources such as ModTheGalaxy , a game modification distribution forum. Some player-made tools created while Galaxies
2109-538: The Jedi Academy trilogy (1994) by Kevin J. Anderson , the 14-book Young Jedi Knights series (1995–1998) by Anderson and Rebecca Moesta , and the X-wing series (1996–2012) by Michael A. Stackpole and Aaron Allston . Del Rey took over Star Wars book publishing in 1999, releasing what would become a 19-installment novel series called The New Jedi Order (1999–2003). Written by multiple authors,
2220-646: The Millennium Falcon , fleeing the Imperial Navy. They jump to hyperspace without doing calculations and find themselves in the middle of our Solar System, overpassing Saturn , Jupiter , and Mars while decelerating and landing in Northern America . Han is killed by Native Americans , and a mourning Chewbacca leaves the Falcon to live in the trees, where the natives believe him to be
2331-442: The 2008 series of the same name . Following Disney's acquisition of Lucasfilm, all animated series released prior to 2014, apart from the 2008 series, were discarded from the franchise's canon . Subsequent animated series include Rebels , released in 2014; Resistance , released in 2018; and The Bad Batch , released in 2021. Several micro-series and shorts have also been released by Lucasfilm since Disney's acquisition, with
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#17327869080412442-530: The Legends continuity, but were later formally updated by the new canon continuity when Disney purchased Lucasfilm. The new canon map is broadly similar to the later versions of the Legends galactic map. As a general rule, most of the galaxy's wealth, power, and population are concentrated near the middle of the galactic circle – the "Core Worlds". The first major interstellar powers in the core are stated to have risen many millennia ago, gradually coalescing into
2553-482: The Naboo Royal Palace, the abandoned Rebel bases on Dantooine and Yavin 4 , Ewoks , and Rancors . The game was announced in 2000, when LucasArts Entertainment began a partnership with EverQuest creators Verant Interactive Inc. and Sony Online Entertainment to create a massively multiplayer Star Wars online role-playing game. The announcement included an expected release date of 2001 and that
2664-463: The New Republic era, serving as the climax of the various live-action television series that began with The Mandalorian in 2019. Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy will direct a third film about a new Jedi Order, set fifteen years after the sequel trilogy. In January 2024, it was announced that Jon Favreau would direct a new Star Wars film, titled The Mandalorian & Grogu . In February of
2775-466: The Republic , the return of Luke as a Jedi Master (a role similar to that of Obi-Wan Kenobi in the original trilogy), Luke's sister (not yet determined to be Leia), Han, Leia, R2-D2 and C-3PO . However, after beginning work on the prequel trilogy, Lucas insisted that Star Wars was meant to be a six-part series and that there would be no sequel trilogy. Lucas decided to leave the franchise in
2886-589: The SWGEmu project was founded with the intention of re-creating the Pre-Combat Upgrade version of Galaxies from scratch through emulation . The goal of SWGEmu is to emulate the game to its entirety as it was on the live servers through patch 14.1. In 2020, the SWGEmu project announced it was near completion of the base game (colloquially referred to as version 1.0). They also announced that Jump to Lightspeed may no longer be included in version 1.0 due to
2997-476: The Sith . Although no longer canon, the story is paralleled in The Force Awakens with Han and Leia's son Ben Solo , who becomes the evil Kylo Ren. Three series set in the prequel era were published by Scholastic for younger audiences: the 18-book Jedi Apprentice (1999–2002) chronicles the adventures of Obi-Wan Kenobi and his master Qui-Gon Jinn in the years before The Phantom Menace ;
3108-480: The Star Destroyers , as well as space stations such as the moon-sized Death Stars . Telecommunication includes two-way audio and audiovisual screens, holographic projections, and hyperspace transmission. The universe of Star Wars is generally similar to the real universe but its laws of physics are less strict allowing for more imaginative stories. One result of that is a mystical power known as
3219-554: The Star Wars films or other canon media. Rogue One ' s director, Gareth Edwards , has described the location as "a Mecca or Jerusalem within the Star Wars world". It is also a homonym for Jeddah , the principal gateway to Mecca. In the VR game Vader Immortal , it is revealed that Mustafar was once forested and very populous, but was left devastated by an ancient battle. It later begins to slowly heal itself, and, by
3330-565: The Thrawn trilogy, Leia considers an advantageous political marriage to Prince Isolder of the planet Hapes, but she and Han ultimately marry. Steve Perry 's Shadows of the Empire (1996), set between The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi , was part of a multimedia campaign that included a comic book series and video game. The novel introduced the crime lord Prince Xizor , another popular character who would appear in multiple other works. Other notable series from Bantam include
