EA pulling plug on older sports games' servers

Wait a minute I bought Facebreaker with "online play" being a feature of the product.

Does anyone else feel like EA prematurely pulled the plug on this online service, way before a reasonable life expectancy of the product?

Class action lawsuit anyone.

Wow. Another way for EA to push sales. Stupid move, in my opinion, to shut down 09 titles. Even 08 titles shutting down are unfair, but are more understandable. I was actually going to purchase some 2010 releases as I have gotten into some sports more but now I am entirely unsure. I don't want to buy a 2010 title only to have it shut down before the year is barely over. Smooth move, EA. Not like they can't afford to shut down some servers and utilize those to keep 09 games running.

"Madden 09 (Xbox 360 and PS3)"

I know absolutely nothing about Madden... I've never particularly liked the series and played it only once back in 05 for like... 12 minutes... but doesn't it seem awfully fast to be pulling support for titles with the number '09' in them? What does them 'taking down the game servers' actually mean? I saw somewhere that someone said that they could still play a game online that's server supposedly got yanked last year. What does this actually mean?

I personally don't play a single franchise on that list, but if I were a fan of such game and it lost support I'd be super pissed.

I'm wondering, if this really kills all online play, if this is the sort of thing that makes Microsoft try to make everyone use XBL for matchmaking and the like (I know they've lost that battle with a few publishers... namely EA).
In a console world where the private sector can't run their own dedicated servers (to create ongoing support for the game), they rely on the big companies to keep their matchmaking (etc) servers up and going.
Just seems like it sets (or maintains) a bad precedent.

I'm not saying that it's reasonable to expect these companies to support all online play of their games indefinitely... but it sounds to me like if you used a system like XBL or PSN (which aren't going away anytime soon), it would be easy to grandfather in the old games and make them work essentially indefinitely.

Anyone who this actually effects have any insight on this? I guess if those that actually play the affected games don't care, I should shut my mouth. *shrugs*

I know people like to get their feathers all ruffled up over these announcements, but I would like to see how many people have even tried to access those games in the past 6 months. Note I say access, it's probably even more difficult to find a game. Let's keep our heads on straight, people. EA is a business and they were spending money on servers for games that nobody plays or cares about anymore.

Question: When are gamers going to start seeing sports games that can just have the rosters updated annually via appropriately priced DLC instead of being asked $60 for "new" titles each year? After all, the graphics can't get much better year-to-year, and there's not much innovation left to be had.

Answer: When people stop buying these "new" games every year...which won’t be happening anytime soon…

I'm glad I hate EA games/sports games. I feel bad for those that do who are now going to have to rush to get online achievements. Not everyone is dumb enough to buy the same Madden or NHL game every single year and prefers to stick to maybe one or two and don't feel the need to have the more recent ones, so you have to cater to every fan's needs, and EA is not doing that.

Yeah, That is kinda bullshit that you absolutely HAVE to buy a new game every year in order to play online.

I still play Warhawk from time to time and that game came out in '07

I'm not a big fan of Sports titles... but I have a question I've not seen asked.. Does 2k have their own servers for their sports titles? If so.. are they shutting any of theirs down? I mean I have Madden 09.. and refuse to buy 10... I don't like sprts games enough to buy a yearly edition.. I saw Fight Night round 3 on the chopping block.. ps2.. but.. how long til 360's goes off. I really enjoy that game.. how long til Army of Two... what about Skate... I say EA should keep the sports titles servers online for at least 3 years tops... regardless of how many people still play.. it was their choice to run their own servers they should live with their mistakes. I know from now on when I do buy a sports game.. I'll buy 2k.. not EA

Wow, FUCK this. I was thinking about buying Madden or NCAA this year (I haven't bought a sports game this generation) but there is no way I am now. Madden '09 is being effectively discontinued barely a year after release? Fuck that.

Once again, I can't imagine why someone there who's ever heard of virtualization couldn't take their 20 game servers running this and combine them into one server. Of course, this would cost money (although it would save them gobs more), and it would keep people playing games they'd rather you not play anymore.

Sucks for us gamers, that's for sure.

"Thanks for buying our game. We have a new version for you to purchase. Just sign this contract that says we'll shut down servers and you'll buy the new 'X Game (year+1)' every year."

As long as EA stays the fuck away from Battlefield servers, I'm happy. I have not gotten my fill of BC or 1943.

Seriously people, who cares that these are going offline... and it does cost money to keep these damn servers always up and running. So before anyone starts crying over loyalty, lets remember that this country is built upon dollars and cents... so thats what counts here. Shut down servers = save money by reducing costs on keeping up old machines and make money by making ppl by new version of game.

I guess if they get use out of buying the new game, that's fine, whatever, but each game that comes out is the same ****ing game with minor stat tweeks and maybe one or two players switched to a new team, or removed from the game and replaced with someone else. That's barely any change from the previous year, so EA should just pick a format, stick with it and make it updatable with patches so idiots aren't owning a million copies of a hockey/baseball/football/basketball game, they just have one and the 2010, 2011, 2012, and so on, changes are patched into a single game every year.

I hate when this happens. I might be one of the few people out there who enjoys FaceBreaker, and I understand that the online community must have died a while ago so most people must think that there is no loss here, but it is sad when a game looses support from the developer and some of its game features that were a selling point when the game came out.

In the case of Madden 09, I don't play many sports games, but a game from a major franchise that looses its value and support after just a year is just ridiculous.

why are they shutting down Madden 09 already jeez 10 just came out

EA has lost my future game purchases on sports titles. Sorry but 18 months on one game is 2 little when I have only had it alittle more than a year. It took a few months to drop tp $40.00. Isnt it funny you can still play the 2k football games but not EAs online.

Bring on 2k football again!!!!!

I'm at least happy that they aren't shutting down NASCAR '09 just yet, since it wouldn't be fair that they never made NASCAR '10 (with Gran Turismo 5 taking over the NASCAR title for the time being). Everyone online was saying how the servers were being shut down, but now I know it isn't happening in the US just yet this year.

Bloody EA for shutting down servers for such recent games. And damn you EA for forcing MS to allow your games to run on separate servers instead of running like every other XBox game.

WTF, I'm poor and just got Madden '09 for Christmas THIS year.


jk, but I purposely lag about a year behind the latest releases so I usually end up paying only about $20 for any PS3 game I want.