EA Dropping Server Support for Older Games

[DonRSD]

Originally Posted by Almadacr

So why in the hell they put in the back " Enjoy the online play with thousands of gamer`s " , this is about principle , thing that EA dosen`t have , instead what they should do is TO DO BETTER GAMES , i toke them to 4 months to acknowledged a problem on the FIFA 11 , and 2 months on the NHL 11 , do you really believe that this company is interested in what you think ???? No they aren`t , just check the EA forums and you would know what i mean

im still bitter ea bought the nfl license. i never played madden from 9-9-99 (the day i bought my dreamcast) until madden 06 came out and i had no other option.

as far as this years madden, im inclined to buy USED and just pay $10 for the online pass.
$10 > $60 ea will get from me

[MaCruz]

Doesn't affect me one bit. Only EA game I play is Madden. Once the new game releases I never go back to the previous game.

[DaleDark]

Originally Posted by SleeperAgent

They love to justify the price of a $60 retail game with stuff like development and SERVERS yet they shut them down when people still want to play. There should be a law requiring them to buy back any game they shut the server down for (at current market price, a lot under $10). I mean I feel bad for kids who are behind the release date curve and get these games later on used or handed down and then can't play half of them.

....or send out 20% off coupons to active users of the games they are turning off. The fact is, they have no business charging $60 for a game using virtually the same game engine as the year before, with new player skins in the first place, but this is EA we're talking about.....

[JC_20010]

Originally Posted by MaCruz

Doesn't affect me one bit. Only EA game I play is Madden. Once the new game releases I never go back to the previous game.

I still have NBA LIVE 10, and i play it every once in a while online. Im glad they arent shutting those servers down

[Xerios]

Originally Posted by partridge

But for those titles EA are saying that less than 1% of the games life time peak audience is still playing online, there has to be a cut off point sooner or later and perhaps because many of EA's games are annual releases, the older ones die out sooner than a lot of other franchises that tend to have two year gaps between releases?

It would stupid of them to maintain a server for a game with hardly anyone on it while a new game suffers online congestion; better to retire the old game and put the server to good use on a new title.

Just sayin'...

most people would support this.... if it were a true noticeable difference. Because they shutdown 10 servers of old games does not mean i will see a noticeable difference in BETTER gameplay in Need For Speed, Madden or Crysis 2...

Hell id even accept retiring physical servers and leaving the MP in old games left up to Peer to Peer connections. Just create a low rent VM server to host the stats. You can fit 30+ VM's on a $9,000 Dell server with minimal licensing cost...

[kefrank]

Originally Posted by Trailbreaker77

Did they already drop Orange Box support?

I'm not sure. The last couple of times I tried to play TF2, I was able to connect, but play was so choppy and slow that it was nearly impossible. It was definitely a server issue, because my brother-in-law had exactly the same problem and there were very few people playing, indicating that everyone was seeing the problem. The frustrating thing is that TF2 is only an online multiplayer game, so without viable servers, there is no TF2 on the PS3 period. I knew it would end someday, and maybe that time is finally here.

[dereksworl]

Originally Posted by Xerios

Because they shutdown 10 servers of old games does not mean i will see a noticeable difference in BETTER gameplay in Need For Speed, Madden or Crysis 2...

tsss, dont get me started on this one

[Groo The Perverted]

Does anyone know if they plan on dropping servers for Burnout Paradise?

I still need to do all the 500 online challenge things to get that damn diamond car.

[Galactus]

Originally Posted by Groo The Perverted

Does anyone know if they plan on dropping servers for Burnout Paradise?

I still need to do all the 500 online challenge things to get that damn diamond car.

They freakin better not I still have to get the 10 freeburn challenges on big surf island and 10 timed challenges trophies.

[BirdManJr]

this is happening to alot of games...nba 2k10 theres 2 trophies you cant get now...no matter what..and nba 2k11 theres 2 trophies you cant get EVER...due to not being able to share a file and playing a nba today game..
You can still play ranked matches online..but thats it none of the other stuff.

so its not just ea doing this...seems to be mostly sports games..just because some people stay playing nba live 08 or nba2k8 and its 2011.

[Another_Dude]

Originally Posted by DaleDark

....or send out 20% off coupons to active users of the games they are turning off. The fact is, they have no business charging $60 for a game using virtually the same game engine as the year before, with new player skins in the first place, but this is EA we're talking about.....

Its their company and their product, they can market and price it however they would like. If the consumers are consuming then they're doing something right.

[dereksworl]

Originally Posted by BirdManJr

this is happening to alot of games...nba 2k10 theres 2 trophies you cant get now...no matter what..and nba 2k11 theres 2 trophies you cant get EVER...due to not being able to share a file and playing a nba today game..
You can still play ranked matches online..but thats it none of the other stuff.

so its not just ea doing this...seems to be mostly sports games..just because some people stay playing nba live 08 or nba2k8 and its 2011.

This is the downside of having trophies that have an online play requirement. publishers would literally have to keep the server for a game up forever otherwise they're going to be shafting players on the platinum trophy somewhere down the line. personally i dont think trophies should have an online req unless its an online only game. if you're going to have online trophies just make them optional(not req for the platinum).