3441-563: The University of Southern California , licensed the Star Wars radio rights to KUSC-FM for US$ 1 . The production used John Williams's original film score, along with Ben Burtt 's sound effects. The first was written by science-fiction author Brian Daley and directed by John Madden . It was broadcast on National Public Radio in 1981, adapting the original 1977 film into 13 episodes. Mark Hamill and Anthony Daniels reprised their film roles. The overwhelming success, led to
Star Wars Galaxies - Misplaced Pages Continue
3552-528: The 11-book Jedi Quest (2001–2004) follows Obi-Wan and his own apprentice, Anakin Skywalker in between The Phantom Menace and Attack of the Clones ; and the 10-book The Last of the Jedi (2005–2008), set almost immediately after Revenge of the Sith , features Obi-Wan and the last few surviving Jedi. In 2019, a new prequel era novel, starring Qui-Gon and the young Obi-Wan, was published by Del Rey under
3663-704: The 14.1 publish goal of SWGEmu, such as Awakening , Dark Rebellion , Empire in Flames , Infinity and Reckoning . Other projects like CUEmu look to use SWGEmu's Core3 code base to emulate the publish 15 era of Galaxies , also known as the Combat Upgrade. In 2011, after SOE announced the intention of shutting down Star Wars Galaxies, Project SWG was founded to emulate the NGE version of Star Wars Galaxies. Project SWG has not been as objectively successful as SWGEmu and has undergone multiple refactors of their code since conception. Their current server, Holocore ,
3774-480: The Clones (2002), and Episode III: Revenge of the Sith (2005). In 2012, Lucas sold his production company to Disney , relinquishing his ownership of the franchise. This led to a sequel trilogy , consisting of Episode VII: The Force Awakens (2015), Episode VIII: The Last Jedi (2017), and Episode IX: The Rise of Skywalker (2019). All nine films, collectively referred to as the " Skywalker Saga ", were nominated for Academy Awards , with wins going to
3885-535: The EU material until April 25, 2014, when the company announced all of the EU works would cease production. Existing works would no longer be considered canon to the franchise and subsequent reprints would be rebranded under the Star Wars Legends label, with downloadable content for the massively multiplayer online game The Old Republic the only Legends material to still be produced. The Star Wars canon
3996-408: The Force which is described in the original film as "an energy field created by all living things ... [that] binds the galaxy together". The field is depicted as a kind of pantheistic god. Through training and meditation, those whom "the Force is strong with" exhibit various superpowers (such as telekinesis , precognition , telepathy , and manipulation of physical energy); it is believed nothing
4107-565: The Hutt , Bib Fortuna , Salacious Crumb , General Otto , Captain Panaka (appears as Colonel Panaka), Max Rebo , Wedge Antilles , Gavyn Sykes , Watto , Boss Nass , Grand Inquisitor Ja'ce Yiaso, the "reincarnation" of General Grievous as NK-Necrosis, Taga Olak, Jefa Bowa, and the Force ghost of Obi-Wan Kenobi . Other characters and locations that players could visit within the game include: R2-D2 , C-3PO , their escape pod on Tatooine ,
4218-589: The Jedi. Developers responded by changing the penalty for death to skill loss in January 2004 and creating a quest system to unlock the character. Media outlets criticized the changes of the "Combat Upgrade" while subscription cancellations rose. After the New Game Enhancements were implemented in November 2005, various media outlets criticized the reduced depth and complexity of the game. John Smedley , president of Sony Online Entertainment, defended
4329-492: The Marvel magazine Pizzazz between 1977 and 1979. The 1977 installments were the first original Star Wars stories not directly adapted from the films to appear in print form, as they preceded those of the Star Wars comic series. From 1985 to 1987, the animated children's series Ewoks and Droids inspired comic series from Marvel's Star Comics line. According to Marvel Comics former Editor-In-Chief Jim Shooter ,
4440-406: The New Game Enhancements (commonly referred to as the "NGE"), players had access to 34 professions, with six basic professions: Artisan, Brawler, Entertainer, Marksman, Medic, and Scout. There were a total of 24 advanced professions. Each profession had advanced tier options, including hybrids that combined traits of two professions. Each profession consisted of a tree-like structure of skills, with
4551-621: The United States from 2007 had potentially been compromised. On 14 May 2011, SOE declared data was safe and reopened all servers. SOE offered a free 30-day membership for established members, an in-game decoration, and a 1:1 ratio of days lost. On 24 June 2011, SOE and LucasArts announced that they had mutually agreed to shut down Galaxies on 15 December 2011. According to the SOE announcement, "If you are an active subscriber in good standing as of September 15, 2011, then you can play for free for
Star Wars Galaxies - Misplaced Pages Continue
