EA Announces More Game Server Closures

[Andy Chalk]

EA Announces More Game Server Closures

Electronic Arts [http://www.ea.com] is planning more online game server closures, saying that it wants to focus its efforts on maintaining games that people are actually interested in playing.

It seems like EA has been bringing the hammer down on a lot of games lately, and not just old ones, either: As February's list [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/97200-EA-Shutting-Down-Older-Game-Servers-in-February] of closing servers revealed, age is only one factor that goes into these decisions. EA touched on that point in its announcement of two new rounds of closures, saying that the games being shut down represent less than .3 percent of all peak online players, over all EA games.

"Despite some people's perception, there is a lot of behind-the-scenes work involved with keeping these older games up and running. We would rather our hard-working engineering and IT staff focus on keeping a positive experience for the other 99.7 percent of customers playing our more popular games," the company said. "These decisions to retire games is never easy. The EA development teams and operational staff pour their hearts into these games almost as much as the customers playing them and it is hard to see one retired."

Still, as Travis Coates learned, sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do. And this is what EA is going to do:

Online Service Shutdowns Scheduled for March 16:


Def Jam for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360
Godfather for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360
Lord of the Rings: Conquest for PC, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360
Mercenaries 2: World in Flames for PC
Need for Speed: Carbon for PlayStation Portable
Need for Speed: ProStreet for PlayStation Portable
Simpsons for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360

Online Service Shutdowns Scheduled for April 15:


Burnout 3: Takedown for PlayStation 2
Army of Two for PlayStation 3 (Asia only)


EA also confirmed that Microsoft's planned termination [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/98069-Microsoft-Dropping-Online-Support-for-Original-Xbox-Games] of Xbox Live support for original Xbox consoles and games on April 15 will result in the end of online support for the Xbox versions of Battlefield 2: Modern Combat, Burnout 3: Takedown and Madden NFL 09.


Permalink

 

[Distorted Stu]

NOOO NOT BURNOUT 3!

They are cutting alot of things lately, no wonder a lot fo people hate EA.

 

[Ashbax]

WHAT?! THE!? FUCK!? Why are they closing LOTR: Conquest? Loads of people still play that! ITS EPIC!

HAXXXXXX FUCK YOU EA

 

[Nazrel]

What surprises me is that this is a surprise for anyone. It's going to happen for every game eventually.

 

[DeadAccountMoveAlong]

Eh... this is petty dissapointing. However, I sort of saw this coming seeing as EA is hemorrhaging money.

 

[DazZ.]

What surprises me is that this is a surprise for anyone. It's going to happen for every game eventually.

Which is why we shouldn't let dedicated servers get taken over with by this system.

 

[Woodsey]

What surprises me is that this is a surprise for anyone. It's going to happen for every game eventually.

Not this quickly - LotR: Conquest was only released last January. That's a pretty short life span for a MP component.

 

[UnravThreads]

WHAT?! THE!? FUCK!? Why are they closing LOTR: Conquest? Loads of people still play that! ITS EPIC!

HAXXXXXX FUCK YOU EA

I was thinking the same, except without expletives and capitals. Conquest is quite a recent-ish game so I'm surprised the servers are going this quick.

 

[Paragon Fury]

They're not worth the resources anymore, so they get shut down.

Anyone with a lick of sense would do the same.

 

[xDHxD148L0]

It doesen't surprise me, most of those games aren't eaxctly popular, in fact, most of them were really crappy and unpopular games.

 

[Premonition]

What surprises me is that this is a surprise for anyone. It's going to happen for every game eventually.

This, basically. Which is why I was so amazed that MAG was even made.

 

[Irridium]

What surprises me is that this is a surprise for anyone. It's going to happen for every game eventually.

Which is why we shouldn't let dedicated servers get taken over with by this system.

That, and why publishers shouldn't use an online activation.

 

[j0z]

In other news, MW2 servers will be shut down at the end of this year.
BC2's and MW1's servers will not be shut down BECAUSE THEY ARE DEDICATED SERVERS.

Sorry about that.
I am really surprised about the LotR game, that was released like, last year. And wasn't multiplayer a big part of that game?

 

[Jared]

Seems they are tightening there purses even further.

EA must be in trouble

 

[ASnogarD]

... plus none of the mentioned have any viable DLC options or stores built into them, no udders to milk so to speak.

 

[Christemo]

In other news, MW2 servers will be shut down at the end of this year.
BC2's and MW1's servers will not be shut down BECAUSE THEY ARE DEDICATED SERVERS.

Sorry about that.
I am really surprised about the LotR game, that was released like, last year. And wasn't multiplayer a big part of that game?

Conquest was released early 09 and was quite good, if underrated. im really suprised that EA are such capitalists. means they are probably gonna really something like Conquest 2 soon enough.

 

[Amnestic]

im really suprised that EA are such capitalists.

Losing millions of moneys tends to do that to people.

 

[sturryz]

pretty odd that they would close down such recent games, i would rather aim for older crap. oh well.