Due to the Free Character Transfer Service, a number of servers have essentially become ghost towns as much of the game's remaining population has chosen to converge on a small number of servers (example: Starsider).

As a result of this, Star Wars Galaxies Community Manager, Draakull, has announced today that 12 servers will be shutdown on October 15th, 2009, at 5PM PDT, leaving 13 remaining. The creation of new characters on these servers is now disabled.

The servers listed below will be shut down:

• Corbantis
• Europe-Infinity
• Intrepid
• Kauri
• Kettemoor
• Lowca
• Naritus
• Scylla
• Tarquinas
• Tempest
• Valcyn
• Wanderhome

To help facilitate any players still remaining on these servers, the Free Character Transfer Service has been extended through to October 15th, 2009. Beginning today, all characters still remaining on the aforementioned servers are eligible for a one time free transfer to any of the remaining 13 servers. 

In addition to this announcement, a FAQ has also been made available for more information on the situation.

The announcement and FAQ are both available here.

What do you think about this move by SOE? Personally, having played Star Wars Galaxies in recent months, I think it's a great move. When I played on my home server of Starsider this summer, the place was hopping like it was launch day.

Let us know your thoughts in the comments below!