4662-671: The announcement. Since the new canon has been introduced, there has been a multitude of pieces of Expanded Universe continuity that have become a part of canon. Star Wars in print predates the release of the first film, with the November 1976 novelization of Star Wars , initially subtitled " From the Adventures of Luke Skywalker ". Credited to Lucas, it was ghostwritten by Alan Dean Foster . The first "Expanded Universe" story appeared in Marvel Comics ' Star Wars #7 in January 1978 (the first six issues being an adaptation of
4773-495: The beta progressed. LucasArts also stated in 2002 that both the Xbox and PlayStation 2 would get a version of the game; however, both versions were cancelled. The game was intended to be released on 15 April 2003. The creators announced on 20 December 2002, that the base game of Galaxies would be called An Empire Divided and that the game's online community had grown to over 400,000 users since its inception in November 2000. At
4884-522: The city. Elections were held every three weeks. If another player wished to run for mayor, they would add their name to the ballot box to run against the incumbent. As cities grew in population, they became eligible to add services and facilities such as vehicle repair garages, shuttle ports, cloning facilities, hospitals, cantinas, and garden displays. They could show up on planet maps alongside canonical cities such as Theed and Mos Eisley . The gameplay design aimed towards realistic social institutions like
4995-613: The complexities of implementing the system. SWGEmu is an open source project distributed under the GNU Affero General Public License . The server code base, known as Core3, has been open source since before 2010, allowing for volunteers to easily contribute to its development. In 2019, SWGEmu also open sourced its engine, known as Engine3. Because SWGEmu is open source, any members are able to easily launch their own server for their own community. There are several community-run servers which develop content beyond
5106-535: The content is related to Revenge of the Sith , which was released to DVD on the same day as the expansion was released. Additional content, including the presence of the droid HK-47, is based on the Knights of the Old Republic games. One week after its release, the character development process was revamped through the New Game Enhancements (NGE). This led to a number of players demanding their money back for
5217-535: The decision claiming it necessary to revamp the game in order to reverse the deterioration they were seeing in the subscriber base. SOE offered refunds on the Trials of Obi-Wan expansion due to it being released two days before the New Game Enhancement was announced. Subscriber numbers were originally expected to exceed 1,000,000. In August 2005, SOE reported that they had sold 1,000,000 boxed copies of
5328-451: The desert world Tatooine . The hot, molten worlds of Kepler-10b and Kepler-78b are comparable to the volcanic planet Mustafar. OGLE-2005-BLG-390Lb , a cold, remote exoplanet, is like the ice planet Hoth . Kepler-22b , thought by scientists to be an ocean planet , is compared to the planet Kamino . According to NASA, there are also similarities to Alderaan and Endor in the real-world universe. Two non-canonical works also feature
5439-659: The destruction of the Death Star in Episode IV: A New Hope , but before the beginning of The Empire Strikes Back . The game launched with 10 planets: Tatooine , Naboo , Corellia , Talus, Rori , Dantooine , Lok, Yavin 4 , the Forest Moon of Endor , and Dathomir . The paid expansions added Kashyyyk and Mustafar . There were 12 space zones, encompassing approximately 3400 cubic kilometers of navigable space. Nine space zones were associated with one or more of
5550-416: The earlier animated series falling under Disney's "Vintage" collection of Star Wars content. The Star Wars franchise includes several live-action series. The first series, The Mandalorian , was released in 2019 for the streaming service Disney+ and is set between the original and sequel trilogies of the Skywalker Saga. Due to its success, the series spawned multiple live-action spin-offs set during
5661-658: The early Galactic Republic , with its capital at Coruscant . Waves of colonization (and conquest) by the Republic gradually spread outward from the Core, into the sparser systems at the galaxy's edge, such as Tatooine. Worlds of the Outer Rim are rich in raw resources but lack the population, infrastructure, or political power of the Core. Major galactic sub-regions are further divided into quadrants, sectors, etc., down to individual star systems and planets. The galaxy has at least two companion-satellite dwarf galaxies , one of which
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#17327869080415772-537: The early 21st century. In 2015, the US space agency NASA published an article which stated that many of the newly discovered astronomical bodies possessed scientifically confirmed properties that are similar to planets in the fictional Star Wars universe. Kepler-452b , a rocky super-Earth -type planet, is said to be similar to the Star Wars planet Coruscant . Likewise, the planets Kepler-16b and Kepler-453b , planets discovered orbitting binary stars probably resemble
5883-399: The episodic films, The Clone Wars film , and television series . From 1976 to 2014, the term Expanded Universe (EU) was an umbrella term for all officially licensed Star Wars storytelling material set outside the events depicted within the theatrical films, including novels, comics, and video games. Lucasfilm maintained internal continuity between the films and television content and
