Posted by SirBruce. Copy/paste links for teh win:

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I’m not sure when this all started, but I remember first hearing some curious rumblings when LucasArts, not SOE, started recruiting for a new position as Senior Director of Star Wars Galaxies:

http://www.lucasarts.com/jobs/descriptions/?ID=director

After that, rumors started to percolate of an impending split between the two groups. Now that rumor has reached the Slashdot level:

http://games.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=04/10/10/187257&tid=127&tid=10

Essentially, the rumor is LucasArts doesn’t like what SOE is doing and SOE doesn’t like being hampered by LucasArts, and so after JTL goes live they’ll announced that LucasArts will be taking over complete operation and control of Star Wars Galaxies and will announce work on a second expansion.

If the rumors are true, then I think LucasArts doesn’t know what they are getting themselves into. SOE, for all its faults, has a lot of experience in this area. LucasArts has almost none. While LucasArts may indeed have better ideas for a future direction for the game, they are going to be completely unprepared to handle operation of this game. Expect deep hurting over the next 1-2 years if this comes to pass.

Bruce