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[IbizaPocholo]

EA has pulled five Need for Speed games from sale and will be shutting down their servers | VGC

The titles are being delisted with little to no notice…

www.videogameschronicle.com

In a post on the Need for Speed Reddit, a member of the development team announced that “as of May 31”, the following titles would be removed from all digital stores:

• Need for Speed Carbon
• Need for Speed Undercover
• Need for Speed Shift
• Need for Speed Shift 2: Unleashed
• Need for Speed The Run

The in-game stores featured in each store are also being closed today, and the online servers will then be turned off on August 31.

From that point on, the games will still be playable offline as single-player titles, but since they are now no longer available to buy online, this will only be possible if players managed to buy the games before they were delisted, or have a physical copy. Players who have digital-only systems and haven’t bought the games yet will have no way of playing them.

At the time of writing, all five games appear to have been removed from the Xbox and PlayStation stores, but are still on Steam.

“Decisions to retire games are never made easy, but we are now shifting gears to focus on the future of Need for Speed,” reads the Reddit post.

“The development teams and operational staff have put a lot of time and passion into the development, creation, release and upkeep of the game over the years, and we love to see you play.

“But the number of players has come to a point where it’s no longer feasible to continue the work behind the scenes required to keep Need for Speed Carbon, Need for Speed Undercover, Need for Speed Shift, Need for Speed Shift 2: Unleashed and Need for Speed The Run up and running.”

 

[ArtemisClydeFrog]

“But the number of players has come to a point where it’s no longer feasible to continue the work behind the scenes required to keep Need for Speed Carbon, Need for Speed Undercover, Need for Speed Shift, Need for Speed Shift 2: Unleashed and Need for Speed The Run up and running.”

Sucks for those players, and I wonder the total amount EA is spending on keeping these games online. Corporations are people too though and financially EA is going through an extremely rough time.

 

[Strider Highwind]

A 'remastered' version of each game will appear for a premium price and those players will have to rebuy it lol

 

[ReBurn]

TIL people still play 10-15 year old Need for Speed games online. Well, did anyway.

 

[Kilau]

Ok but why delist them? Is it licensed music/cars crap again?

 

[KuraiShidosha]

A 'remastered' version of each game will appear for a premium price and those players will have to rebuy it lol

Don't forget somehow the "remasters" will have bugs and downgrades not present in the original versions thereby making them inferior to anyone who actually cares about that.

 

[Fox Mulder]

It’s a shock these were even still up. The two Shift games are old SMS games and I could see them shitting out a fast Undercover, The Run, or Carbon remaster this year with the next Criterion NFS being delayed.

 

[Excess]

Ok but why delist them? Is it licensed music/cars crap again?

Yeah, this I don't understand.

What sort of overhead is required to continue selling a game digitally?

 

[Shmunter]

Yeah, this I don't understand.

What sort of overhead is required to continue selling a game digitally?

The games functionality will be gutted. Selling it in such a state is bad PR.

 

[Excess]

The games functionality will be gutted. Selling it in such a state is bad PR.

Not that I doubt that EA couldn't care less about the functionality of 10-year old games, as this is same company that has a reputation of releasing half-baked games as new, but again, what does it cost them? If anything, a sale is still a sale, regardless of how old the game is.

 

[SafeOrAlone]

Spoiler

 

[wipeout364]

I have to wonder if it isn’t related to licensing issues as well, those games are getting pretty old and their sales may not justify paying for a new licensing agreement if their cars or music is coming due. I just noticed shift 2 and the run are both 10 years old this year.

 

[Max_Po]

They all sucketh !!!

No quality loss...

 

[Zeroing]

Oh damn I am glad that EA online DRM never caught up… also for a company who likes to shove online into everything they sure seem
Disconnected!

 

[Northeastmonk]

The last time I remember this series making a name for itself was with Underground. Too bad these games don’t stick for the long ride. I own Undercover, but the rest I just outright ignored. NFS is a cool, long running series, but it never feels like it sells itself based on what it use to with Hot Pursuit.

 

[Kilau]

 

[MastaKiiLA]

These games are ooooooooold. This shouldn't matter to anyone.

 

[wvnative]

These games are ooooooooold. This shouldn't matter to anyone.

Are you for real?

 

[scoobidoo112]

Are you for real?

Were you not aware? We all had a meeting this morning and decided that, from now on, he's going to decide what should or should not matter to anyone. I'll make sure you get the invite next time.

 

[Birdo]

I have to actually commend EA for keeping them up for so long. They must have kept renewing the licences.

Sony and MS kill racing games after just a few years (Forza, DriveClub, GT)

 

[stn]

I wish they gave more of a heads-up for announcements such as these. That said, its my understanding that those games, apart from Shift 1 and 2, are pretty shitty.

 

[wvnative]

Were you not aware? We all had a meeting this morning and decided that, from now on, he's going to decide what should or should not matter to anyone. I'll make sure you get the invite next time.

Must have gone to my spam folder XD

 

[wvnative]

I wish they gave more of a heads-up for announcements such as these. That said, its my understanding that those games, apart from Shift 1 and 2, are pretty shitty.