5994-495: The evil Sith lord Palpatine (Darth Sidious). The original trilogy depicts the heroic development of Luke Skywalker as a Jedi and his fight against Palpatine's Galactic Empire alongside his sister, Leia . The prequels tell the tragic backstory of their father, Anakin , who is corrupted by Palpatine and becomes Darth Vader . The sequels follow the conflict between Leia's son, Ben Solo , and Luke and Leia's protegé, Rey , and their eventual alliance against Palpatine after
6105-462: The expansion. After a week or two of protests, Sony offered refunds to anyone who asked for it, but many players left the game. On top of the expansions, SOE released several compilations of their games: Star Wars Galaxies: The Ruins of Dantooine is a novel based in part on places and events in the game. It was authored by Voronica Whitney-Robinson and Haden Blackman , the LucasArts producer of
6216-463: The fall of the Empire. In 1971, George Lucas wanted to film an adaptation of the Flash Gordon serial , but could not obtain the rights, so he began developing his own space opera . After directing American Graffiti (1973), he wrote a two-page synopsis, which 20th Century Fox decided to invest in. By 1974, he had expanded the story into the first draft of a screenplay. Fox expected
6327-479: The film would be of limited financial success, and so it was given a relatively low budget, with production being moved to Elstree Studios in England to help save on cost. Star Wars was released on May 25, 1977, and first subtitled Episode IV: A New Hope in the 1979 book The Art of Star Wars . The film's success led Lucas to make it the basis of an elaborate film serial . With the backstory he created for
6438-650: The film), followed by Foster's sequel novel Splinter of the Mind's Eye the following month. After penning the novelization of the original film, Foster followed it with the sequel Splinter of the Mind's Eye (1978). The novelizations of The Empire Strikes Back (1980) by Donald F. Glut and Return of the Jedi (1983) by James Kahn followed, as well as The Han Solo Adventures trilogy (1979–1980) by Brian Daley , and The Adventures of Lando Calrissian trilogy (1983) by L. Neil Smith . Timothy Zahn 's bestselling Thrawn trilogy (1991–1993) reignited interest in
6549-521: The final months. Players wishing to play through the end of the game and participate in the galaxy-ending event planned for the last week of live service in December will need to re-activate or join the game on or before September 15. No new or reactivated accounts will be accepted after September 15, 2011." On 15 December 2011, at 9:01 PM Pacific time, the servers of Star Wars Galaxies shut down, disconnecting those still playing and preventing entry into
6660-568: The first expansion, Jump to Lightspeed , praised the new space combat but criticized the base game for its lack of sufficient improvement. The second expansion, Episode III Rage of the Wookiees , was announced on 9 March 2005, and released on 5 May 2005. It added the Wookiee planet of Kashyyyk and its corresponding space sector. Kashyyyk is different from the previous 10 planets: rather than being 16 square kilometers of openly navigable area, it
6771-609: The first two releases. Together with the theatrical live action "anthology" films Rogue One (2016) and Solo (2018), the combined box office revenue of the films equate to over US$ 10 billion, making Star Wars the third-highest-grossing film franchise of all time. The Star Wars franchise depicts the adventures of characters "a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away" across multiple fictional eras , in which humans and many species of aliens (often humanoid ) co-exist with droids , which may be programmed for personal assistance or battle. Space travel between planets
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#17327869080416882-532: The franchise and introduced the popular characters Grand Admiral Thrawn , Mara Jade , Talon Karrde , and Gilad Pellaeon . The first novel, Heir to the Empire , reached #1 on the New York Times Best Seller list , and the series finds Luke, Leia, and Han facing off against tactical genius Thrawn, who is plotting to retake the galaxy for the Empire. In The Courtship of Princess Leia (1994) by Dave Wolverton , set immediately before
6993-404: The franchise as "the tragedy of Darth Vader". Prior to releasing the original 1977 film, and made possible by its success, Lucas planned "three trilogies of nine films". However, he announced to Time in 1978 that he planned "10 sequels". He confirmed that he had outlined the prequels and sequels in 1981. At various stages of development, the sequel trilogy was to focus on the rebuilding of
7104-534: The game would take place during the original trilogy era . On 17 May 2001, before the game went into public beta testing , the first expansion's development was announced. The release date of the base game was delayed to the second half of 2002. The creators announced a staggered released schedule for the space-based gameplay A new official website was also released on the same day. It included screenshots, movies, an updated frequently-asked questions section, concept art, development team member's profiles, features about
