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Reader Comments (73)

Posted: Aug 3rd 2007 1:12PM bm111 said

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You Americans have some weird ass power plugs.

Posted: Aug 3rd 2007 1:16PM (Unverified) said

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Can EA do this legally, Because all these games say that they have online play. But now they don't, so couldn't that be consider false advertising or something like that?

Posted: Aug 3rd 2007 1:28PM (Unverified) said

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I would/do think it would be/is illegal
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Posted: Aug 3rd 2007 3:22PM (Unverified) said

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The problem with a false advertising allegation is that one must prove that EA advertised the online playability fucntion with 'intent to mislead'. They would very easily be able to say that when the product packaging was created, online play was an integral part of the product. There's no way that we could make it stick. Yet one more situation which proves that an act can be very unethical, while being perfectly legal. All I can think of to show my displeasure at seeing EA attempt to milk their customers for all that they can, is to vote against them with my wallet. EA is in the business of making money, not making video games. They should understand the message if people quit giving them hard-earned cash for games that they complain are not worth the cash they spend.
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Posted: Aug 3rd 2007 1:15PM (Unverified) said

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This is why the PC is better. With the exception of MMO games, they either allow people to run dedicated servers and all the dev/pub handles is authentication and possibly rankings, someone can and will hack the game to work online without their help, or they will have the decency to release a patch or toss out the source code.

Posted: Aug 3rd 2007 1:15PM (Unverified) said

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And these people are going to publish Spore.

Posted: Aug 3rd 2007 1:18PM (Unverified) said

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That is so gay. EA sucks more than any company ever.

Posted: Aug 3rd 2007 1:33PM aforty said

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Fuck EA. This is probably why they *insisted* on being able to manage and run their own servers when they signed on to bring their games online to Xbox Live. So that when the time is right, they can pull the plug and essentially force the online playing customers to upgrade to the latest version. Someone oughta sue them.

Posted: Aug 3rd 2007 1:42PM (Unverified) said

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Microsoft should offer to take over EA's Xbox and 360 games. Sure, EA would probably say no (as has been said, to get people to buy the new version!), but it would have the knock-on effect of improving Microsoft's public image - at least among gamers. EA is rapidly becoming the "game Satan", akin to Microsoft's place in the home computing world, so a little PR war can't hurt...

Ahh, sweet chaos.

*teleports away, Kotaro Fuma-style*

Posted: Aug 3rd 2007 1:50PM horngreen said

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This is JUST what they said they would do way back when they started making their games online for consoles. Not being allowed to shut down servers is why it took so long for MS and EA to come together on LIVE. All the PS2 fanboys ranted how they had EA games online FOR FREE even though when EA shuts down the servers you have to buy the new version of every EA game you like again, about every year. So the $50 for LIVE isn't so bad after all. If I have to have a football fix I can at least still plug in NFL Fever, although finding anyone else still playing online is not an easy task LOL.

Posted: Aug 3rd 2007 2:09PM (Unverified) said

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Great.

Get your gamerscore in the online portions of the 360 games now then.

its DAMN annoying that if they're gunna put online only achievements in games that they're going to discontinue it within such a short period (Tiger woods 06, being my example here).

Posted: Aug 3rd 2007 2:09PM mietha said

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The one of those that really hurts is Tiger 06 on the 360 since, I believe, ALL of the achievements are online-based. Way to go EA. Why not follow shitty achievements with shitty handling of them? One of the main reasons I hate ALL online achievements. And yes, MS should require the servers stay running for any game that has online achievements.

Posted: Aug 3rd 2007 2:09PM (Unverified) said

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Beat me!
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Posted: Aug 3rd 2007 2:39PM Berzerk said

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it's upside down

Posted: Aug 3rd 2007 2:51PM (Unverified) said

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That sucks. Last Christmas I got my dad and myself Tiger Woods '06. I don't even like sports games much, but it's something for us to do occasionally since I live out of town. No way is he going to buy the new one, so those few times we got to play online look like all we get. Thanks, EA. You found an all-new way to lose and piss off customers.

Posted: Aug 3rd 2007 2:52PM (Unverified) said

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It would be WONDERFUL to sue them, but it's not illegal. If you read the manual (many of us don't), they state that online servers may be taken offline at any time. Unfortunate but true.

Posted: Aug 3rd 2007 3:21PM (Unverified) said

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Yes, but you can't read that until you buy the game and open the package, at which point you can no longer return it for a refund.
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Posted: Aug 3rd 2007 5:44PM (Unverified) said

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If you look at the fine print on the back of the boxes for EA online titles it says, "EA may retire online features after 30 days notice posted on ".

The sports games based on yearly franchise (ala Madden) also stipulate that they can terminate the online features "30 days after the last day of the 200x-200x NFL season."

Granted this is in small print on the back of the boxes for these games, but consumers can see it before purchasing and it is in bold text.

Is it crappy on the part of EA insofar as consumers are concerned? Sure.

Is it illegal? Not at all.
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Posted: Aug 3rd 2007 4:13PM (Unverified) said

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This is Microsoft & Sony's fault.

They should have stipulated to 3rd party companies that in order to have access to the online functionality of their systems they need to keep the supporting servers active for at least the life of the system.

Or something like 3 years or the remaining life of the system; whichever is longer. That way games released during the last year of the lifespan of a console will still be supported for a decent amount of time.

Posted: Aug 3rd 2007 6:25PM (Unverified) said

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im sure it has been said, but i must reiterate.

for the 360 aspect:

it sucks that there are some games that REQUIRE you to play online to obtain some achievements.... which can no longer be done with this move.

damnit EA... theres responsibility with releasing online play, if you cant handle it... drop it.

Posted: Aug 3rd 2007 6:40PM LJKelley said

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EA Sucks plain and simple... besides their servers suck half the time. I'm glad I use Xbox 360 and Live so I can count on games such as Crackdown on being there.

Posted: Aug 4th 2007 1:05AM AmazingAaron said

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This reminds me of when old old yeller got shot in the head. No one liked it, but it had to be done.

Posted: Aug 7th 2007 4:09PM Reaper man said

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"Burnout Revenge for PlayStation 2"

:(

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