EA Closing Multiplayer Servers for 20 Games
The list of twenty affected titles features a number of relatively new titles such as August 2008 release Madden NFL 09--succeeded by August 2009's Madden NFL 10--and November 2008's Facebreaker, as well as some with a few more years under their belts.
"You may continue to play the games online up until these dates," EA explains, "but certain community programs may begin to close down prior to the shutdown dates."
The closures do not necessarily affect all platforms or territories. For example, NBA 07 servers will continue to run for PlayStation 3 after EA shuts down the Xbox 360 and PSP's. Meanwhile, the whole world faces an end to multiplayer NASCAR 09 on PlayStation 2 but only Europe loses the joys of racing around oval tracks on 360 and PS3 too.
This is by no means the first round of EA severs shutdowns, though with thirty-seven editions of twenty games games set to lose multiplayer it is certainly is larger than 2009's, when online support was ended for seventeen editions of eight games in April.
EA warns of servers shutdown on the back of its game boxes, though in small print and perhaps not in the clearest language. "EA may retire online features after 30 days notice posted on www.ea.com," reads the boilerplate warning, with season-based sports games sporting addendums similar to Madden NFL 09's "...or 30 days after the last day of the 2008-2009 NFL season."
"All of us at EA would like to thank you for your valued participation in our online gaming community," a friendly note on the announcement page reads, "and hope that your enthusiasm for these games extends to our current lineup and beyond."
The full list of editions on the chopping block follows below.
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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
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wytefang
replyJust so I'm reading this correctly, does this mean that gamers who purchased Madden 09 will not be able to play other gamers with Madden 09 online, regardless of platform? If so, that's pretty weak.
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it's only on specific platforms. in this case: wii, psp and the original xbox
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wait, no, it includes ps3 and xbox 360 too. those are just towards the bottom.
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Yep I think that means Madden 09 wont be online. EA has no love at all for there fans... Just 2 weeks ago I saw a guy push Madden 09 on his kid just because it was like $20, you have to feel bad for that guy he is trying to save some money and he might actually have to shell out more then he was ever planning on.
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I'm guessing that EA's "unofficial official" stance on this is "We hope you buy Madden 10." It's not very compassionate in a year where many of the Madden-demographic gamers may not have enough disposable income for Live AND Madden 10.
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Looking a the list, I almost suspect they came from the direction of knocking off games that have a low playerbase or something before any specific pushes towards certain new titles. I'm noticing a lack of FIFA on there, though the UEFA games are on it.
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I wonder if they did a metric and were seeing a slow/constant growth of new gamertags for items no longer for retail purchase/not selling, indicating that all 'new' players are those that bought second hand and therefore EA got no money.
Which is still weak and lame (and I don't believe in the case of Madden) but at least makes a moderate amount of biz sense.
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