7215-438: The game's existence. The ten species that were available to players included: Human , Twi'lek , Zabrak , Wookiee , Trandoshan , Rodian , Mon Calamari , Bothan , Sullustan and Ithorian . Players could hire Entertainers to change their appearance in-game, with even more options than those available at creation. Many visual aspects of a character were changeable after character creation except species and gender. Before
7326-463: The game, and a forum. The site reached 100,001 users by December 2001. Throughout the next year, new content would be posted on the website. This content included information on species and locations, new images and movies of game elements, and 360-degree QuickTime VR panoramas of different in-game locations. The closed beta test began in July 2002. SOE shared information about the game on the website as
7437-423: The game. In early 2006, unconfirmed reports showed that only 10,363 subscribers were playing on a particular Friday night, but Smedley denied that subscriptions had fallen this low. In an online interview with Reddit in July 2012, John Smedley admitted to "stupid decisions" regarding Galaxies' combat upgrade and new gaming enhancement policies. He acknowledged player led emulator projects seeking to restore
7548-477: The game. It was released in December 2003. On 27 August 2008, following the success of SOE's Legends of Norrath , LucasArts and SOE released Champions of the Force , an online trading card game based on Galaxies . In the game, players could collect, battle, and trade with each other they could also buy new cards and get in-game items. Over one hundred cards were created for players to find and play against others with new artwork featured on each card. In 2004,
7659-847: The game. The final five hours were broadcast in a live stream by Giant Bomb , with Kotaku reporting events as they happened. The final in-game events included a final player versus player finale between the Galactic Empire and The Rebels, as well as an appearance from the Force Ghost of Obi-Wan Kenobi as depicted in The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi . In the United States , Star Wars Galaxies: An Empire Divided sold 370,000 copies ($ 16.1 million) by August 2006, after its release in June 2003. It
7770-640: The gap between the High Republic publishing initiative and the events of The Acolyte . Titled Star Wars: The Acolyte – Kelnacca , the one-shot was written by High Republic writer Cavan Scott with art by Marika Cresta. It focuses on Kelnacca, the Wookiee Jedi introduced in The Acolyte . John Williams composed the soundtracks for the nine episodic films. He stated he would retire from the franchise with The Rise of Skywalker , but he composed
7881-483: The hands of other filmmakers, announcing in January 2012 that he would make no more Star Wars films. That October, the Walt Disney Company agreed to buy Lucasfilm and announced that Episode VII would be released in 2015. The co-chairman of Lucasfilm, Kathleen Kennedy , became president and served as executive producer of new Star Wars feature films. Lucas provided Kennedy his story treatments for
7992-418: The late 1980s and early 1990s, including the ability to create computer-generated imagery (CGI), inspired Lucas to consider that it might be possible to revisit his saga. In 1989, Lucas stated that the prequels would be "unbelievably expensive". In 1992, he acknowledged that he had plans to create the prequel trilogy. A theatrical rerelease of the original trilogy in 1997 " updated " the 20-year-old films with
8103-613: The main episodes of the Skywalker Saga entered development in parallel with the production of the sequel trilogy, described by Disney chief financial officer Jay Rasulo as origin stories . The first film released was 2016's Rogue One , which tells the story of the rebels who steal the plans for the Death Star , the Galactic Empire 's superweapon, just before the events of the original Star Wars film. A second film, 2018's Solo , tells Han Solo's backstory, set 10 years prior to A New Hope . The series Obi-Wan Kenobi
8214-490: The movie material, while others rely heavily on the non-canonical Expanded Universe (rebranded as Star Wars Legends and removed from the canon in 2014). Star Wars games have gone through three significant development eras, marked by a change in leadership among the developers: the early licensed games, those developed after the creation of LucasArts, and those created after the closure of the Lucasfilm division by Disney and
8325-506: The nine films of which are collectively referred to as the " Skywalker Saga ". The saga was produced non-chronologically, beginning in media res with the release of the original trilogy between 1977 and 1983. This was followed by the prequel trilogy, released between 1999 and 2005, and the sequel trilogy, released between 2015 and 2019. Each trilogy focuses on a generation of the Force -sensitive Skywalker family and their struggle against
8436-451: The nine-film series plotted, but due to the stress of producing the original trilogy, he had decided to cancel further sequels by 1981. In 1983, Lucas explained that "There was never a script completed that had the entire story as it exists now ... As the stories unfolded, I would take certain ideas and save them ... I kept taking out all the good parts, and I just kept telling myself I would make other movies someday." Technical advances in
