EA is dropping the bomb on a number of their video game servers, shutting down the online fun for many of their Xbox 360, PC and PlayStation 3 games. The list is after the break and you’ll surprisingly find many a game ending with the suffix “09.”
EA is so hungry to sell their new video games to old customers that they have released a particularly unhealthy list of video games that they’ll be nuking on February 2nd 2010. Oh, and Happy New Year by the way.
The company writes on their website that gamers will be able to play the following games up until that date, but some community programs may begin to close before then. They even seal the letter by offering distraught gamers their current line up of online games for purchase:
All of us at EA would like to thank you for your valued participation in our online gaming community and hope that your enthusiasm for these games extends to our current lineup and beyond.
Expletives may leave your lips when you read the rundown of titles. Not only is the inclusion of PS3 and Xbox 360 titles surprising, the date the games were released is even more surprising. Yes, Madden 07 and 08 are included in the shutdown…but Madden 09 on all consoles as well? Europe gets more of the brunt with NASCAR 09 and NBA 09 (Wii) also. These titles were only released just over a year ago and yet EA is ready to say goodbye and force gamers to put up the cash if they want to jump online.
There is a suspicion that P2P online gaming may still be able to continue, but since most of the games need to be signed into EA’s servers to play online at all, its unlikely gamers will even be able to do that. Enjoy gritting you teeth to the following list:
February 2, 2010 Online Service Shutdown
- UEFA Champions League 07 PC and x360
- Facebreaker x360 and PS3
- Fantasy Football 09 x360 and PS3
- FIFA 07 PSP, PS2, PC
- Fight Night Round 3 PS2
- Madden 08 Wii
- Madden 08 PC
- Madden 09 Xbox1
- Madden 09 Wii and PSP
- March Madness 07 x360
- NBA 07 PSP, x360
- NBA 08 PS2, PSP, Wii
- NBA 09 Wii – Europe only
- NBA Street (2007) PS3 and x360
- NCAA Football 08 PS2
- NCAA Football 09 PS2
- NASCAR 08 PS2
- NASCAR 09 PS2
- NASCAR 09 PS3 and x360 – Europe Only
- NFL Tour PS3 and x360
- NHL 07 PSP and x360
- NHL 08 PC
- Tiger Woods 07 PC
- Madden 09 x360 and PS3
- Madden 07 Xbox 360
and these big devs continue to tell us that dedicated servers are not the way to go……………………..
actually makes me wonder wtf goes through their heads sometimes
i never played an of these games anyway, although i do feel sad for the people that have to suffer through this
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I don’t really play EA sports games online, so I don’t think I’d be affected all too much by it. Then again, I’m surprised people were still playing Facebreaker at all, so what do I know?
I’m SUPRISED these were still up
FIFA 07? ?I thought they cancelled the online one interation after
money money money, stop buying EA multiplayer games, thats what im doing!
EA is a good publisher, it’s coming clean after years of business before games. Their dedicated support is excellent, I may be wrong but they’re probably removing support for games that no one plays online.
Activision does not support dedicated servers which I think it should, EA is a far cry from the state Activision is.
“EA is so hungry to sell their new video games to old customers that they have released a particularly unhealthy list of video games that they’ll be nuking on February 2nd 2010. Oh, and Happy New Year by the way.”
I’m not sure you understand EA’s system for dating their releases. Madden 09 came out in 2008. The version that came out this year and covers the current season was Madden 10.
They’re shutting down last year’s models of the sports games, after a year of additional support. And I can’t say I blame them. How many people are still playing the old versions online? More support would be ideal, but if they have to make cuts these aren’t that terrible, all things considered.
I’m not sure you understand EA’s system for dating their releases. Madden 09 came out in 2008. The version that came out this year and covers the current season was Madden 10.
I 100% agree with this statement!!
They’re shutting down last year’s models of the sports games, after a year of additional support. And I can’t say I blame them. How many people are still playing the old versions online? More support would be ideal, but if they have to make cuts these aren’t that terrible, all things considered.
Supporting old games doesnt make a lot of sense. Why would you dedicate servers and employees looking after those servers for games thats revenues are no longer coming in. I could understand if it was a non year specific title being referred to.. But they arent. they are old versions of new games. Obviously a company whos business is to sell video games would rather stay with the times and put the focus and support on the new hot games they keep coming out with. EA Sports Rules.. been playing the games since Genesis Days and still love ‘em..
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Cheers for the comments chaps, but I am aware they were released at the end of 2008 – hence this sentence in the article: “These titles were only released just over a year ago” – which places them in 2008.
The odd thing is that 07 and 08 titles are only just beig turned off, so why are 09 titles being given a life that’s two years shorter? Hardly seems fair. And trust me people are still playing Madden 09. Still surprises me people buy the same game year on year.
I had good times playing NHL 07 on PSP online!
Not the Tiger Woods game!
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I don’t play any of these games what I would like to know is if they have been sold with online play as a feature did any of these games have an “until” clause. If EA won’t let standalones and P2P servers run these games and they havn’t said that they would be switching off online support for said game in year X then they’ve just crippled games for people who may have expected a good deal more online game play.
This is not just a rhetorical question, as I said I don’t play these games – do they come with a “best before” date if not should they?
The End User License Agreement says they can shut it down whenever they want. But of course, it’s not like that is known when you buy it, since the EULA isn’t on the outside of the packaging.
my guess 07, 08, 09 are based on the same dated online multi-player technology. 10 probably based on some new tech so it was probably costing too much to support the old tech. It was either keep the old servers up for all these old games or drop kick them.
Wow. Now I see the logic behind those rabid PC gamers… and their privately hosted dedicated servers. *Adds EA to sh*t list*
EA’s not as bad as activision? Are you freaking kidding me?
Peas in a pod. They’re both the worst that gaming has to offer. Activision and EA represent the major companies that give us serious problems and are the least customer friendly in any sense.
This mean that Madden 10 will be TOLERABLE to play online instead of a massacre of lagfest? …doubtful. I guess atleast its not as bad as the lag we see in the MLB games from them, suprising I didn’t see any of those servers on this list..