EA Pulls Online Support for Facebreaker and Other Metacritic Winners
In what can only be described as devastating for the legions of European Nascar 09 fans and ardent competitors of the genre rocking Facebreaker, EA has announced that it is dropping online support for a swathe of decrepid sports titles come February 2nd. Utilising their own dedicated servers for all online play, EA retain the right to cease network support for all internet enabled titles in their burgeoning canon.
Here, in what seems, at least personally, a perfectly reasonable business decision given that they’ve fulfilled all contractual obligation to the consumer for well over a year, support for critically acclaimed classics like the PSP edition of NBA 07 and the PC’s Madden 08 have been savagely shot down. Even the company’s harshest detractors are desperately torn between feeling follow-suit upset and sporting bemused, largely incredulous expressions tinged with an unspoken verbal motif of “what, people still play these games?”.
While the sudden drop of any online support is certainly disturbing if the games were popular and played regularly, I suspect that the current online population of any of the listed titles is reasonably low. The inclusion of current generation games is certainly jarring in the wake of a list populated mainly by PlayStation 2 titles, but aside from 360 achievements about to enter permanent, unlockable stasis, the loss of live opponents in NBA Street seems reasonably palateable for most individuals.
For those champing fingers over the potential loss of human competitors in March Madness 07, the full list is published below:
February 2, 2010 Online Service Shutdown
UEFA Champions League 07 PC and x360
Facebreaker x360 and PS3
Fantasy Football 09 x360 and PS3
FIFA 07 PSP, PS2, PC
Fight Night Round 3 PS2
Madden 08 Wii
Madden 08 PC
Madden 09 Xbox1
Madden 09 Wii and PSP
March Madness 07 x360
NBA 07 PSP, x360
NBA 08 PS2, PSP, Wii
NBA 09 Wii – Europe only
NBA Street (2007) PS3 and x360
NCAA Football 08 PS2
NCAA Football 09 PS2
NASCAR 08 PS2
NASCAR 09 PS2
NASCAR 09 PS3 and x360 – Europe Only
NFL Tour PS3 and x360
NHL 07 PSP and x360
NHL 08 PC
Tiger Woods 07 PC
Madden 09 x360 and PS3
Madden 07 Xbox 360
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Tags: EA, live, online, outrage, sarcasm, sports
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Madden 09 seems a bit harsh.
@superd1984: The ’09s are indeed the only ones which should raise eyebrows, however, carrying an 09 tagline they would have been launched in fall 2008 meaning that they’ve recieved well over a year’s support.
It’s a dickish move in a way, but I can’t imagine they’ve been given the chop for much reason other than extremely niche existent following.