8547-625: The non-canon Star Wars expanded universe , now rebranded Star Wars Legends . In the theatrical Star Wars films , many scenes set on these planets and moons were filmed on location rather than on a sound stage . For example, the resort city of Canto Bight located on the planet Cantonica, seen in Star Wars: The Last Jedi (2017), was filmed in Dubrovnik, Croatia . The Star Wars galaxy contains several broad sub-regions. Their exact definitions fluctuated somewhat during
8658-473: The original film and a new narration to retell the story, released in 1977. Most later printed novels were adapted into audio novels, usually released on cassette tape and re-released on CD. As of 2019, audio-only novels have been released not directly based on printed media. Radio adaptations of the films were also produced. Lucas, a fan of the NPR-affiliated campus radio station of his alma mater
8769-497: The outer reaches of the galaxy, crime syndicates such as the Hutt cartel are dominant. Bounty hunters are often employed by both gangsters and governments, while illicit activities include smuggling and slavery . The combination of science fiction and fantasy elements makes Star Wars a very universal franchise, capable of telling stories of various genres. The Star Wars film series centers around three sets of trilogies,
8880-457: The overwhelming complexity of the game, combat imbalances of the professions, bugginess, and lack of quest content. The first player to unlock a 'Jedi slot' did so on 7 November 2003, four months after the release of the game. Players criticized SOE for the substantial time commitment to unlock a Jedi, penalties for in-game death of a Jedi character (permanent character death after three in-game deaths), and monotonous game play required to acquire
8991-593: The playable planets, but Kessel, Ord Mantell , and Deep Space were solely used for space gameplay and player-versus-player combat. The planet Hoth was added in November 2008, but could only be explored during the events of the Battle of Echo Base. Players could meet many characters from the main and expanded universe of Star Wars . The main characters include: Luke Skywalker , Han Solo , Princess Leia Organa , Darth Vader , Chewbacca , Emperor Palpatine , Admiral Ackbar , Jan Dodonna , Boba Fett , Jabba , Borvo
9102-502: The real-life Solar System 's planets. Monsters and Aliens from George Lucas (1993) contains a feature, presented as a clip from a gossip column, in which a pair of Duros are abducted by humans and taken to "Urthha" (Earth), where they create havoc by misunderstanding terrestrial objects and food. In issue #19 of the comic series Star Wars Tales (2004), the story " Into the Great Unknown " finds Han Solo and Chewbacca in
9213-508: The right mouse button or by accessing the ability on a toolbar. In addition to providing high-damage attacks, specials were also used to heal, buff, debuff , and crowd control enemies. Players gained the ability to use more powerful weapons as they advanced in level. Players also earned "Expertise Points" as they leveled up, which were used to advance their professions. The player could allot 45 points to various abilities and attributes, from weapons specialties to healing and armor proficiency. Once
9324-431: The same fictional era, including The Book of Boba Fett , released in 2021; Ahsoka , released in 2023; and the upcoming Skeleton Crew . These series follow the plight of the New Republic and its allies against the remnants of the fallen Galactic Empire . A story focused on Obi-Wan Kenobi was planned as a film before becoming a live-action series after the box office failure of Solo in 2018. The series
9435-502: The same year, Bob Iger announced that the film would be the first release of the next slate of Star Wars movies. The Mandalorian & Grogu is scheduled for release on May 22, 2026. Lucasfilm has a number of Star Wars films in various stages of development, including: The first two animated series, Droids and Ewoks , were produced in the 1980s. They were followed by the Clone Wars animated micro-series in 2003 and
9546-408: The second expansion, Rage of the Wookiees , lauded the new quest content for current subscribers, but lamented the combat gameplay updates and the continued bugginess of the game. The third expansion, Star Wars Galaxies: Trials of Obi-Wan , was announced on 19 August 2005, and released on 1 November 2005. This expansion added the ground planet of Mustafar to the game. Like the previous expansion,
9657-530: The second season's fourth episode, "The Siege", a classroom is briefly shown on a planet in the Outer Rim, in which a lesson on galactic astrography is being taught by a protocol droid. The teacher not only lists off each of these major regions from the Visual Dictionary, but lists them in the exact same order, from the Outer Rim to the Core: The following list names prominent planets and moons from
9768-460: The sequel, Lucas decided that the series would be a trilogy of trilogies. Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back was released on May 21, 1980, also achieving wide financial and critical success. The final film in the trilogy, Episode VI: Return of the Jedi , was released on May 25, 1983. According to producer Gary Kurtz, loose plans for a prequel trilogy were developed during the outlining of the original two films. In 1980, Lucas confirmed that he had
