EA Shutting Down Multiplayer for Battlefield, Madden, FIFA And Other Titles On June 30
June 30 will see EA shutting down multiplayer service for over 50 older games in their library. The third party publisher will be turning off the servers for titles ranging from Battlefield, Command & Conquer, FIFA, Madden and others as the amount of online players has dropped below a level EA feels is sustainable.
Reported on Polygon, fifty titles in the EA stable will be put out to pasture on Jun 30. According to the official EA support page, “The decisions to retire older EA games are never easy. The 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. But as games get replaced with newer titles, the number of players still enjoying the older games dwindles to a level — typically fewer than 1% of all peak online players across all EA titles — where it’s no longer feasible to continue the behind-the-scenes work involved with keeping these 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.”
It is sad to see any game receive the note that its multiplayer service is shutting down, but at some point the decisions have to be made as servers cost money as do the IT staff who spend time investigating issues. When the expenses outweigh the profit then it is time to pull the plug. What makes this news so interesting is the sheer amount of games getting the axe when compared to the previous year’s online service shut down on the official EA Support page.
Besides EA shutting down multiplayer for over 50 titles, the year has already seen many big players shut down a sizable portion of their online infrastructure. Nintendo shut down the Wi-Fi multiplayer services for the original Wii and DS systems and at the end of this month GameSpy, the largest 3rd party multiplayer server provider, will also be closing their servers for good on May 31.
The full list of games affected by EA shutting down multiplayer service for their legacy titles is below:
- Battlefield 1942 for PC and Mac (including The Road to Rome and Secret Weapons of WW2 expansions)
- Battlefield 2 for PC (including Special Forces expansion)
- Battlefield 2: Modern Combat for PlayStation 2
- Battlefield 2142 for PC and Mac (including Northern Strike expansion)
- Battlefield Vietnam for PC
- Bejeweled (r) 2 for the Wii
- Bulletstorm for PlayStation 3
- Command & Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars for PC and Mac (including Kane’s Wrath expansion)
- Command & Conquer: Generals for PC and Mac (including Zero Hour expansion)
- Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3 for PC and Mac
- Crysis 2 for PC
- Crysis for PC
- Crysis Wars for PC
- Dracula – Undead Awakening for the Wii
- Dragon Sakura for Nintendo DS
- EA Sports 06 for PC
- F1 2002 for PC
- FIFA Soccer 08 (KOR) for the Wii
- FIFA Soccer 08 for Nintendo DS
- FIFA Soccer 09 for Nintendo DS
- FIFA Soccer 10 for Nintendo DS
- FIFA Street 3 for Nintendo DS
- Full Spectrum Warrior: Ten Hammers for PlayStation 2
- Global Operations for PC
- GREEN DAY: ROCK BAND for the Wii
- James Bond: Nightfire for PC
- Madden NFL 08 for Nintendo DS
- Madden NFL 09 for Nintendo DS
- Master of Orion III for PC
- Medal of Honor: Allied Assault for PC and Mac (including Breakthrough and Spearhead expansions)
- MySims Party for Wii
- MySims Racing for Nintendo DS
- MySims SkyHeroes for the Wii and DS
- NASCAR Sim Racing for PC
- NASCAR Thunder 2003 for PC
- NASCAR Thunder 2004 for PC
- Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit 2 for PC
- Need for Speed: ProStreet for Nintendo DS
- Need for Speed: Undercover for Nintendo DS
- Neverwinter Nights 2 for PC and Mac
- Neverwinter Nights for PC, Mac and Linux (including Hordes of the Underdark and Shadows of Undrentide expansions)
- SimCity Creator for Wii
- Skate It for Nintendo DS
- Sneezies for the Wii
- Spore Creatures for Nintendo DS
- Spore Hero Arena for Nintendo DS
- Star Wars: Battlefront for PC and PlayStation 2
- Star Wars: Battlefront II for PC and PlayStation 2
- THE BEATLES: ROCK BAND for the Wii
- Tiger Woods PGA Tour 08 for Nintendo DS
Image Source | EA
