i mean these titles don't really have addicting single player modes, the multiplayer is what drives the competitive nature of the gamer.

and you're ripping it away forcing the user to buy a new game, which probably has even more holes at EA hasn't released a solid game this year, just two years later?

horse crap

So true..that is BS. Those games thrive on online play...

Is this even legal?

Not surprised, they have done this before. Remember Motor City Online. It was online only so when EA terminated its online support everyones store bought copies were effectively turned into coasters.

never been an EA fan... with these it seems that I will never be

Not sure, but I believe some of these games can still be found on some store selves. They're advertised on the box as having online play, therefore after these changes go into effect wouldn't it mean that it's essentially false advertising?

If you read the fine print it is very legal for them to do this. It is very stupid of them, but is legal.

Next will be their other online games such as BFME series & CnC series... oh wait they already cut most of the CnC series.

EA needs to take a approcah like Blizzard... make a good game and support it for life :)

Guess it's gonna be split screen multiplayer for me then...

Also its no suprise, read the box or the EULA and its plain as day the EA can at any time pull online support for any title they choose. Thats one of the reasons that I don't buy many EA games.

Since you agreed to their terms you don't have a whole lot of ground to stand on when they kill the servers. Though im sure their are or will be some homebrew server spoofs available if anyone really cared.

How can they shut off online support for the 360 titles? Those games are hosted through Xbox Live. Unless Microsoft only allows them to be played as long as the developer pays some kind of fee and EA is going to stop paying. I don't really know how developers get their game on Live but I assumed they just finished the code, Microsoft incorporated it into the network, and mine and yours subscription fees paid for all the servers.

I don't play any of the aforementioned games but I do think its crap that they're cutting off the games support. I could understand like 2002-2003 titles but not ones just released 2 years ago.

what if you like to buy older games in the store because of the reduced price. I'm sure the box still says online play available. Wont it be a surprise to find otherwise. Sounds like false advertising.

Many of those titles are for the XBox 360. That means many of these games have only been on the market at most 2 years.

I can't believe they are pulling support for this already. I don't think I would buy an EA game anymore.

What happened to the good old days that you would get public open game servers? Do these exist anymore?

And you all can cry about "false advertising" all you want. EA doesn't give a damn. Like many corporations, they're "above the law" :-(

I am definitely not seeking a job in the industry with them now...

I say don't buy EA games.

They want their customers to buy new sports games for $50 every year.

That is why they were scared to death when Sega started making football games for $20 and bought the NFL license to eliminate Sega as competition.

They are a greedy giant corporation that pays their software programmers shit, has them work 60 - 80 hours a week because it is always crunch time there.

Boycott EA, refuse to buy their games. The company doesn't care about its customers or its employees.

Past time to stop giving them the only thing they care about, our money.

Most gamers will buy the next year game anyways. They always have...

They should release the server software so people can run their own servers. In fact it should come on the disk when you buy the game. They are so greedy.... wait till the day where when you buy a game or video and you only get so many plays before it stops working. Its things like this that makes video/software piracy more appealing.

Had I known about this earlier, I would never have bought CnC3. It was sort of expected that games that don't play on XP computers are removed from online play eventualy, ala Red Alert, Tiberium Sun, etc, but knowing that my 50 dollar CnC3 will bite the dust some time in 2 years is quite disheartening. I hated EA for a long time for their pathetic game development and their anemic support, but I can say this with ABSOLUTE certainty right now. I will NEVER buy another EA game. EVER. If you provide less support than Microsoft for your products, you don't get my hard earned money.

I haven't really looked into EA's policies on this but IMO they need to be up front with their customers on what they will provide in the way of online game support. I'm thinking something along the lines of 3 years of online play after the game's release date at no additional cost. After that time period I wouldn't mind if they implemented a fee-based system, say USD$5-$10/month for those that want to continue to use their game servers for games older than 3 years.

Not a happy shopper!!!

that is why I want certain company to broke, some games a so bad developed that they should pay us like a beta tester, as those games may affect us emotionally bad and should compensate us for the frustration :P

EA is not alone with this stupid move, PES5 online play has been removed at around march/april this year, by Konami. I remember people commending the move as "they probably needed the server space". However, their servers act as nothing more than a mere IRC chat server, *games are being hosted on the player side*, so the servers just acted as a meeting space, unlike online FPS games.

People are still playing Starcraft. I like Blizzard.

