EA Dropping Online Support for 20 Games

[8-bitNesMan]

what is the chance of them not pulling the plug on madden 09 if they get a big backlash? I think they might have to keep it or a lot of people are gonna be pissed.

Yeah! I'm so mad I'm gonna buy a different pro football game other than Madden from now on!! Wait... Yeah, I got nothing

[Kitsune Sniper]

what is the chance of them not pulling the plug on madden 09 if they get a big backlash? I think they might have to keep it or a lot of people are gonna be pissed.

Ahahahahahaha.

Like they actually care about their customers.

...and Madden 09 being dropped already? ! "Quick" isn't the word. More like "Greedy" followed by "cock" and then "suckers". What are we, barely a week into 2010 EA? Holy shit.

Madden 09 came out in 2008, so it's a bit over a year and a half old, isn't it?

[Nature Boy]

I will say that the in-game visual/branding experience isn't any different (in my experience) whether a game server is hosted by Microsoft or the publisher.

I'm playing Dragon Age right now, and it does mention connecting to EA's servers when the title screen first comes up. So it is mentioned, just for the record. Tiger Woods 07 did the same thing if I recall correctly.

For all the bitching about the drop that I've read here, only one poster has actually mentioned playing the games in question. So are the rest of you EA haters looking to get a punch in or are you legit EA Sports consumers who are rattled by the announcement?

Anybody know when they stopped supporting Madden 08? Is the timing that much different? Does anybody know how many gamers are actually still playing Madden 09 online and will miss the service (not to disrespect the previous poster who is justifiably ticked)?

[garagesaleking!!]

as we speak im about to play a game of madden 09, now i need to get my fill in before they shut it down.

[Shadow Kisuragi]

This is the reason I am afraid to buy any yearly games for online play for pretty much any company. There are a few I want to buy but I don't want to pay $60 for them.

I'm still interested in Smackdown vs Raw 2010 but haven't picked it up yet because it hasn't received a price drop.

Does anyone know if THQ does this same thing and drops their online servers when a new game comes out or is EA really the only one that does this when a new year comes out?

AFAIK, only EA and Sega (Chromehounds anyone?) have the rights to host 3rd party servers via Xbox Live. I'm not sure how that works for PSN.

I'm surprised at the level of hate tossed in here. It sucks when you lose the online multiplayer aspect, especially when attempting to play the game down the road and having unusable modes/features (including achievements/trophies), but have many of you attempted to play an online game for many of the games listed? March Madness 07 had 0 players online a year and a half ago when I attempted to play it, and almost all of those games suffer from the same issues.

[PapaStu]

I'm playing Dragon Age right now, and it does mention connecting to EA's servers when the title screen first comes up. So it is mentioned, just for the record. Tiger Woods 07 did the same thing if I recall correctly.

You'll see that with ALL EA games. You are playing through their servers, have to have an EA account (besides your XBL/PS3 accounts) to get on. Setup is fast, but i've got more issues connecting to the EA servers that I do with most anything else of theirs.

I've played none of this current wave of 'killed' games because I'm not a big sports junkie (save baseball, but 2k baseball is complete garbage and i've been turned off /end rant ). Almost all of the 360 games have no online achievements at all and thats what anyone should be worried about and thats only if you're an achievement/trophy whore. You're losing out on being able to play Madden 07 online? NFL Tour is gone too!?! Woe is you.


Most of the games don't have much in the way of online achievements, the ones you should be worried about are Facebreakers (don't know exact number, but its a few hundred g worth), March Madness 07 (4 - 90g) NBA 07 (3 - 300g) UEFA (1 - 5g). The rest are purely offline.

Madden 09 is 18 months old. For a yearly franchise that has a huge swath of its users 'update' every August i'm sure that EA isn't worried. Don't get me wrong, I think its lame that the servers get brought down on stuff, but in this modern world of sequels every year and the fact that EA has the ball in its court, if you want to play, you do it by their rules.

[s1lence]

So you have to shell out money for madden 10 if you want to play online

Not true as Madden 08 is still online. The ONLINE play in Madden 09 is low as well as no achievements online so it really doesn't matter for most. I know people still play it online but it really doesn't surpise me. NBA Live 07 is getting shut down as well and that is way old, same with UEFA 06-07.

Chromehounds has its own servers that are run independent of the MS servers. They did that because of the various game requirements for the online play. If you have played the game you would understand.

Tiger Woods Golf 06 is the one that really pisses me off though. They removed the servers for it, so you can't play it online. In the process though all the achievements are now glitched whether it is online OR offline.

They have also pulled various portions of other games down. The MLS section of Fifa 09 was taken offline before the season was even completed. Same with the Nascar 08 and 09 servers.

