14 DAY TRIAL // GLU Mobile, the new owner of GameSpy, a pretty popular multiplayer service provider, has decided to completely shut down the system, effectively turning off the online modes of lots of older games, from Sniper Elite, to Star Wars: Battlefront, Microsoft Flight Simulator X, and more.
GameSpy made a name for itself by offering a multiplayer service to a variety of game developers back in the early 2000s on the PC platform.
Sadly, as fewer and fewer studios decided to use the solutions provided by the company, it was sold off recently to GLU Mobile.
Now, the new owners decided to completely shut down the whole GameSpy network, effectively turning off the multiplayer modes of many classic games, from Sniper Elite, to Microsoft Flight Simulator X, SWAT 4, the first two Neverwinter Nights titles or Star Wars Battlefront.
According to a message for fans from Rebellion, the developer behind Sniper Elite, this was done without any prior notice and GLU is asking for a lot of money to turn the servers back on.
"For the past seven years we have run these servers at a cost to ourselves so that fans of Sniper Elite could continue to play online for free. This decision by Glu was not taken in consultation with us and was beyond our control," the studio said on the forums of its most recent game, Sniper Elite V2.
"We have been talking to them since to try and get the servers turned back on. We have been informed that in order to do so would cost us tens of thousands of pounds a year - far in excess of how much we were paying previously."
Because the game was developed with GameSpy's technology, the studio can't just shift the whole multiplayer mode to another provider, as this means that it has to re-develop the whole online system, which would also require a lot of money.
"We share the disappointment of fans who have played the game since it was published in 2005. This is not something we intended or wanted to happen, but unfortunately it has been beyond our control. We have always looked to support our fan community and we hope the past seven years of free multiplayer service have been evidence of that - we're sorry that the servers have been shut down in this way."
As of yet, GLU Mobile hasn't given an official statement about its complete shutdown of GameSpy.