The best that could ever happen for EA games is for people to stand up and be counted, if every major gaming site or news site got there members to stand up and so NO they have gone to far.

How ever EA has always abused the people who buy their games i am a big Generals fan i love RTS and it would take anyone 10 mins to run an update to stop cheaters but EA says fuck it who cares we dont.

I hope EA burns for this

Look at Valve and Steam, you can still join good old Half Life Deathmatch servers. The original HL is ancient, and that's still running fine.

EA are just thinking about things money-wise, so they think they're saving money by shutting down these services, but that's killing people's trust in EA, causing them to not buy their games any more. If you ask me, it's the road to bankruptcy, not saving money.

Consoles are supposed to have a 5 year life span. So the games on them should as well. When the next system is set to launch then start discontinuing service startng with the earliest games and moving on to the other games as the new console gets it's installed base up.

I have to say I am surprised by the negative feedback from this article. Perhaps EA's actions actually WILL have consequences in terms of customer loyalty. To think that C&C Generals would someday not have online play will keep me up at night. (Except that I think a $5 fee per month would also suffice if it kept the servers up.)

dang ea has really done it, makes you wounder why people bother to support a game company that is very very greedy.

And secondly I don't believe in having to pay a online subscription service just to play a game that should be free period. Especially when time
is not on your side.

so that means for every game you buy you have to subscribe to use their online services too?. I believe in buying a game that you like thats ok.
but to subscribe to play online I pass on that one sorry.

EA has always done this and always will.Like Losus said about MCO people paid for the game itself and paid a monthly fee and when they decided they weren't making a big enough profit they axed the servers and the game was no longer playable.They bought up the Nascar liscence and Ruined the integrity of the racing series forcing Papyrus out of the game and making their own lousy version.EA is a big publisher looking for big bux.Sounds like EA is in bed with Sony.Only 360 games losing servers?Not PS2 or PS3 games?What is that about?Come on MS you have the bux to tangle!

And in PS Network Sony host the games. I don´t remember where I readed about this.

geez, how bout you guys buy some new games instead of worrying about how we will no longer know who's tops in the world at a two year old games that come out with new editions every year. Games are continually improved, madden 06 is not the madden to end all maddens, that's why it's 4.99 in the stores now, cause no one should want it any longer. Even if a game had really good gameplay or was well rounded one year mastering an edition that people feel is not as user friendly will make you a better player in the end.

I used to be an EA fan way back in the day (we're talking circa Road Rash 2).. been playing their games off and on.. oh and let's not forget the NFS series with it's ups and downs.. some fun racing there.. and now they are removing online support/play for some of their console games released in the past 2 years?? wtf EA? I can imagine some of the 2k6 sports fans are going to have a rude awakening.

EA has a lot to learn about the industry. Sometimes enduser support (read: customer support) goes farther than just having a support line to call ;P Value added services for your products will always help.

die in a fire, EA.

Thats not the point the issue is the future. Is it going to become where you have to pay to play online which was once free i mean cmon buying a game is one thing but to "subscribe to play a game" it's crazy. And thats why pc gaming should thrive because its a open platform you host the game players join = happy gaming which justify the cost of PC gaming in the end. Consoles are nothing more than money making machines and taking away your rights to game how you want to game while having content shoved down your throats lol. I personally prefer to pay more if freedom returns the favor
gotta love those Lan parties =P

PS EA has lost most of its fanbase consumers

EA insists on having their own network and own servers. While most XBL games do not actually take place on "servers", the XBL system is a conduit that facilitates finding games. That's why original Xbox games that are six years old are still perfectly playable over XBL, and will continue to be for the foreseeable future.

But EA doesn't want to play ball. They want to control more of the experience... whatever that means. All it means to me is that when I play an EA game online, I have to sign up for a special EA account and agree to more legal mumbo jumbo. The solution is pretty simple though. I have very very few EA Xbox games and certainly no sports titles.

i think EA dont care even older games have too many or too little players playing online, they just want you to but new games so they can make bucks.

I mean the discontinued games are obsolete, EA doesn't make or sell them any more. They have replaced them with new versions, and most customers would be screaming about whatta buncha @#$% they were for not upgrading if they hadn't.

Sure, you can still buy them, but they are $5 and under at my local stores for a reason. Supporting online gaming costs a lot more than most of you seem to think. How much server time do you think your $49.99 really paid for?

If they spend money trying to keep it up for versions that generate zero revenue they will eventually lose money on all their games and go broke. It's a hard world folks.

I am baffled by such comments..