The servers for WWE 2007 were taken down awhile ago as well so its not just EA that does it. In some cases on multiplatform titles the 360 version stays up because of the Live servers, compared to other versions that get taken down.

Either way it sucks, but that is business.

[MarioMania]

I wish someone else has the NFL liscence(sp)

[Sosage]

Madden 09 came out in 2008, so it's a bit over a year and a half old, isn't it?

I get that, but the title of the game is 09. As in it represents the 09 version of said game. The major marketing bullet point for the game is that it is 09. As in just a week ago it was still 09.

A year and a half old. I mean, really? Is that the cut off date where games should just be expected to not work the way they use to? Is this punishment for not being able to afford games when they come out? A game not nearly as old as XBLA games that still have MP support? To reiterate the real crime here though, as I keep pointing out, is said game's title suggests it is only stale by a week.

[Shadow Kisuragi]

To reiterate the real crime here though, as I keep pointing out, is said game's title suggests it is only stale by a week.

You're reading the title wrong then. The game's title suggests that it is for the '09 NFL season, not 2009 itself. Think of it like the release year for cars - intended season, not current year.

[PapaStu]

I get that, but the title of the game is 09. As in it represents the 09 version of said game. The major marketing bullet point for the game is that it is 09. As in just a week ago it was still 09.

A year and a half old. I mean, really? Is that the cut off date where games should just be expected to not work the way they use to? Is this punishment for not being able to afford games when they come out? A game not nearly as old as XBLA games that still have MP support? To reiterate the real crime here though, as I keep pointing out, is said game's title suggests it is only stale by a week.

And Madden 10 has been out for over 4 months. **head asplode** We were playing the future.

This has nothing to do with the game not working, this is purely for the ONLINE Vs. component. You can still do MP on a single box, just no MP over XBL/PSN. If the Online Vs. component is such an important issue for your sports games, either go back to Madden 08 (still online!) or move to Madden 10.

I won't go and say the snarky, save up for it if you really care line that could easily be brought up here and is experienced by us all at times. Just because I live comfortably and can buy all kinds of games at the drop of a hat, doesn't mean that I do, nor does it mean that I don't 'save up' by curbing buying the random stuff for a bit to get that specific title I do really want when it does come out. I sure as hell had to curb some other buys to 'afford' the Prestige CoD: MW2 set when that came out a few months ago. Either way, before 18 months is up (the general time that EA is leaving online servers up for sports games) the game will have greatly come down in price and you'll be able to get it for 15-20 and enjoy plenty of online matches before it potentially goes offline.

[Sosage]

We're going to have to obviously disagree here. I think your points make sense if you're looking to rationalize a tacky as hell, poorly timed practice.

And Madden 10 has been out for over 4 months. **head asplode** We were playing the future.

I won't go and say the snarky,

...because you spent the snark on your opening line? >:P

[Flack]

For me it's less about the specific titles and more about the big picture.

Semantics aside, I think it's fair to say that many people would consider a game with "2009" in the title to not be old. I realize it's 2010 now, but I'm guessing a lot of kids got 2009 sports titles for Christmas this year. If I were buying a sports game for one of my nephews and the 2009 cost half of what the 2010 one cost, guess which one they would get?

I'm also guessing that every of those games say "online play!" somewhere on the box. I just checked Amazon and all the Madden ones do for sure. Additionally on Amazon, the Wii version says "Battle it out on the gridiron with up to 32 teams in Online Leagues, complete with trades and statistical tracking." If I ordered that tomorrow and the online portion quit working next week, I'd be pretty pissed.

The bigger question to be answered here is, what length of time should companies like EA be obligated to maintain online play for? Some of you think it's a year (personally I think that's too short). What if it's six months, next time around? What if this practice spreads past EA -- maybe Nintendo, or Sony, or Microsoft may decide that games more than a year old shouldn't be supported ...

I think that at a minimum, games that advertise online play should also list the length in which that feature will be available. If Madden 2009 is only playable online during the 2009 football season, fine, write that on the box.

[PapaStu]

Don't get me wrong, I think its lame that the servers get brought down on stuff, but in this modern world of sequels every year and the fact that EA has the ball in its court, if you want to play, you do it by their rules.

We're going to have to obviously disagree here. I think your points make sense if you're looking to rationalize a tacky as hell, poorly timed practice.

As I quoted myself from my first post in here, I think its crap, but i'm just saying how it is. The servers shouldn't be brought down at all (well at least until XBL itself goes down), but because MS wanted the EA games to be live (and to have their games at all) EA bent em over a pole and got control over all servers in a way that only Bungie had previously (and FF XI, PSU with their pay servers, and the few Mech games that had their own thing Chromehounds and Steel Battalion for the original XBL). I don't think the servers that are running with a minimum (or complete lack of) players are really eating all that much bandwidth, but since EA (like all these companies) are in it for the money and they feel that keeping the older versions of their games live that they are cutting into their pocketbooks.

