Support NeoGAF

[IbizaPocholo]

EA Shutting Down Servers for 4 More Games

EA confirms its plans to shut down the online services for another four of its games, including fan favorite Mirror's Edge.

gamerant.com

Electronic Arts will be shutting down the online services for four more of its games in early 2023. Electronic Arts and other companies have been shutting down online services for older games in recent years, and it doesn't look like that's going to stop at any point in the near future.

On October 20, EA will be shutting down the online services for Army of Two: The 40th Day and Army of Two: The Devil's Cartel. Then on November 9, online services for Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3, Command & Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars, and Command & Conquer 3: Kane's Wrath, and Mercenaries 2: World in Flames are all being shut down. The end of November will see Onrush servers shut down, with the game's online capabilities ending November 30.

After these shutdowns take place, the next date that fans should mark down is January 19, 2023. On that day, four more EA games will lose their online services: Gatling Gears, the original Mirror's Edge, NBA Jam: On Fire Edition, and Shank 2. According to TrueAchievements, two NBA Jam achievements will become impossible to earn after this point, so achievement hunters may want to move it to the top of their list while they still can.

 

[TVexperto]

Was hoping it would be bf2042

 

[spons]

Never heard of Onrush, but considering it's shut down relatively quickly means nobody else did either.

 

[StreetsofBeige]

Army of Two servers lasted to 2022? The two gamers who played it sure got their money's worth too.

 

[NickFire]

Was hoping it would be bf2042

Its starting to sound like an ex wives club when that game gets mentioned. And that’s too bad cause it’s morphed into a much better game than it started as. My biggest current complaint is just lack of console only cross play. Very little, if any aim assist. So hate playing against pc.

 

[StreetsofBeige]

Never heard of Onrush, but considering it's shut down relatively quickly means nobody else did either.

It was a spiritual successor to Motorstorm games made by many of the same devs that got let go by at Evolution. The game got zero marketing.

 

[Spyxos]

Was hoping it would be bf2042

Yeah, me too.

 

[StreetsofBeige]

I'm surprised BF2042 hasnt gone Game Pass yet. It's already been 11 months. Should had been on the sub plan a few months ago as most of their games hit the service after 9 months.

 

[coffinbirth]

Never heard of Onrush, but considering it's shut down relatively quickly means nobody else did either.

It's pretty good.

 

[Fahdis]

4 More Games? Whats the ones before these?

 

[Ev1L AuRoN]

Gotta love Valve, they provide the community with the server application, so anyone can host their games, if I want to play CS 1.6 today I still have plenty of options to do so.

 

[ChorizoPicozo]

Oh...it seems they are getting ready for being acquired.

 

[Agent X]

OnRush was a cool game. It was given out as a PS Plus "free" game about 2 or 3 years ago. I haven't played it for a while, so maybe I'll load it up again.

 

[The_Mike]

Should've been peer 2 peer network in these games so we wouldn't have this problem.

 

[SLB1904]

Never heard of Onrush, but considering it's shut down relatively quickly means nobody else did either.

Man game is fun honestly. I really d9nt know how people d8dnt like it.

 

[Frank Horrigan]

INb4 this gets downplayed because games are old...oops, too late.

When a company shuts down servers, they should be forced to continue allowing the game to be played on private servers/locally hosted games.

Let's all look forward to our streaming industry overlords

 

[StreetsofBeige]

Man game is fun honestly. I really d9nt know how people d8dnt like it.

Got decent reviews. But I dont think modern day gamers care much for high tempo smash and crash racers. Game also got zero marketing. I heard about it since I follow gaming news close enough and read GAF threads, but for the average gamer who isn't close to gaming there's no way they heard about this game.

 

[SLB1904]

Got decent reviews. But I dont think modern day gamers care much for high tempo smash and crash racers. Game also got zero marketing. I heard about it since I follow gaming news close enough and read GAF threads, but for the average gamer who isn't close to gaming there's no way they heard about this game.