First: Two years is way too little for games to be abandoned for online play.
Second: I am still playing battlefield 1942 at times (ironically distributed by EA), and I remember its best and most active times were between first and third year. More people bought 1942 as more mods were produced, and people started enjoying BF1942 better as their machines got faster. I can't imagine it being abandoned in its second year.
Second: People should have the right to host dedicated servers online, EA should release the server software. People might not have the right to as EA to host games, but at least let them do their thing, like the BF1942 example.
Fourth: Some games are being hosted on player side instead of a server, with servers being nothing more than a chat session with game invites, such games have an ultra-low impact on server bandwidth.

EA should just get out of the videogame business altogether. They have no loyalty to gamers anymore. I buy very few of their games anymore because I'm sick of being a beta tester for finished games. I'm tired of all the in game advertising that EA supports and this lack of service for games that I still play. Need for Speed is so much more fun online, what the hell are they thinking.

then blizzard and valve should be broke by now...

this action by EA is preposterous

Blizzard just rocks. EA sucks. I haven't bought an EA made game in years. When you package games like Ubi-Soft does with bad menu systems and so on, just so you can slap another number on it and resell it with a few tweaks...you deserve to burn. When you pull online game support after a short time, just so you can save money. You deserve to burn. When you charge $60 a game and then throw advertisements in the face of gamers to make another couple million, you deserve to burn. So why do gamers continue to support rip-off companies? I think gamers are getting wiser. Adults are gamers now too, gamers with kids. We don't forget. To companies like EA, if you want to target our kid's someday...guess what! You won't be able to, because we're the one's supplying those kids with the cash to buy the game. If we hate you, our kids won't be playing your games either. Sustainability is what it's all about, and if software companies don't start to learn that, they'll soon be out of business. Sustain our online fun, we paid for it dammit, or suffer the consequences. We may be playing video games, but don't go assumming that makes us all stupid.

JohnDoe you said it right. I buy, or allow to buy, my kids games for any system. If I don't like a company or read bad reviews about a game, I don't allow my kids to get them. I would rather buy a marginal game with GOOD/FREE support, than a good game and LOUSY support. You won't see me buying any EA games in the future, unless they change their ways.

This is the main reason why I won't buy online games. I have thought about how they keep on taking down the servers you play games on every so often, usually 2-3 years after you buy the game, which is much too soon in my opinion.

The only online game I have bought and am thinking of buying is World of Warcraft (bought the original, thinking of buying the expansion), because the people who made that game have said that they are not going to make a whole new game, they are just going to keep on adding on to the existing game for the rest of forever, basically.

I would understand that their would be disclaimers in a EULA regarding changes to Online Support but the problem is u can't read that until u buy a game and open the box, which is no use, just try and return an opened PC game box they'll laugh at you :)
just my 0.02

Y2k Sports new game is very good. They just want to force people to the new version. The new version that lack any major upgrades exp. with the Madden series.

In the business world, the online games market is relatively new. Companies still aren't convinced what product strategies are best, or even which ones will work at all.

Still, I think EA is using very poor strategy, based on an old, old mindset. They are approaching online games as a means of driving in store sales.

That is a good model for short term profits. But, in the long term it alienates potential customers who have been disappointed at the loss of playability of their older games. EA has done this before, ruining otherwise profitable franchises, and it still hasn't wisened up, partially because it has maintained profits by gobbling up still viable franchises, and partially because game fan boys are still too eager to buy the newest, shiniest games, no matter who makes them nor how long they might remain playable.

But, at some point, it does become too expensive to support a games online play. In 2015 should Blizzard still support Diablo2 if there are only 15 guys playing it? If companies were required by LAW to do so I think they would all fold up tomorrow. It's just unfeasible. Infinite support is infinitely expensive. No one can afford that.

If I were one of these companies I would publish a plan on how the 'End of Title' will be handled, so players will know what to expect. Will the game be turned off and all copies of the server software destroyed? Will the server software be made public domain? Will it be made available for purchase?

And when will this happen? Guarantee online service until 2009? As long as there are 10,000 player hours a week being purchased? And how much warning will the remaining players have?

And I'd build my software with that in mind, so that the release of server software Y to the public doesn't compromise the security of the still privately held server software Z.

*** The Good:

The game is sold for a reasonable 29.95 to 39.95. Considering some games hitting the market for 44 plus.