So is it only poorly timed for those '09' games? Is it too early to kill some random Soccer game from 06/07? The online for some PS2 game that has 0 people playing it? What's your window other than never (which I am with you on, but again, its not how its being played by EA) that would make you happy with the death of a server?

Fortunately in this climate more publishers don't have this ability. Just think if Activision started to nuke all the old Guitar Hero or Call of Duty servers. Whoo-boy will the forums just LOVE that.

...because you spent the snark on your opening line? >:P

Exactly I'd rather do it in that line, than in my actual point. I knew I was damned when i put it in.

[PapaStu]

For me it's less about the specific titles and more about the big picture.

Semantics aside, I think it's fair to say that many people would consider a game with "2009" in the title to not be old. I realize it's 2010 now, but I'm guessing a lot of kids got 2009 sports titles for Christmas this year. If I were buying a sports game for one of my nephews and the 2009 cost half of what the 2010 one cost, guess which one they would get?

I'm also guessing that every of those games say "online play!" somewhere on the box. I just checked Amazon and all the Madden ones do for sure. Additionally on Amazon, the Wii version says "Battle it out on the gridiron with up to 32 teams in Online Leagues, complete with trades and statistical tracking." If I ordered that tomorrow and the online portion quit working next week, I'd be pretty pissed.

The bigger question to be answered here is, what length of time should companies like EA be obligated to maintain online play for? Some of you think it's a year (personally I think that's too short). What if it's six months, next time around? What if this practice spreads past EA -- maybe Nintendo, or Sony, or Microsoft may decide that games more than a year old shouldn't be supported ...

I think that at a minimum, games that advertise online play should also list the length in which that feature will be available. If Madden 2009 is only playable online during the 2009 football season, fine, write that on the box.

It *tends* to be. I know that when I got Madden 04 and 05 for the PS2 it said in the fine print on the back of the box that they reserver the right to kill the servers something like a week before/after some date in August, which just happens to be the date that new incarnation would be out. I remember commenting to friends with whom I was playing that years Madden with and we were all pretty miffed about it. I didn't buy the next one, but I know THEY did and they moved on. Flip one over and see what they say. I bet that language is still there.

Further devils advocate here, going into most stores, WalMart, Target, Best Buys they will be stocking the newest incarnation of the series over the old ones. I know that the Targets out here put those games on clearance pretty darn quickly to get them out of the stores before the newest game hits as they don't want to lose those new game sales to the old one. WalMart tends to be a little different in how they do their markdown comps, so you'd be a bit more likely to see the old ones in there but that doesn't mean that they're still going to have tons of copies of the previous years game.

[kedawa]

Nevermind when it was released. If I could buy it new six months ago, they should still support it.

[Leo_A]

I don't see the big deal, they're mostly being dropped because they're not being patronized by gamers, which is why games older than many of those on that list, such as Battlefield 2 Modern Combat, are remaining online. That's why you don't see EA's latest NASCAR game being dropped in North America on the PS3 and Xbox 360. Gamers are still playing on it and it isn't a ghost town that isn't worth the cost of maintaining servers for.

By the time Madden 09 goes offline, we'll only be 6 months away from Madden 11 being released. I'd rather see it taken down in August so there's always 1 older Madden release supported by online servers at all times, but it's close enough and I doubt it will affect many people. I imagine it's shutdown is happening with this wave of discontinances because few people are playing it online, they've kept other Madden releases online for much longer periods of time in the past so it's not happening due to a policy to force online gamers to always purchase the latest release.

[calthaer]

EA isn't obligated to support it. We're also not really obligated to keep putting money in their pockets. They'll drop the NFL license if it becomes unprofitable, but people keep settling for what isn't even second best. I, for one, haven't bought an EA game in quite some time and am perfectly happy about that.

[garagesaleking!!]

I find it really odd that madden 08 is not shut down but 09 will be. Why do more people still play 08? Whoever is saying that since their are no online achievements for madden 09 its not a big deal to shut it down needs to open their eyes. Do some of you really think the majority of gamers buy a game for the achievements. Especially a madden game. People buy madden to get their football fix.

[s1lence]

Actually on almost every EA title in the manual it states that EA has the right to discontinue any online service or properties within 30 days. They have that disclaimer on their XBLA titles as well and it is in the disclaimer when you load the retail titles as well for the first time. I got it when I fired up UEFA 2006-07.

Here is the link for that on EA's site

http://www.ea.com/1/product-eulas

EA MAY RETIRE ONLINE FEATURES AFTER 30 DAYS NOTICE POSTED ON www.ea.com

Once again, I don't like it, but to think we have a "right" to them having servers for these games is just foolish.

Looks like they updated the list a little bit

http://www.ea.com/2/service-updates