EA Dropping Online Support for 20 Games

[Flack]

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 07 Xbox 360
Madden 08 Wii
Madden 08 PC
Madden 09 Xbox1
Madden 09 Wii and PSP
Madden 09 x360 and PS3
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

http://www.shacknews.com/onearticle.x/61792

[Oobgarm]

I love how they're killing last years Madden already. Better upgrade now!

[Kitsune Sniper]

I thought 360 games were never left "unsupported" or something?

[norkusa]

I thought 360 games were never left "unsupported" or something?

EA runs their own Live servers, so Microsoft doesn't have any say in the matter.

There are a handful of non-EA games that are already down though. Chromehounds is one and I think there are a couple others.

[unwinddesign]

Not surprising, although killing Madden 09 after a year and a half is pretty quick.

[Rickstilwell1]

Ah it's just sports games. Nothing to worry about for my friends and I who all share a similar opinion on sports games - more fun to do the real thing.

[Baloo]

Why is Madden 09 getting kicked off? I can understand the rest of the titles, but that feels a bit too new to be discontinued so early.

[gum_drops]

Why is Madden 09 getting kicked off?

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

[garagesaleking!!]

this is outrageous, i just finished playing an online game of madden 09 on 360 earlier today, and I still play it online all the time. At least they didnt drop support for nhl 08 for 360, another game I still play regularly.

[BHvrd]

Yeah to me this thread should be a sticky so people who are expecting these games to be online will know they aren't.

I agree, pretty ridiculous. I'll be damned if I purchase any sports titles from EA anytime soon (I already didn't anyway so guess it don't matter), heh. Still just not right.

[GM80]

I remember EA's refusal to participate in the original Xbox Live platform until Microsoft caved and allowed third party servers (instead of the "forever" possibilities with MS-run servers), and it was easy to see the writing on the wall.

http://games.slashdot.org/article.pl.../09/19/1852228

This is the crap they had in mind way back then, and we're now on the third or fourth round of these shutdowns IIRC. They can't use the excuse that "it's too expensive to keep running the servers indefinitely" because MS would have run them if EA hadn't forced their hand on the matter.

[The 1 2 P]

I'm still surprised they haven't shut down the Burnout 3 XBL servers(the Burnout Revenge ones for the original Xbox have been shut down for years now). But thats fine with me because me and my friends still play that game online.

[Therealqtip]

Lol facebreaker is gone already...

[heybtbm]

this is outrageous

I don't know. I'm having a hard time mustering any outrage over this news.

Bonus = BF2:MC servers survive another year!

[garagesaleking!!]

I knew someone would comment on my use of the word outrageous. Anyways I thought basically all original xbox game servers were shut down, i cnat believe burnout 3 still is running. It was such a sick ass game though.

[Ed Oscuro]

I don't know. I'm having a hard time mustering any outrage over this news.

Bonus = BF2:MC servers survive another year!

d'oh, I still haven't played that one yet. I'll probably end up getting it sometime in the far future when it's single-player only, heh.

This is the crap they had in mind way back then, and we're now on the third or fourth round of these shutdowns IIRC. They can't use the excuse that "it's too expensive to keep running the servers indefinitely" because MS would have run them if EA hadn't forced their hand on the matter.

I actually read through some of the Slashdot commentary. Yes, while anybody could have seen this coming, I don't think that EA had this "crap in mind" back then. There's a good likely reason given for them keeping their customers off Microsoft's system, the same reason that they took so long to join Steam and get rid of their own downloader - they didn't want Microsoft to take over control of their customers. Even if customers are swearing every minute they use the system, they'll still be aware it's EA's (no doubt with the gigantic EA roundel taking up half the screen) and who to go to for future games in their series.

[kupomogli]

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?

[Sosage]

It was sad when the first DC games were being dropped (although they live again on fan servers). The real crime here is that no one at the dev/pubs have come up with a good practice for keeping these things alive when they hit the "it isn't worth our time" point for the company. It doesn't just suck from the standpoint of people that decide to play these games forever, but those that want to check out some older games and get only half the experience. It feels like history is being blindly tossed to the side.

...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.

[GM80]

I actually read through some of the Slashdot commentary. Yes, while anybody could have seen this coming, I don't think that EA had this "crap in mind" back then. There's a good likely reason given for them keeping their customers off Microsoft's system, the same reason that they took so long to join Steam and get rid of their own downloader - they didn't want Microsoft to take over control of their customers. Even if customers are swearing every minute they use the system, they'll still be aware it's EA's (no doubt with the gigantic EA roundel taking up half the screen) and who to go to for future games in their series.

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. The Madden lobby doesn't announce "you're playing on a server proudly hosted by EA Sports" or anything to that effect. Likewise, there's no MS branding on MS-hosted game servers. It's a very transparent, well-integrated process that only becomes apparent when the servers are taken offline.

From my perspective as a customer, it's simply a question of who's responsible for pulling the plug and their priorities: EA wants steady sales from a number of sequels and annual installments, giving them incentive to devalue previous titles; MS wants to keep happy paying subscribers like me in the Xbox Live ecosystem, giving them incentive to maintain gameplay value as long as possible. I know who I'd prefer to host the servers.

[garagesaleking!!]

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.