Tonight is the end of Star Wars Galaxies, once a crown jewel of Sony Online Entertainment's MMO portfolio. There is now less than an hour before the total shutdown of the eight-year-old MMO.
Right now, courtesy of Giant Bomb's live stream broadcast, we're seeing enormous deciduous trees growing in the Tatooine desert, and X-Wing fighters penetrating the Sarlacc Pit in a very suggestive way.
The overall purpose of the game's final night is to settle the question of who is in charge of the galaxy, through a gigantic PvP war. Control of each territory in the game is weighted; whichever faction controls the most territory will, ultimately, be declared the final winner of Star Wars Galaxies.
Giant Bomb's feed is coming in from Tatooine right now, where fireworks already are deploying, like they did at the end of Return of the Jedi. Feel free to remember the game in your own way. Here's mine.
After today, the Galaxy goes dark. For five days, anyway, until you get started in Star Wars: The Old Republic
[Update] We just saw an appearance of the ghost of Obi-Wan Kenobi. With nine minutes remaining, it seems SOE is letting everything go at once. There are enormous Stormtroopers and Lando Calrissians, too.
[Update] The game closed with a flurry of server messages: "Get on board the Falcon, kid," and "Goodbye Star Wars Galaxies." Star Wars Galaxies has now, officially, ended.
The Final Hours of Star Wars Galaxies [Giant Bomb]