More EA Server Shutdowns Coming Soon

[Andy Chalk]

More EA Server Shutdowns Coming Soon

Electronic Arts [http://www.ea.com] is gearing up for another round of online service shutdowns for a big pile of older (and some not-so-old) games.

The new year is upon us and that means it's once again time for EA to cull its herd of online game servers. Most of the titles affected are either long in the tooth or just not very popular, although in the case of the Lord of the Rings titles EA was forced to halt service due to the expiration of its licensing deal with Middle-Earth Enterprises. Regardless of the reasons, the company said the number of gamers who will be affected by the closures is relatively tiny.

"As background information, the EA Sports [http://www.easports.com] games scheduled for shutdown in February and March 2011 represent roughly one percent of all peak online players across all EA titles," it said. "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 percent of customers playing our more popular games."

And now, the Looming Ax List:

January 11


The Lord of the Rings: The Battle for Middle-earth II for Xbox 360
The Lord of the Rings: The Battle for Middle-earth II, The Rise of the Witch-king for Xbox 360
(PC versions of The Battle for Middle-earth were shut down on December 31)


January 17


The Sims Carnival


February 8


FIFA 07 for Xbox 360
FIFA 08 for PlayStation Portable, PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and Wii
FIFA 09 for PC, PlayStation Portable, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and Wii
FIFA 09 Ultimate Team for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360
FIFA Street 3 for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360
EA SPORTS FIFA Manager 10 for PC
EA SPORTS Fight Night Round 3 for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360
Madden 09 for PlayStation Portable (all regions), PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and Wii
Madden 10 for PlayStation Portable (all regions), PlayStation 2 and Wii
NBA LIVE 08 for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360
NBA LIVE 09 for PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and Wii
NCAA Basketball 08 for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360
NCAA Basketball 09 for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360
NCAA Football 07 for Xbox 360
NCAA Football 08 for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360
NCAA Football 09 for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360
NCAA Football 10 for PlayStation 2
NFL Head Coach 09 for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360
NHL 08 for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360
NHL 09 for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360
Tiger Woods PGA Tour 09 for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360
UEFA EURO 2008 for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360
2010 FIFA World Cup for PlayStation Portable and Wii
2010 FIFA World Cup Demo for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360

March 1


Tiger Woods PGA Tour 09 for Wii


It has to be frustrating for fans of affected titles but before you start breaking out the torches and pitchforks, bear in mind that this Halo fans [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/97200-EA-Shutting-Down-Older-Game-Servers-in-February] about that.


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[Onyx Oblivion]

I still know a few people who play BFME2 on 360. It wasn't perfect, as no console RTS every truly could be, but it was perfectly functional. They'll be kinda miffed. They don't keep up on gaming news, so they'll be in for a shock.

 

[Monshroud]

Seeing as the mass majority of the games on this list are sports titles it is quite understandbale. Most of the people I know who play sports titles tend to buy the newest iteration every year, so continuing to support versions from 2 - 5 years ago seems a bit off.

 

[ionveau]

These games look like tie in products rather then actual games in my opinion

 

[Daystar Clarion]

Holy crap, seeing them in list form really makes it hit home that EA make the same shit, year in and year out...

 

[Vie]

The sims what?

I've never heard of it... ..but if that picture is indicative of it's content I'm actually rather glad about that.

 

[vxicepickxv]

I understand why they're cutting down on these dead servers here, it makes sense.

I don't understand why they didn't have all the '07 and '08 servers dead already.

 

[fix-the-spade]

What amazes me is how on Peer to peer based services publishers keep shutting it down and players just sort of go 'ok'.

Matchmaking I can understand, it presents a cost and is perfectly reasonable to shut down after a period of time.
But for private lobbies there is no need at all for the publisher's servers to be involved. You have the game, your mate has the game, you connect to XBL, so does he, you host the game, he connects to you. XBL central servers are needed to login to Live, they aren't going anywhere. Other than that no other connections are needed, for the publishers to approve certainly isn't needed, yet they're taking active measures to prevent you doing that.

Publishers are deciding when you have to stop playing, yet nobody seems to bothered by it, that bugs me. Excuse me, I'll just go back to my cave.

 

[GonzoGamer]

And this is why I never buy Online games at full price.

Before Yhatzee made it an issue I was always very wary of games that were just for online play.

It shouldn't cost as much as games with single player content because eventually the online game will be useless.

Sure you can hope that you get your moneys worth by that time but I'm sure that's small consolation to the big Halo fans that kept that server alive.

 

[Rigs83]

Why not let the players host games after they shutdown the company run ones? It may not be as good as an experience and cheating will be rampant but who care for such old games.

 

[Hulyen]

So what happens when they shut down the servers on EA games that people have paid for the online pass for? I don't think it's going to be pretty...

 

[JEBWrench]

So what happens when they shut down the servers on EA games that people have paid for the online pass for? I don't think it's going to be pretty...

Seeing as EA's gotten money from those who use them, and will continue to be able to sell access to said servers, I doubt that they'd be going down nearly as quick.

 

[Tom Phoenix]

Why not let the players host games after they shutdown the company run ones? It may not be as good as an experience and cheating will be rampant but who care for such old games.

Actually, if anything, the experience would be just as good, if not better, and cheating would be less rampant. In general, player-driven communities tend to do a better job of policing servers than companies do, hence why dedicated servers are in such great demand in PC FPS communities.

That said, the only platform where such a solution would be likely to appear is the PC. Console manufacturers generally tend to have an iron grip over their platforms and refuse to give up even a bit of control to the players themselves. Beacuse, heaven forbid, they might actually start questioning the value of online services offered by platform holders...

 

[shado_temple]

I understand some of the older sports games being outmoded (the '08s and the '09s), but I know people who still play games like FIFA 2010 online quite a bit. Seems like EA is giving an all too firm push to consumers to continue to pay for nearly the same game with modified rosters.

 

[RelexCryo]

Thanks for the info Andy. Much Appreciated. I also love your humour articles, but I haven't seen any recently though.

 

[THEoriginalBRIEN]

Am I the only one who sees this as another way for EA to force people to buy their latest additions to their sports game franchises?

Now that people are finally catching on to what a scam it is to buy more or less the same damn game ever year, EA can force them into buying the latest title if the owners are big on online play.