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EA Shutting Down Online Servers for 50 Games When No Longer Supported by GameSpy on June 30th, 2014

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Some of you may recall the announcement of GameSpy's imminent closure back in April. Since then, subsequent information has been released regarding the fates of some games. Back in the glory days, a player would play a game x amount of times over until they got bored of it. Perhaps, the gamer would then switch to another title and return to the firstly mentioned game sometime down the road. In today’s day and age, gamers need to play certain aspects of games just in case they are no longer supported later in time. The aspects I am referring to have to do with online multiplayer game modes. It is no stretch to say that with some games, the online multiplayer is a key factor in experiencing the full value of the game itself. Taking the Command & Conquer series as an example, it is fun to play matches against bots, but it does not stack up to the real challenge of another human in an online match. Not to mention, there are plenty of games where multiplayer modes are strictly online with no local functionality. If servers are shut down for games lacking in any local multiplayer, the player can no longer play multiplayer gametypes whatsoever, thus losing a major factor of the game. Unfortunately, EA just announced yesterday that it will be shutting down the servers of about 50 of their games on June 30th, 2014.

Normally, game servers are shut down when a certain low-average of activity (usually below 1% of gamers across all titles) is reached and thus it is shown that it is not a feasible for the servers to remain open. On this occasion, however, the servers that were shut down belonged to GameSpy (which had announced earlier this month that they would be ending all hosted services for games). Not too long ago, EA had said in a Staff Post that their “teams have been working to evaluate options to keep services up and running.” The post continues, “Unfortunately, due to technical challenges and concerns about the player experience, we do not have a solution at this time. Online services for EA games on the GameSpy platform will be closed down at the end of June.”

Evidently though, EA had been considering having community-run servers for various titles. Quoting them, “We know some of these games are still fan favorites, including Battlefield 2, Battlefield 1942, Medal of Honor: Allied Assault and Command & Conquer games. We are still investigating community-supported options to preserve online functionality for these titles, such as multiplayer. Significant technical hurdles remain, and at this time we don’t have anything to announce.” Although EA’s words had seen hopeful, in the end, some things just do not work out the way some of us would hope for it seems. I have included the list of games that are to have their servers shut down below (you'll notice my tear drops near of the games that affect me directly). Some titles are not really notable as “fan-favorites," however, there are definitely games in the list that are worthy of the aforementioned title. The latest news on this matter is that EA is in fact still investigating various community-supported options for some titles, but officially, there have been no notes of specific plans thus far.

  • Battlefield 1942 for PC and Mac (including The Road to Rome and Secret Weapons of WW2 expansions)
  • Battlefield 2 for PC (including Special Forces expansion)
  • Battlefield 2: Modern Combat for PlayStation 2
  • Battlefield 2142 for PC and Mac (including Northern Strike expansion)
  • Battlefield Vietnam for PC
  • Bejeweled (r) 2 for the Wii
  • Bulletstorm for PlayStation 3
  • Command & Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars for PC and Mac (including Kane's Wrath expansion) :cry:
  • Command & Conquer: Generals for PC and Mac (including Zero Hour expansion)
  • Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3 for PC and Mac
  • Crysis 2 for PC
  • Crysis for PC
  • Crysis Wars for PC
  • Dracula - Undead Awakening for the Wii
  • Dragon Sakura for Nintendo DS
  • EA Sports 06 for PC
  • F1 2002 for PC
  • FIFA Soccer 08 (KOR) for the Wii
  • FIFA Soccer 08 for Nintendo DS
  • FIFA Soccer 09 for Nintendo DS
  • FIFA Soccer 10 for Nintendo DS
  • FIFA Street 3 for Nintendo DS
  • Full Spectrum Warrior: Ten Hammers for PlayStation 2
  • Global Operations for PC
  • GREEN DAY: ROCK BAND for the Wii
  • James Bond: Nightfire for PC
  • Madden NFL 08 for Nintendo DS
  • Madden NFL 09 for Nintendo DS
  • Master of Orion III for PC
  • Medal of Honor: Allied Assault for PC and Mac (including Breakthrough and Spearhead expansions)
  • MySims Party for Wii
  • MySims Racing for Nintendo DS
  • MySims SkyHeroes for the Wii and DS
  • NASCAR Sim Racing for PC
  • NASCAR Thunder 2003 for PC
  • NASCAR Thunder 2004 for PC
  • Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit 2 for PC
  • Need for Speed: ProStreet for Nintendo DS
  • Need for Speed: Undercover for Nintendo DS
  • Neverwinter Nights 2 for PC and Mac
  • Neverwinter Nights for PC, Mac and Linux (including Hordes of the Underdark and Shadows of Undrentide expansions)
  • SimCity Creator for Wii
  • Skate It for Nintendo DS
  • Sneezies for the Wii
  • Spore Creatures for Nintendo DS
  • Spore Hero Arena for Nintendo DS
  • Star Wars: Battlefront for PC and PlayStation 2 :cry:
  • Star Wars: Battlefront II for PC and PlayStation 2 :cry:
  • THE BEATLES: ROCK BAND for the Wii
  • Tiger Woods PGA Tour 08 for Nintendo DS

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Atlas
I started writing articles for the homepage in 2014. My favorite articles to write were articles which collectively are known as my retrospective series, "Let's Go Retro." After roughly 20 articles of mine were promoted in one month, I was given the position of "Writer." I wrote for awhile, eventually became a Diet Moderator, and later became a Super Moderator. I still enjoy to write and will put out an article on occasion when i have time. Nowadays, my time is very limited due to studies.

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