14 DAY TRIAL // Electronic Arts has just announced that it is has shut down multiplayer servers for a variety of its older games, including Need for Speed: Most Wanted or Undercover, as well as Battlefield 2 or various sports games made in 2009.
EA maintains a lot of dedicated servers for a variety of its games and made a habit of periodically shutting down support for titles have are no longer popular and aren't seeing any large online activity.
A fresh batch of titles have now seen their servers shut down, including plenty of pretty popular ones like Need for Speed: Most Wanted or Need for Speed: Undercover, as well as Madden NFL 10, NHL 10 or Army of Two.
Check out the full list below.
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 Madden NFL 10 for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 NHL 10 for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 Most of these games have seen their online component shut down effective immediately, while Madden NFL 10 and NHL 10 won't see their multiplayer servers turn off until October 1, 2011.
“The decisions to retire older EA games are never easy. 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,” said EA in a statement.
The company continued, motivating its decision by trying to better allocate its resources for games that are still popular.
“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.”
Are you sad about this decision or have you stopped playing most of these games up until now? Share your thoughts below.