EA will be shutting down servers for ten Xbox 360 games, as well as a handful of different titles available on other platforms. “The decisions to retire older EA games are never easy,” the company began in a prepared statement, explaining their reasoning behind discontinuing online service for certain games. EA goes on to explain that a very small minority of gamers are still playing these games online, and would rather concentrate on pleasing the majority of their customers.
“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 below a point -- fewer than 1% of all peak online players across all EA titles -- where it’s 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% of customers playing our more popular games. We hope you have gotten many hours of enjoyment out of the games and we appreciate your ongoing patronage.”
Most of the games on the list will lose online capabilities on August 11, while two other games will lose online functionality on October 1. A full list has been provided below.
August 11 Online Service Shutdown:
- ARMY OF TWO™ for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360
- ARMY OF TWO™ Demo for Xbox 360
- Battlefield 2142™ Demo for PC
- Battlefield 2: Modern Combat™ for Xbox 360
- Battlefield 2: Modern Combat™ Demo for Xbox 360
- Medal of Honor Airborne™ for PlayStation Portable
- Medal of Honor Heroes™ 2 for PlayStation Portable and Wii
- NASCAR® 09 for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 (North America)
- NCAA® Basketball 10 for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360
- NCAA® Football 10 for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360
- Need for Speed™ Most Wanted for PC and Xbox 360
- Need for Speed™ Undercover for PlayStation Portable;
- SKATE™ for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360
- Tiger Woods PGA TOUR® 10 for PlayStation Portable, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and Wii
- Tiger Woods PGA TOUR® 11 Demo for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360
October 1 Online Service Shutdown:
- Madden NFL 10 for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360
- NHL® 10 for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360
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