9879-746: The sequels during the 2012 sale, but in 2015 it was revealed Lucas's sequel outline had been discarded. The sequel trilogy also meant the end of the Star Wars Expanded Universe stories, which were discarded from canon to give "maximum creative freedom to the filmmakers and also preserve an element of surprise and discovery for the audience." Episode VII: The Force Awakens was released on December 16, 2015, Episode VIII: The Last Jedi on December 13, 2017, and Episode IX: The Rise of Skywalker on December 18, 2019, in many countries. The Force Awakens and The Last Jedi were both critical and box office successes. Episode IX received
9990-467: The series was set 25 to 30 years after the original films and introduced the Yuuzhan Vong, a powerful alien race attempting to invade and conquer the entire galaxy. The bestselling multi-author series Legacy of the Force (2006–2008) chronicles the crossover of Han and Leia's son Jacen Solo to the dark side of the Force; among his evil deeds, he kills Luke's wife Mara Jade as a sacrifice to join
10101-579: The servers on 15 October 2009. Players with characters on the affected servers were offered free character transfer to one of the 13 remaining servers. On 3 May 2011, SOE issued a press release stating that all SOE had been isolated from the Internet, due to massive and widespread security infiltrations of various games, servers, and databases. Security teams (and the FBI ) were called. Initial reports indicated personal data and of 20-30 million customers outside of
10212-419: The servers were shut down and existing accounts migrated to US servers. On 16 September 2009, SOE informed all current and past account holders of the forthcoming closure of 12 servers (galaxies): Corbantis, Europe-Infinity, Intrepid, Kauri, Kettemoor, Lowca, Naritus, Scylla, Tarquinas, Tempest, Valcyn and Wanderhome. Character creation on these servers was disabled on 15 September 2009, with the final closure of
10323-443: The strong sales of Star Wars comics saved Marvel financially in 1977 and 1978. Marvel's Star Wars series was one of the industry's top selling titles in 1979 and 1980. The only downside for Marvel was that the 100,000 copy sales quota was surpassed quickly, allowing Lippincott to renegotiate the royalty arrangements from a position of strength. In the late 1980s, Marvel dropped a new Star Wars comic it had in development, which
10434-417: The style of CGI envisioned for the new trilogy. Episode I: The Phantom Menace was released on May 19, 1999, Episode II: Attack of the Clones on May 16, 2002, and Episode III: Revenge of the Sith on May 19, 2005. The first two films were met with mixed reviews, with the third being received somewhat more positively. Together with the original trilogy, Lucas has referred to the first six episodic films of
10545-457: The three-part Dark Empire saga, Tales of the Jedi , Dark Lords of the Sith , the Dark Forces trilogy, and Crimson Empire (1998). Return of the Jedi was adapted into 6-episodes in 1996, featuring Daniels. The Star Wars franchise has spawned over one hundred computer, video, and board games, dating back to some of the earliest home consoles . Some are based directly on
10656-573: The time of The Rise of Skywalker , trees appear to have regrown on Mustafar's surface. These are planets with multiple appearances in the Star Wars Expanded Universe , now rebranded as Star Wars Legends . The accompanying works were declared non-canon by Lucasfilm in April 2014, following its acquisition by The Walt Disney Company in October 2012. The discovery of exoplanets in the real-world universe gained pace in
10767-522: The time, this represented one of the largest ever fan communities amassed for any game prior to retail availability. The base game, titled Star Wars Galaxies: An Empire Divided , was released on 26 June 2003, in the US and on 7 November 2003, in Europe. A localized version for the Japanese market was published by EA Japan on 23 December 2004. Japanese acceptance of the game was low, and in November 2005
10878-490: The title Star Wars: Master and Apprentice . Although Thrawn had been designated a Legends character in 2014, he was reintroduced into the canon in 2016 for the third season of the Rebels animated series, with Zahn returning to write more novels based on the character and set in the new canon. Marvel Comics published a Star Wars comic book series from 1977 to 1986. Original Star Wars comics were serialized in
10989-471: The transfer of the license to Electronic Arts . List of Star Wars cities#Theed The fictional universe of the Star Wars franchise features multiple planets and moons . While only the feature films and selected other works are considered canon to the franchise since the 2012 acquisition of Lucasfilm by The Walt Disney Company , some canon planets were first named or explored in works from
11100-619: The updated Visual Dictionary series made by Pablo Hidalgo for the Sequel Trilogy, these are the general regions of the galaxy spreading outward from the Core: Apart from these broad regions radiating out from the galactic core, there are also several major galactic sub-regions of note: This official galactic astrography was later re-confirmed for the first time in on-screen, live-action dialogue in The Mandalorian . In
