Tag: Clone Wars

SOE Shutting Down Four MMOs


vanguard

Sony Online Entertainment has announced that four of their MMOs will be shut down later this year: Wizardry Online, Free Realms, Vanguard, and Clone Wars Adventures. Free Realms and Clone Wars are set to shut down March 31st with Wizardry and Vanguard following on July 31st. Sony attributes the sunsetting of Free Realms and Clone Wars as being due to its user base growing up and finding new games, while Wizardry Online was due to a mutual agreement with the publisher. In the case of Vanguard, SOE was unable to get past technical issues with the game’s outdated engine.

player population numbers have decreased making it difficult to justify the resources needed to support and update this game. This is an older game and we’re experiencing more and more technical challenges to continue running and updating it in a way you deserve. Simply put, these are issues that cannot be fixed in the long term and as a player, we would be doing you a disservice and going against our company commitment to provide the best gameplay experiences. So given this information, sunsetting the game later this year is the inevitable conclusion.

Vanguard is the oldest title to shut down, having launched in 2007, with Free Realms and Clone Wars going live in 2009 and 2010 respectively. Wizardry Online launched last January. Vanguard being shut down is especially saddening when you consider that (prior to being stopped by technical issues) the company seemed rather excited to start working on it. Still, the good news is that workers affected by the shutdowns were apparently absorbed into the SOE hive mind to work on other projects.

(Source: Vanguard Announcement, Clone Wars Announcement, Wizardry Announcement, Free Realms Announcement)

Sony Station Offline Today Pending Investigation


Good morning, folks. Those of you attempting to log into any of Sony Online Entertainment’s games may be asking yourself, “why can’t I log into my favorite SOE game?” or “why am I asking a non-Sony blog why their services are offline?” Of course those of you who came here before checking Sony’s website will have missed the following announcement:

We have had to take the SOE service down temporarily. In the course of our investigation into the intrusion into our systems we have discovered an issue that warrants enough concern for us to take the service down effective immediately. We will provide an update later today (Monday).

I call the joke on Sony Offline Entertainment, it’s mine. I’ll be watching for further announcements later today.

Clone Wars Adventures Confirmation Confirmed


So much for this being photoshopped...

It felt like years ago that I originally wrote about an upcoming Star Wars: Clone Wars MMO, namely because it was way back in September 2009. Earlier this year in Feburary, I posted the above image that quite a number of people received on their Station Pass adverts, and was blasted on a few forums linking to the article that I was forwarding rumors, falsifying photos, etc.

Well, today Sony officially confirmed Clone Wars Adventures for this fall, a casual (yep) Clone Wars (yep) MMO similar in style to Free Realms (of course), chock full of mini-games (mmhmm), pets (yes), and more. The trailer is below:

This of course brings me back to questions I asked last September. By the end of next year, barring an unpleasant event occurring in the next twelve months, there be three Star Wars MMOs on the market. Can each coexist? Does Sony really need two Star Wars MMOs? I don’t know, but I do know that you’ll be able to catch me in my house on Tatooine this fall. Oh and make sure you take your shoes off when you come in, this is supposed to be a kid-friendly MMO.