*** The Bad:

The yearly marathon is not worth it. There just doesn't seem to be enough umpfff to justify a new purchase. QB vision and better facial expressions aren't justifying a new game. Besides they seem to keep tweaking the game to heavy in the other direction from year to year. One year the passing is out of control (yielding an 800 a yard game average) and running game sucks. Then the next year the running game gets the boost (LOL 500 ground average, unstoppable up the gut runs. I remember doing goal line defense and still gave up a TD from the 45 insane) and the passing game sucks (having receivers drop balls wide open even screen to RB drops).

*** The Ugly:

A ploy to force all current owners to upgrade. This is the ultimate for any company to have loyal fans as well as no choice fans slotted in to buy every product that you make from year to year.

Just as microfluff has manufactured this DX10 on vista to attempt to keep vista from being windows ME and dieing a painful death before 2010.

This is why competition is needed in every aspect and you people need to give up your fan boy mentality. The majority of these companies would love to screw us. Microsoft, Intel etc and yes even AMD got big headed. In there small on top venture they failed to lower prices on their mid to upper CPU's. The price cuts have been recent, but they did not cut prices even while their products were inferior. The FX line remained very high until...

Please make a stance and keep them fighting for your dollar. Don't be sheep...

Give me a break, if you've gotten 2 years of multiplayer use out of a game for $40, maybe $50, but usually most get them for far less- you've easily gotten your monies worth. Stop being such a big group of whiney cheapskates.

Would you expect anything else of EA? They exist only to make money and they do that very well.

Hey I'm not a console guy. If it don't play on a PC I'm not interested. However, EA has consistently killed innovation in their FPS games.

1942 rocked not simply because the initial game was good but allowing the community to create Mods based on the engine was the coolest ever. I have no idea how many people bought 1942 for the Desert Combat Mod but it had to be huge.

Then we got Vietnam - which well sucked.

Battlefield 2 got us back to a good engine but Mods were next to impossible and only if you followed EA's idiotic rules. Not to mention they abandoned the title and never really released a "final debugged version".

I bought 2142 for the Sci-Fi factor. It still crashes to desktop and Mods are a thing of the past.

It's my last EA title. I need to find a new FPS from a company that wants happy customers.

Any recommendations?

Hard earned money is what we pay.

You should be careful what you claim to support. There are companies that sell there software and require a yearly license to be purchase.

JL they don't advertise it as a game lasting 2 years.

If the expense of running a server is too much for them then they should allow us to run our own servers. They wont do that because they need as many suckers as possible for the next release.

Most of their upgrades such as face and graphics changes are not big changes. And in many cases they are changes held back because from one release to the next.

Look I don't want my internet potion of my game expiring prematurely. Charging for the server after a year is an option as well. But damnit, if you collect money based on said functionality. Then make it available without forcing the purchase of a new game.

I mean you can't be serious, you must be a cr4appy employee of theirs.

To the guy that says 2 years is enough - thats sort of attitude is why we have landfills filled with all the crappy consumer goods made since the eighties. My parents got appliances in the 80's when they got married that worked well into the 90's now anything that replaces it seems to break within a couple of years.
It is not our responsibility to line the fat cats pockets and if u think it is u are a fool.
This is the reason i bought no more of the Battlefield series because i could see it coming.
I only want to get a new product if next one is vastly better. 'If aint broke don't fix it' CorpRats no this and so break it for u, and u want to give them more money, i despare really i do

Well I went and had a look at the official XBox360 site and EA game site for Tiger Woods 06 (which I still play online vs a friend from time to time). Nothing on either that says soon it will stop being supported.
So how, as a customer who may not give a crap about the latest version but like the casual online match with friends, how am I supposed to know the game I just picked up off the shelve (at a not overly reduced price here in Australia) is soon to be no longer supported online?? This may affect my purchase choice and make me consider the higher priced, more recent version (but given that only has about a year left on it I'd probably just skip the lot). Why aren't there published dates for game support upon release?? It should be mandatory for online play where the server code is not publicly available - at least there would be some guide or policy they follow - I guess now we know its roughly two years after release for EA. So everyone thinking about getting 07 versions...you have about one year online to go...makes you wonder why you'd bother. (..*goes looking for 2K alternatives*..)

Now people will be off of those dumb games and there will be more people in cool servers. Thanks EA!!!

I was all set to pick up a bunch of games for online play now that my gaming PC is fixed. I think I'll pass now.

