Do online games expire eventually?

[bhampton]

Hi,

Do online portions of games just get shut off at some point?

I'm not much of a gamer but there are some games I love.

One such game was the NFL2Kx series. I loved 2K1 on the Dreamcast and bought 2K3 recently for the Ps2 for $0.99 at Gamestop which I use on my PS3. (I never had a PS or PS2.)

Now,... a pal came over and was very impressed with NFL2K3 on the Ps3 and went to Gamestop with his $0.99 and picked up a copy hoping we could play together online.

Well,... The authentication servers don't respond when we try to sign up.

Do online portions of games just get shut off at some point?


Thanks and Good Luck,

Brian

[helli3yte]

everything must come to an end someday

[CptGreedle]

any game you buy on the PS3 will last you as long as you have the PS3. They don't require anything else. Anything you pay for annually or monthly will last till either you stop paying or they stop supporting it.
The way I see it, games like these will last as long as they can, which usually is long enough for you to loose interest in it before then.

Oh.. except those sports games. They want you to buy the latest version so they forcefully stop supporting the last one after a year or so to force you to spend more money! Evil.

[Icemage]

Originally Posted by bhampton

Do online portions of games just get shut off at some point?

Yes, but the duration depends on the game and the intent of the publisher/developer.

Electronic Arts, is the biggest offender, and tends to shut down online servers for their sports games within a relatively short timespan.

For instance:
http://news.filefront.com/electronic...sports-titles/

Blizzard Entertainment, on the other hand, still maintains their Battle.Net servers for every single game they've ever released, from Warcraft II to Diablo, well over a decade after those games were released.

The xxx2Kx games are produced by 2K Sports, and while I'm not 100% sure, I think most, if not all of their games are still supported by their online servers.

EDIT: It occurs to me that you may not have done the necessary setup to allow online play for PS2 games on your PS3.

See this thread for information on how to set up a PS2 Virtual Memory Card slot on your PS3 and set up the PS2 virtual connection data.

http://www.absolute-playstation.com/...ation-3-a.html

Hope this helps!

[ADRiiAN`]

Here's an article from PSU.com

http://www.psu.com/SCEA-to-shut-down...0003297-p0.php

Its about SCEA shutting down old PS2 & PSP Online servers.

All good things must come to an end.

[un4gvn94538]

games off of the psn you buy and download like pain will stay for the duration of your ps3, online like cod4 depends on the game makers.

[solskei]

They don't really wanna spend money on servers for the 500 people that wanna play that old game from time to time. Try system linking it.

[CptGreedle]

I have been playing City of Heros for several years now, and it is still going strong. I might change over to another game in the future, but for now this is a great MMO for me and there is no sign of it closing its doors.
Many of these pay-to-play games last a long time since they have the income to keep adding content, and it costs less to add content to an existing infrastructure than to try to make a brand new game.
Several free ones last a long time since they have a lot of ads, however I have too often ran into different games that have opened and closed their doors too often or too soon since the ads are not enough or the politics of a free online game is different.
Console games are a different matter altogether. For older PS games that have online content, they keep these open as long as they can justify it. They don't get paid to keep the servers up since there is no annual/monthly fee, so then their user-base drops too low, they drop the server and dedicate it elsewhere. Sport games often are only open for a year or 2 and are then closed. This is to force the gamers to go out and buy the latest edition of the game for the new season. So if you bought it last year and never/rarely played it... tough luck cause they don't care. (I hate sports video games... if you want to play a sports game, just go outside and play the sport!)
There really are tons of new online game that use all different methods of income (from ads to pay-for-upgrades to annual/monthly fees to lifetime fee, etc.), so how long they last is really up to how many players they have and how much they can justify keeping their servers open.
In most cases, expect to be bored with the game before it ends.

[blu-rayfan101]

Yah, It really depends on how popular and funding it gets. If 2 people are playing it and it is really old and hard to keep up then they will close it. But if thousands of people play it they probably won't close it.

[kingofgrills]

Online games get shut down all the time. More recently, within the last couple of years, online service shutdown is coming sooner as opposed to later. As has been previously posted, EA is a huge offender when it comes to shutting servers down. They want to spend as little time and money as possible servicing previously released stuff, and they want to focus their efforts, and buyers' efforts, on the next Madden game, or whatever.

Ideally, games would be developed more along the lines of the PC model, allowing gamers to host games and servers. That would allow games to be online indefinitely if someone is willing to host it. Unfortunately, most console makers and publishers prefer maintaining control over all aspects of the game. Microsoft doesn't support any online gaming or services for 360 that don't adhere to Live standards and is hosted by MS. Sony has been much more accomodating than MS by allowing developers to host their games or use Sony's online tools. That flexibility may narrow a bit with Home coming, but I think Sony will build Home with most of the same flexibility. That would allow a developer to use their online tools and services but also interface with Home. That sort of flexibility gives Sony the advantage over Microsoft in the eyes of developers. I think seeing Unreal Tournament 3 on PS3 with Sony enabled user mods is a good example of this.

[bhampton]

Well,

Ok then. Guess they should put an expiration date on games online abilities.

I'm not to upset about it,.. the game was only $0.99 and it's a great game anyway.

Interesting to note though.....

Thanks,

-Brian