Yeah I thought this would be one those games with at least cult following. I had so much fun with it. Man this sucks.

 

[EverydayBeast]

Some games wear out their welcome I got a list of games that had servers shut down. At this point you can play overwatch 2 for free.

 

[STARSBarry]

C&C 3 servers going bye bye is a blow, the rest (including red alert 3 which is just a shit starcraft) don't really care about.

But there is still competitive players on C&C 3 and Kanes Wrath.

 

[MarkMe2525]

Oh...it seems they are getting ready for being acquired.

This is a regular occurrence, I wouldn't look too much into it.

 

[Aenima]

Got decent reviews. But I dont think modern day gamers care much for high tempo smash and crash racers. Game also got zero marketing. I heard about it since I follow gaming news close enough and read GAF threads, but for the average gamer who isn't close to gaming there's no way they heard about this game.

Its ironic that so many ppl still cry about Sony dropping Evolution, and then they dont even know Onrush was created by the same ppl that did Driveclub and Motorstorm, actually the last game created by the studio/team. Since the Onrush flop they become just a support team for other racing games.

 

[Moses85]

It is time to shut down EA.

 

[Bridges]

Unironically upset about NBA Jam I was just playing it a few days ago!

 

[RoadHazard]

ohnoanyway.gif

 

[RoadHazard]

Its ironic that so many ppl still cry about Sony dropping Evolution, and then they dont even know Onrush was created by the same ppl that did Driveclub and Motorstorm, actually the last game created by the studio/team. Since the Onrush flop they become just a support team for other racing games.

Maybe they should have made an actual racing game. Onrush had pretty good feeling driving, but the entire idea was incredibly flawed, and IMO simply dumb. I LOVE the MotorStorm games (especially Pacific Rift), but Onrush didn't do it for me at all.

 

[.Pennywise]

Wait was C&C3 online services working at all? I recall they stopped working long time ago already

 

[Impotaku]

lol people buying EA shite deserve all they get.

 

[Black_Stride]

They better do an OnRush update that gives everyone everything since itll be impossible to unlock stuff now.

 

[WoJ]

Onrush was a ton of fun.

 

[yet_another_alt]

Anthem is still alive!

 

[M1chl]

Should've been peer 2 peer network in these games so we wouldn't have this problem.

It's mostly is, since this sort of hybrid solution, just make the tunnel for two consoles (even behind NAT) to communicate.

 

[AutumnLeaves]

Gotta love Valve, they provide the community with the server application, so anyone can host their games, if I want to play CS 1.6 today I still have plenty of options to do so.

That's pretty much all PC games. UT'99 is still going for instance.

 

[Grildon Tundy]

Some janitor has to go to an old storage closet and press "reset" on these games' servers when they go down. It finally started costing more to pay him than EA was taking in from these titles' new game sales and microtransactions.

 

[IWasInSeinfeld]

One question.. what does this mean for single player games?

 

[Fake]

Was hoping it would be bf2042

Me as well. Nothing but garbage.

 

[Soltype]

This doesn't affect Xbox live does it?

 

[graywolf323]

that sucks about C&C3, i played it so much back in the day when it came out

 

[Rykan]

Should've been peer 2 peer network in these games so we wouldn't have this problem.

What problem? Nobody is playing these games.

 

[RPSleon]

It was a spiritual successor to Motorstorm games made by many of the same devs that got let go by at Evolution. The game got zero marketing.

And it was fun.

 

[Shakka43]

It was a spiritual successor to Motorstorm games made by many of the same devs that got let go by at Evolution. The game got zero marketing.

Spiritual successor my ass lol. I tried the game when it was given on PS+ and it felt more like a mobile game(kind of like the Asphalt series) than anything else. Sucks cause I really wanted it to be like Motorstorm.