11211-534: Was announced in January 2014 that in 2015 the Star Wars comics license would return to Marvel Comics, whose parent company, Marvel Entertainment , Disney had purchased in 2009. Launched in 2015, the first three publications were titled Star Wars , Darth Vader , and the miniseries Princess Leia . First announced as Project Luminous at Star Wars Celebration in April 2019, the Star Wars: The High Republic publishing initiative
11322-535: Was divided into three separate experience source groups: combat, crafting, and entertaining. In addition to these professions, a character could also pursue three optional side professions: Pilot, Chronicler, and Politician. Players could specialize in three different areas of their primary professions by selecting "expertise" options, including Beast Mastery (BM). The Trader profession shared not only BM expertise but also general expertise. All professions could specialize through expertise and items. The only role requiring
11433-583: Was fully depleted, the character would faint. Combat required the player to carefully manage his or her actions to avoid depleting a pool. With the NGE, ground combat was changed to real-time and similar to a first-person shooter . The player would aim a targeting reticule and left-click the mouse to fire. Auto-aim and auto-fire features were available, but players who eschewed those options were rewarded with an increased chance of maximum damage. As characters' levels increased, they gained access to additional combat abilities called "specials" which were activated by
11544-588: Was live, such as SWGCraft and GalaxyHarvester , and are running with connections to hosted servers. In 2013, a former SOE employee leaked a copy of the 2010 production release source code for the Galaxies client, server, 3rd party libraries, and development tools to a few former players involved with the NGE Galaxies emulator Project SWG . The code was later leaked beyond its intended recipients and made available online. Star Wars Star Wars
11655-411: Was originally planned as a film, but changed to a miniseries due to Solo underperforming at the box office. In April 2023, three new Star Wars films were announced to be set within different eras of the franchise. An untitled film written and directed by James Mangold will be set during the "dawn of the Jedi". Dave Filoni will direct a film set between the original and sequel trilogies during
11766-473: Was picked up by Dark Horse Comics and published as the popular Dark Empire series (1991–1995). Dark Horse subsequently launched dozens of series set after the original film trilogy, including Tales of the Jedi (1993–1998), X-wing Rogue Squadron (1995–1998), Star Wars: Republic (1998–2006), Star Wars Tales (1999–2005), Star Wars: Empire (2002–2006), and Knights of the Old Republic (2006–2010). After Disney's acquisition of Lucasfilm, it
11877-542: Was released on Disney+ in 2022 and is set between the prequel and original trilogy films. It was followed by the live-action series Andor in the same year; both series follow their titular characters during the reign of the Empire. The Acolyte is a series created by Leslye Headland set at the end of the High Republic era before the events of the Skywalker Saga , and follows an investigation into
11988-472: Was released to theaters in the U.S. on 19 May 2005, two weeks after the expansion release. Customers who purchased the expansion also received a limited-edition Varactyl pet as a player mount. Rage of the Wookiees expansion also added a few quests, one allowed the player to obtain a pet Bolotaur after going through several tasks. The Bolotaur is similar to the Veractyl but larger and brown. The reviews for
12099-478: Was revealed in a press conference in February 2020. Involving the majority of the then current officially licensed publishers, a new era set 200 years before the Skywalker Saga was explored in various books and comics. Including ongoing titles by Marvel and IDW Publishing, written by Cavan Scott and Daniel José Older respectively. Marvel Comics will publish a one-shot comic book on September 4, 2024, that bridges
12210-503: Was subsequently restructured to only include the existing six feature films, the animated film The Clone Wars (2008), and its companion animated series. All future projects and creative developments across all types of media would be overseen and coordinated by the story group, announced as a division of Lucasfilm created to maintain continuity and a cohesive vision on the storytelling of the franchise. Multiple comics series from Marvel and novels published by Del Rey were produced after
12321-557: Was the country's 43rd best-selling computer game between January 2000 and August 2006. Combined sales of all Star Wars Galaxies -related games released between January 2000 and August 2006 had reached 720,000 units in the United States. Reviews for the initial launch of the game in 2003 were mostly positive. The game was praised for its graphics, use of the movie soundtracks, massive world size, character customization, creative creature ecology, complex skill system, player economy interdependencies, and its sandbox approach. Reviewers criticized
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