[BirdManJr]

Think of the call of duty games tho...you can still go online and play call of duty 2 and 3...and those games are so old...yet they pull the plug on nba 2k11 other than playing ranked online....you cant share files...or get the trophy for nba today games....granted when the season is over there is no more nba today games and they reset the rosters back to when the game was released....they should at least leave the rosters as they was at the end of the season....and either leave the last nba today match ups up so people can get the trophy...or put random games up...i mean its still 2011 and they already cut all of that out...its not like these companies dont make millions of dollars...think they could afford to keep there games up and running without interfering with new titles....

[jamclaur]

Originally Posted by Groo The Perverted

Does anyone know if they plan on dropping servers for Burnout Paradise?

I still need to do all the 500 online challenge things to get that damn diamond car.

If they do i'll never buy another EA game. I JUST bought the DLC like a week ago when it was on sell in the store.

I'd assume the sell meant that they wont drop it for at least a year. I don't think they'd try to get more of a user base to just drop it soon after.

[Groo The Perverted]

Originally Posted by jamclaur

If they do i'll never buy another EA game. I JUST bought the DLC like a week ago when it was on sell in the store.

I'd assume the sell meant that they wont drop it for at least a year. I don't think they'd try to get more of a user base to just drop it soon after.

I haven't played online in a LONG time with BP, but I need to get back and do those challenges.....

I think there's a few games that will probably never have their servers shut down. Uncharted 2 and the Little Big Planet ones.

I'd like to think BP will also be one that will always be up.

That said, BP is from like late 2008 or early 2009. So it's not a recent game. lol

[Stephie_is_a_dork]

As far as the annual sports games go, there's a reason I don't buy them. Okay, a couple reasons. The first is because I'm not into sports games, but if I was, I still wouldn't pay $60 EVERY year for games that show very little improvement over the previous version and only play it for 1 year. If I liked sports games in the first place, I'd probably buy the new one every other year, unless they REALLY did an overhaul on the engine or much improved the UI or something. If all they do is add new players and a few token changes just so they can say something is new and different, it really shouldn't be $60 each year. Sounds more like it could be a $15 PSN game to me. Pay $15, play for 1 year, delete.

To people who buy Madden every year...do you also get suckered into buying a new iPod/iPad/iPhone when there's a new model every 4 months?

Originally Posted by Groo The Perverted

Does anyone know if they plan on dropping servers for Burnout Paradise?

I still need to do all the 500 online challenge things to get that damn diamond car.

Originally Posted by V3NOM

They freakin better not I still have to get the 10 freeburn challenges on big surf island and 10 timed challenges trophies.

Originally Posted by jamclaur

If they do i'll never buy another EA game. I JUST bought the DLC like a week ago when it was on sell in the store.

I'd assume the sell meant that they wont drop it for at least a year. I don't think they'd try to get more of a user base to just drop it soon after.

Originally Posted by Groo The Perverted

I haven't played online in a LONG time with BP, but I need to get back and do those challenges.....

I think there's a few games that will probably never have their servers shut down. Uncharted 2 and the Little Big Planet ones.

I'd like to think BP will also be one that will always be up.

That said, BP is from like late 2008 or early 2009. So it's not a recent game. lol

Considering the fact that EU PS+ got Burnout FREE after the outage and we're getting heavily discounted DLC bundles here, I don't think they'll drop it too soon. Whether they'll wait a whole year might be a tough call. I still usually see at least a few hundred people playing it though, even during the crazy late hours I play.

[Groo The Perverted]

I agree with you stephie on your issues with sports games.

I only play the football ones, and I don't like Madden because they link you playing on All-Pro with getting trophies. Do not like. Because I suck.

I always play NCAA on Freshmen level and I rock. If I move it up one to varsity, I'm constantly dropping CLEARLY OPEN passes, can't run for shit. So I don't know. It's either Rock out with my Groo out, or just get stomped every time.

The fact that NCAA doesn't do that with the trophies means it constantly gets my money. Now I don't buy them new though.

Shit, I JUST got my copy of NCAA 11 today in the mail, and they released 2012 this week.

There isn't enough improvement for me in the game, yet they keep messing with the interface and menus to make this shit look like something out of a Minority Report sequel. Shit's crazy.

I told someone on Twitter that I was wondering whether for NCAA12 I'd need some type of VR glasses to navigate through the menus. But that's just me.

Madden's the worst with not improving their games though. But why should they spend money to improve it when everyone will buy it every single year no doubt.

They'd be stupid to throw money away to improve a product while critics may ***** about it, the consumers will still rush out and throw money away to get it.

But my main beef with Madden is how the very first Madden I ever played was 2005 with Ray Lewis on the cover. (side note: I cut myself opening the package...ironic, don't you think?)

So they had a mini-game in there that I LOVED called Two Minute Drill. You'd basically lead your team down the field and score as many times as possible in 2 minutes, starting from your own 20 I think.

Next year they replace that with some stupid ass QB Drills thing, and then the next year they replace THAT with something else stupid.

i played that damn 2 minute drill more than the actual game. That was the beginning of the end for me and Madden.

I didn't even like the Raiders.

[Wingman1977]

People should already know that this come with the territory when you have games that run on dedicated servers.

[Pelican170]

Wow, wtf! Im glad i saw this as I was about to go buy an older version of tiger woods to play online. Looks like in order to get about 2-3 years of online play, you have to buy the new one. Greedy b*stards!!! For games that come out every year like Tiger, Madden.... they should just have yearly updates or a subscription or something. $60 for minor changes year to year is a scam!!!