EA Is Shutting Down A Huge Amount Of Titles
EA games will permanently shut down online servers for a plethora of its titles including Army of Two, Onrush, Mirror's Edge, and NBA Jam.
Electronic Arts is apparently having a seasonal cleanup following its breakup with FIFA since the company announced that it would shut down online services for several of its gaming titles early next year. While the majority of these titles never excelled in sales or prominence, some of the titles are absolute classics like Command & Conquer and Mirror’s Edge. Admittedly, EA isn’t the only one pulling the plug on online support for its titles; Ubisoft did something similar just months ago when it removed its titles from Steam.
According to IGN, the specific date for server shutdowns is January 19, 2023, which will disable some gameplay elements in the affected games — most notably, the achievements and online play. Initially, gamers sighed in relief, as they would have at least three more months to accomplish their in-game achievements; however, that isn’t true, and the aforementioned date is the end date by which the servers for some of EA’s games, including online support by the publisher, will cease to function.
The first among the titles to lose online support is Army of Two: The 40th Day and Army of Two: The Devil’s Cartel, whose game servers will officially go offline on October 20 — that’s tomorrow. Then, on November 9, EA will pull the plug on one of its best but somewhat forgotten franchises, the famous Command & Conquer series. This will affect Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3, which is still an absolute hit among RTS players; Command & Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars, and Command & Conquer: Kane’s Wrath. Mercenaries 2: World in Flame’s servers will also shut down on that date.
Next on the list is Onrush, a racing game aimed at consoles, whose online capabilities will end on November 30. After these showdowns, the next date the fans should look out for is the end date, January 19, 2023. EA scheduled the shutdown of online services for four more games, including Mirror’s Edge, NBA Jam: On Fire Edition, Gatling Gears, and Shank 2.
It would seem that NBA Jam is the only one among the aforementioned titles to have two of its achievements disabled. Other titles on the list either don’t have an achievements feature or the feature doesn’t require online services. It’s also worth noting that the shutdowns won’t actually affect all titles equally.
Mirror’s Edge is still an absolute hit among gamers, despite being almost 15 years old. EA won’t shut down any online play modes, but it will disable the leaderboards. That’s quite reasonable, considering how the game retained a decent fan base over the years — the same can be said for the Command & Conquer franchise. It’s also unlikely that EA will consider delisting these games for a foreseeable time since they’re still generating profit — as endless classics do.
Ultimately, the entire situation isn’t a novelty; the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 era has come to an end, so the publishers don’t really have a monetary incentive to keep the services running. Rockstar pulled the plug on GTA 5 servers last year, Ubisoft has delisted some of its games and pulled the plug on online services as well, and other publishers are following in their footsteps. Interestingly enough, both consoles have vast, dedicated fan communities among hardware modders; even manufacturers are trying to keep them alive.
