In a curious move, Electronic Arts has announced that it will be cutting the online gaming functionality of several titles starting February 2, 2010. Some of the games are less than two years old. According to Kotaku, the euthanasia victims include:
- 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 08 Wii
- Madden 08 PC
- Madden 09 Xbox
- Madden 09 Wii and PSP
- 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
- Madden 09 x360 and PS3
- Madden 07 Xbox 360
The action brings up an interesting debate: when is the right time to kill online support for games? Certainly the amount of current online activity matters, but should a publisher err on the side of gamers that buy its goods or cutting costs to appease shareholders?
I haven’t given it enough thought, but my initial reaction is that EA is pulling the plug way too soon for some of these games. Cutting online support for titles that have been out for a little over a year?!? That’s totally sticking it to the customer.
This is the reason I cannot buy a game based solely on online game play. I buy games for the Single Player and then enjoy it if it has some great multiplayer.
It seems like a rip-off that they would do that, but I understand about saving money here. Heck they have already sold you the game, what do they care.
I don't have an issue with the 0'8 and earlier stuff. But pulling the plug on the '09 games is kinda crappy. Than again, I don't have numbers on how many people were actually still playing these games.
Wow…cutting 09? I see it went down like this:
EA Pres "How can we sell more copies of 2010 that are the same as 09 but with a different name?"
EA VP "Let's stop supporting anything from the previous year"
EA Pres "Brilliant! We already sell them the same product every year for full price, let's just finish the reach around"
That sucks for the suckers that buy this stuff every year. You would hope that part of your xbox live subscription would guarantee online functionality for the life of the console. Guess not.
If I remember correctly, wasn't Facebreaker a late 2008 release? Sure it didn't sell well, but supporting it for a year and three months online?!?
@Ray: If it didn't sell well, how many people are playing it? I get that logic. I have bigger issues with the more popular '09 games. But again, I don't have the numbers on how many people are playing them either.
The bigger question here is, if someone buys a new copy of one of these games now, with the box telling them the game offers online gameplay, how close are we cutting to a false advertisement suit? I'm looking at the small print in my copy of Tiger Woods '08 and I'm not seeing any verbage about length or terms of online support.
horrible.
I wonder if this is a precursor to EA becoming a sub model? Hmm.
As far as I know, EA is the only publisher who can pull online support on Xbox Live. That is because they always make you go through their servers, instead of letting Live handle everything. Second thought, I hope (Ricky)Bobby doesn't read any of this. I'm sure he would start pulling support for CODs overnight.
I guess I have a couple weeks to get a couple of those small online achievements from some of these old sports games!! Lol.
@sandrock323. I'm surprised Bobby hasn't thought of this already actually.
I hope you enjoyed W@W and COD4 cause you won't beable to play them any more. Moohaha!1!! I iz 1337!!one11!
It's coming. Just wait. MW1 plug pulled by summer.
Just to show you what an achievement whore I am, the first thought that entered my mind when I read this story was: "Oh, no! Now how are people going to unlock those online-related achievements? Achievement Locked… FOREVER!!"
-M
I'm -THIS- close to declaring my 8th Axiom to be "EA sucks. Everything EA does sucks. Everything EA touches turns into garbage.".
I mean EA sucks, we know this is fact, but to suck so bad that I consider listing it among the things governing reality? Wow….
At least they're not failing to live up to expectations.
@leyke;
Is one of your axioms: "Everything the government touches, they screw up?"
-M
@iceman. I thought the same thing about the achievements. Lol. I'm gonna have to make sure I have them all before February 2nd!!