14 DAY TRIAL // Large games company Electronic Arts has just revealed that it will be closing down the online services of more than 25 of its older sports games, in order to better support their newer iterations.
The company is pulling the plug on support for big sport titles like FIFA 08 or FIFA 09, NCAA Basketball 09 as well as NHL 09 or Tiger Woods PGA Tour 09.
A couple of non-sports games are also affected by this move, with The Lord of the Rings: The Battle for Middle-earth and The Sims Carnival seeing their online modes scrapped.
Check out the complete list of games without online support below.
Closed Dec. 31 The Lord of the Rings, The Battle for Middle-earth for PC The Lord of the Rings, The Battle for Middle-earth II for PC The Lord of the Rings, The Battle for Middle-earth II, The Rise of the Witch-king for PC
Closing Jan. 11 The Lord of the Rings, The Battle for Middle-earth II for Xbox 360 The Lord of the Rings, The Battle for Middle-earth II, The Rise of the Witch-king for Xbox 360
Closing Jan. 17 The Sims Carnival
Closing Feb. 8 FIFA 07 for Xbox 360 FIFA 08 for PlayStation Portable, PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and Wii FIFA 09 for PC, PlayStation Portable, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and Wii FIFA 09 Ultimate Team for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 FIFA Street 3 for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 FIFA Manager 10 for PC Fight Night Round 3 for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 Madden 09 for PlayStation Portable (all regions), PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and Wii Madden 10 for PlayStation Portable (all regions), PlayStation 2 and Wii NBA Live 08 for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 NBA Live 09 for PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and Wii NCAA Basketball 08 for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 NCAA Basketball 09 for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 NCAA Football 07 for Xbox 360 NCAA Football 08 for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 NCAA Football 09 for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 NCAA Football 10 for PlayStation 2 NFL Head Coach 09 for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 NHL 08 for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 NHL 09 for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 Tiger Woods PGA Tour 09 for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 UEFA Euro 2008 for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 2010 FIFA World Cup for PlayStation Portable and Wii 2010 FIFA World Cup Demo for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360
Closing March 1
Tiger Woods PGA Tour 09 for Wii
Don't go thinking anyone will miss these titles, as EA revealed that the games which would be shut down "represent roughly 1 percent of all peak online players across all EA titles.”
"Despite some people's perception," the company added, "there is a lot of behind-the-scenes work involved with keeping these older 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."
Are you among the players of the aforementioned games or did you shelf them for newer versions with more features and enhanced systems?