Carbon and The Run I personally like. But even if the rest are bad, it's pretty bad there was no warning. People may want to still check all these games out one day.

 

[baphomet]

Are you for real?

Shift is an earlier 360 game. Carbon is a fucking PS2 game. Why it's been online until now is more of a question than why they're shutting it down now.

 

[mckmas8808]

And some people still want an all digital future in gaming. HAHAHA!!!

 

[baphomet]

And some people still want an all digital future in gaming. HAHAHA!!!

You can still buy the physical version of all of these if you'd like.

 

[Fake]

tHe FuTuRe!!!

 

[Shakka43]

They just took NFS: Undercover off as I was about to check out. It was marked as 4.99 but now the pricing is gone.

 

[MastaKiiLA]

Are you for real?

Yes. Were you too busy the past 10-15 years to play these games? Even Rip Van Winkle has moved on to something newer.

 

[Dust-by-Monday]

Hey, lets go for an all digital future!

SMH.

 

[Dust-by-Monday]

You can still buy the physical version of all of these if you'd like.

Not when physical is not a thing anymore. did you read what he said??

 

[Orta]

Isn't Hot Pursuit pretty much the only good NFS game ever made anyway?

 

[baphomet]

Not when physical is not a thing anymore. did you read what he said??

These games are up to 15 years old.

It's as fucking stupid as saying something about an all digital future if Nintendo were to pull the nes Super Mario Bros off Nintendo Online.

 

[mckmas8808]

You can still buy the physical version of all of these if you'd like.

My point was, what if there wasn't a physical version of these made. Then what?......

 

[baphomet]

My point was, what if there wasn't a physical version of these made. Then what?......

I'm completely against all digital, it just doesn't have anything to do with these games.

 

[Dust-by-Monday]

I'm completely against all digital, it just doesn't have anything to do with these games.

His comment was about the future of ALL DIGITAL and if something like this were to happen in the future, there wouldn't be any physical copies to buy. Get it now?

 

[mckmas8808]

His comment was about the future of ALL DIGITAL and if something like this were to happen in the future, there wouldn't be any physical copies to buy. Get it now?

100% EXACTLY THIS!

 

[Unk Adams]

This is why you don't want an all digital future. Carbon is hardly a bad game, it's far better than any of the NFS games of this generation. I can't even buy another great racing game from an entirely different company (Outrun Online Arcade) because it's been delisted. If a physical copy existed this wouldn't be a problem, now it's literally impossible for me and others to play if we want to get into it now.

 

[wvnative]

Yes. Were you too busy the past 10-15 years to play these games? Even Rip Van Winkle has moved on to something newer.

Someone may want to check these out one day. There will always be people who want to experience older games.

 

[xrnzaaas]

Well they held on for quite long compared to something like Forza games which get delisted very quickly. Shift 1 and 2 are among the best NfS games ever made for me. They were a good attempt to make NfS games more sim like and it's a shame EA never tried that again with future games (even as NfS "spin-offs") and just stayed with the full arcade route.

 

[Andodalf]

Someone may want to check these out one day. There will always be people who want to experience older games.

If people were trying to play these games even in like the triple digits, they wouldn’t be getting delisted

 

[wvnative]

If people were trying to play these games even in like the triple digits, they wouldn’t be getting delisted

Car licenses expire as do music licenses, that's probably the main reason.

I'm not mad they are delisted, I understand why even if I don't like it, just don't like it when people say "no one cares". I am very passionite about game preservation and such comments rub me the wrong way.

 

[Andodalf]

Car licenses expire as do music licenses, that's probably the main reason.

I'm not mad they are delisted, I understand why even if I don't like it, just don't like it when people say "no one cares". I am very passionite about game preservation and such comments rub me the wrong way.

It just doesn’t make sense for companies keep paying for games like this to exist for some few people. If these games were physical only then they would’ve had their online shut down long ago. Them having other options expanded their life. They had the best case scenario already. And you can still play with physical copies, which would be the only way with no digital in the first place!

 

[NintendosBooger]

Car licenses expire as do music licenses, that's probably the main reason.

I'm not mad they are delisted, I understand why even if I don't like it, just don't like it when people say "no one cares". I am very passionite about game preservation and such comments rub me the wrong way.

Agreed

 

[IDKFA]

And some people still want an all digital future in gaming. HAHAHA!!!

I do. In fact, I'm hoping for a streaming/subscription only model in the future. Far more convenient and a lot cheaper. Buying games is an outdated concept that I can't wait to see the back of.

 

[MastaKiiLA]

Someone may want to check these out one day. There will always be people who want to experience older games.

Well, they can learn the facts of life the hard way then. Nothing lasts forever.

 

[EverydayBeast]

Loved hearing that intro

 

[Paperboy]

Why would EA pull these games from the online stores without a prior announcement and the opportunity to earn some final sales? Have they finally stopped loving money?

 

[Fox Mulder]

Why would EA pull these games from the online stores without a prior announcement and the opportunity to earn some final sales? Have they finally stopped loving money?

they probably just don’t give a shit. Some warning would just amount in a couple thousand sales of these old games. They still closed Ghost Games after Heat probably sold at least a couple million.