 

[Bonfires Down]

I am baffled that Army of Two and Mercenaries servers are still up. Gatling Gears, Shank, Mirror’s Edge? Do those games even have online features? Certainly none that anyone cares about. So no big losses here.

Does suck about the C&C games though. Even ancient PC games always seem to have a small community still playing them.

 

[crackajack]

Seems like I have to check OnRush before the online features are gone. While I understand that MP modes might shut down when no one is playing it, at least games should not shutdown within the lifespan of their gen. It is last gen, even if we have extented crossgen times, but its online is rather "always on" than actual mp/coop online? Sucks if offline progress depends on servers.

 

[winjer]

They could release the server tools for the community to use, like companies used to do many years ago.
That way, if anyone would like to play any of these games, they could. And EA would have no cost associated with maintaining servers.
But EA, and other AAA companies, no longer respect consumers.

 

[Miles708]

They better do an OnRush update that gives everyone everything since itll be impossible to unlock stuff now.

That would actually make me buy the game lol

 

[Black_Stride]

This doesn't affect Xbox live does it?

Of course it does.
You wont be able to unlock shit in OnRush even on Xbox.
The servers for the game are shutting down entirely, regardless of what platform you play on.

 

[crackajack]

Of course it does.
You wont be able to unlock shit in OnRush even on Xbox.
The servers for the game are shutting down entirely, regardless of what platform you play on.

I guess we have to thank mostly MS for this since they were the ones who thought about that always on shit for everything and I think EA was one the companies who was most on board.
The trophy guide seems to say you don't even have to play the actual MP ever, but some trophies are just locked behind an online connection for no reason other than them being dicks and refusing to honor SP progress if not done while being online. Sony failed to ever patch Starblood Arena's bot matches to work offline, so I doubt EA will bother to remove this nonsense. The game will not stop working so less incentive to change some lines of code.

 

[Black_Stride]

Wrong thread lol.

 

[Black_Stride]

I guess we have to thank mostly MS for this since they were the ones who thought about that always on shit for everything and I think EA was one the companies who was most on board.
The trophy guide seems to say you don't even have to play the actual MP ever, but some trophies are just locked behind an online connection for no reason other than them being dicks and refusing to honor SP progress if not done while being online. Sony failed to ever patch Starblood Arena's bot matches to work offline, so I doubt EA will bother to remove this nonsense. The game will not stop working so less incentive to change some lines of code.

We gonna blame Microsoft for lootboxes and server side leveling up systems?
Thats some big brain thinking right there.

The reason the game is online only is because the games XP and levels are server side prizes are awarded by lootboxes.
They were hoping the game was gonna be a popular online titles, leaving those things client side always leads to problems. (see earlier COD games)
Lootboxes also require an online connection to load in odds and to verify prizes with the server.
When the game goes offline, it cant load the lootbox odds so instead of having a workaround the game just decides you cant open lootboxes or "save" gained XP till you connect and update the server.

The easiest solution is simply to release an update that unlocks all the prizes so people dont have to care about unlocking it, you can still play the campaign and basically never worry about your level or lootboxes.

Its still a really fun game.....lacking a pure racing mode didnt help, but I did enjoy playing the game quite a bit.

 

[crackajack]

We gonna blame Microsoft for lootboxes and server side leveling up systems?
[...]
When the game goes offline, it cant load the lootbox odds

Didn't know that there are lootboxes involved but why cant' it? Lootbox odds are nothing a server has to compute ... this is exactly why it feels like something that exists only because of those abandoned Xbone plans.
And yes I blame MS for any unecessary online direction games have gone since it stems on that initial plan they spearheaded, certainly not alone and not without its supporters and also other ideas born in parallel, but still plattforms have to be measured differently.

"server side leveling up systems"
sounds incredibly stupid anyway. Recently played Tron Evolution. The character levels up in SP and MP together or just one of those if you want. I need a server for MP, sure, even if it is P2P, but never for a level up system.