For its time, it was a beautiful game, including accurate recreations of iconic locations like towers of Naboo and Jabba the Hutt's Palace. There was no doubt that An Empire Divided had its fine points. But when they logged on for the first time, players were landed with a confused mess. Simon Jeffery - then the president of LucasArts - saw this player involvement as being vital: 'We firmly believe that consistent and open communication with fans will be one of the keys to the success of the Star Wars Galaxies experience.' So when An Empire Divided- Galaxies' core game - was launched, expectations were sky high.

During the three-year build up to its release, canny marketing saw 400,000 joining Galaxies' online community before the game was released. Sony Online Entertainment got the development gig for Star Wars Galaxies on the back of the success of Everquest. In the space of two years it went from being the most eagerly awaited game of its time, to one that saw players leave in the thousands. If There Was a book on how to bork an MMO, Star Wars Galaxies would be the prime case study.

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