The Star Wars Galaxies Website announces SOE's Star Wars MMORPG will be ending on December 15, 2011, which clarifies how it would operate alongside BioWare's upcoming Star Wars The Old Republic MMORPG, which is to say that it won't. In spite of this news, the update also discusses plans for improvements planned for the game before it goes away, saying: "Yes, we are going to finish the GCW 2- Space update. As we mentioned previously, this update will have large scale GCW space battles, the ACE pilot system, and three new player ships. In addition, we are going through several of the existing ships and fixing some collision issues to make ship combat more balanced." Here's word on the shutdown:

This is the producer note that I never wanted to write. As was announced today, the Star Wars Galaxies service will come to an end on December 15th, 2011. Galaxies has been a part of all our lives for so many years that it's really going to be hard to see it end. It has meant different things to each of us. For some it's about combat. For others it's about socializing, or crafting, or collecting, or decorating, or fishing, or adventuring, or more. For all of us, though, Galaxies is about sharing experiences with our friends. May of this year was my 7th year working on this game. As a developer, Galaxies has been an opportunity for me to learn how to create a virtual universe and to interact with a community that is very passionate about the product I work on. When you look back at all the updates over the years, it's very impressive how much we managed to get done. In the end, it is our fans that made all the hard work and effort worth it.