BTW: Losers that think games should expire - I still play Descent3, which is 10 years old. I still play Tiger Woods 2002 (I would have finished it by now if I didn't reload and forget to save my gamefile). I still play NFS3 and 5. I still play CoD1. These are all much better than the newer versions.

There comes a time in a game's life when Version X is the best of everything. Version X 1 is crap because they have to "GO EXTREME" and #$%^ it all up.

I will bet money that the only reason this move is done is because the C?O's (CEO, CFO, CTO etc) are looking at their $10,000,000 Christmas bonus, and thinking "It's not enough"

Blizz still supports Diablo ONE.

No, there's no tech support. There's no blizzard chat. No more patches, hacks are rampant. There's barely anyone playing (about 1000 people 5-6 years ago).

But if I wanted to, I could fire it up with some friends, log onto b.net, and still play.

Unless it's changed in the last couple years, then SC is the next example.

EA is pulling out these games after only 2 years.. take a look at Blizzard! You can STILL log into Diablo and get full support for the servers, even if the resources may be different.. thats what you can call a dang dependable company!

Now look at this.. you spend 50-60 bucks on a brand new game, get two years out of it.. and suddenly its competitive edge i stripped out of it and your forced to play single player only.. how crappy is that O.O

Stop whyning and stop buying their games period. In awhile thei'll even offer u BJ's for an extra buck or two. The problem is the 1% wealthy spoiled brats that have an allowance 4 times bigger than my dad's paycheck... (1% x 50$ x approx 250M = still a lot of bucks for EA lol)

Welcome to capitalism! Have bucks? we care about you. You're broke? Well Just die then!

PS: stopped buying EA years ago.

Going to buy EA still...
It says in huge letters "gaming experience may change during online play" and in the EULA it says they can remove you from online play at anytime, with no warning. All gaming companies are like this, servers cost a lot of money, need to be maintained.
More people still play Diablo One then these games dumb sports games. Some of them have a max population of 100-200 players for total logged activity in a whole day, and thats being generous. I mean MAYBE I could understand people being upset if they took a good game off-line that was still populated such as if online play stopped for BF1942 with thousands strong still.

Please don't complain and act like you are being victimized some how. I say good job EA games, now put those servers on something more useful like the newest Battlefield, or something. And you know what, if you and your friends want to make your own server, or even lan the game, its not like that some how ended. These games have other multi player capabilities.
I am going to buy EA games still, and this resent thing wont even effect my buying decision. If you are boycotting I say more power to your own self destruction, because I am going to be pewing away on the next Battlefield game while your working out your tax returns.

Couldn't they allow servers to be set up outside of EA? Of course if they did that then people might not buy the newer games, so they probably won't.

A common practice now is to set up private servers. Some of them are quite big.... and free. Just a thought for those that are disappointed.

I agree with the sentiment of boycotting EA. They are the worst software giant out there. Ill never buying their games if I can help it. NFS cannt be played online til their NEW version is released. Shocking way to treat your customers. We arent all kids anymore!

No one asked EA to make it harder on themselves buy requiring MSFT let them set up their own special servers. No one asked EA to require MSFT to let them force users to sign up for EA accounts and EA passwords.

It's EA's greed that led to their own support headache. Besides leaderboards (which, seriously... is just hard drive space on database servers, and that is practically free), there is really no feature of a standard XBL game that requires "support".

XBL automatically performs the matching, but the game server is one of the Xboxes in the game. So there is nothing to support... oh... unless you are EA and you decided not to take advantage of MSFT's sweet setup.

Halo 2 still works and will for the foreseeable future. Splinter Cell Pandora Tomorrow still works. Project Gotham 2 can still be played. Maybe someday they'll shut off leaderboards, but so what, the game's core multiplayer component will still work.

Many gamers bitch (nonsensically) about needing dedicated servers to play games. MSFT proved they placed the right bet, as all that does is breed obsolete games when the servers are shut off.

EA is too greedy though... I vote with my wallet.

I love RTS games, but had to boycott EA after Generals came out. They just don't care about their games after they get your money, the servers are the worst (disconnect 90% of the time you try to play a game), and cheating is so rampant I'm lucky to get one game a night without someone cheating. Is there a patch to fix this ever? of course not, they got my $50.

i used to be a all out EA fan but now i say FUCK you EA

Even if I don't like it I can at least understand the marketing principles behind discontinuing games for which later versions exist. However, I don't understand why they would eliminate Fight Night Round 3 when there is no later version to replace it. Am I supposed to drag my xbox all over the country to fight against some of my favorite old opponents?