The clock is ticking on a number of older EA Sports and EA-published games. EA has announced another wave of server shutdowns that will effectively remove all online support from a stable of its once-supported games across almost every major platform--the Wii, Xbox 360, PSP, PC, and PS3, to be specific. And while the games will of course remain playable offline, these shutdowns will rob you of the chance to collect precious multiplayer achievements, trophies, and bragging rights.

As usual, the vast majority of the games receiving online service shutdowns are older sports titles that have since received their annual or bi-annual sequels. The few games that aren't sports-related included in this list are The Sims Carnival and the short-lived The Battle For Middle-Earth series. For the LOTR games specifically, this shutdown is due to a license expiration. 
 

The clock is ticking on a number of older EA Sports and EA-published games. EA has announced another wave of server shutdowns that will effectively remove all online support from a stable of its once-supported games across almost every major platform--the Wii, Xbox 360, PSP, PC, and PS3, to be specific. And while the games will of course remain playable offline, these shutdowns will rob you of the chance to collect precious multiplayer achievements, trophies, and bragging rights.

As usual, the vast majority of the games receiving online service shutdowns are older sports titles that have since received their annual or bi-annual sequels. The few games that aren't sports-related included in this list are The Sims Carnival and the short-lived The Battle For Middle-Earth series. For the LOTR games specifically, this shutdown is due to a license expiration. 
 

That sucks

i hold online gaming in such low regard that i'm not disappointed. then again,some of these are 4-year-old games

The Lord of the Rings: The Battle for Middle Earth was a fantastic RTS which had a great community, for the most part. It's a shame that the online component is being shutdown. Ah well, back to the LAN parties me and my friends used to have.

Why do they even bother putting multiplayer in so many games? Seems pointless, but I guess this is just another reason why you should never buy sports games.

As a certified achievement whore I find this kind of behaviour an outrage! What about all the poor gamers who will never get that sought-after S-rating?
 
Games should last foreeeeeeeeeeever, y'all
 
EDIT: But I totally understand EA's reasons

The Sims Carnival?  Noooooooooooooooo.

EA is so weird with stuff like this. LOTR lasted much longer than some other games that seemed like they should definitely have survived past games like that. 
 
I just want them to stop the bullshit where buying one of their games for my family actually means buying the fucking game separately for each person thanks to that stupid online pass. This is business as usual for EA though. I'm sure it sucks for those that still play the games a lot online but most of these games have newer generations so I guess it's not that big of a deal.

Thanks, EA... :/

EA has had enough time in this generation to learn how to make games that can work on XBL without their servers.  These games may not be a big deal, but failure to make them as robust as possible is inexcusable.

I don't understand why they can't just launch the games with multiplayer that uses the console's existing service (Live, PSN, etc.) instead of using their own EA service and forcing everyone out of multiplayer when they see the numbers drop.

"I don't understand why they can't just launch the games with multiplayer that uses the console's existing service (Live, PSN, etc.) instead of using their own EA service and forcing everyone out of multiplayer when they see the numbers drop. "

really? me and my friend would play BFME2 online every once and a while. I still think this is kinda crazy, personally. but go for it EA.

Whooo, im glad NHL 10 didn't get shut down me and my friends still play that online

I'm cool with this. If the games aren't bringing them in any or enough revenue anymore then, from a business stand-point, this is a good decision.  
 
It enables them to put their money, for which they have a lot of but not an unlimited supply of, in future or current projects. From a selfish angle this will give me, and all of us, more games to play in months/years to come. 

2 things they should do when disabling the online... 
 
-Get rid of the online achievements and round off the rest to equal 1000 GS. 
-Patch the games to get rid of the online option. If I notice an online option and there's no servers to play on, then I feel that my game is incomplete. 
 
I doubt any of this will happen, but one can dream, right?

This is pathetic.  Remember in 2003/2004 when EA was fighting soooooo hard to run their own servers when they got to Xbox Live, instead of using the basic and proven peer-to-peer player matching Microsoft was providing? 
 
Turns out it was just general "top company" squabble and no one really gives a shit.

Thats a bummer. I guess I can sorta see it for older sports titles but Battle for Middle Earth II was a really great RTS.

http://art.penny-arcade.com/photos/215482948_BPDSj-L-2.jpg    

They did the same thing to Empire Earth a few years back. I hate that shit. 

And I just ordered NFL Head Coach 09 last weekend. 
 
Seriously, I did.

this is why i hate that ea has their own servers. i guess sports games i can understand but battle for middlle earth is a cool game

I can get games from 07 or 08 but why cut games that others are still playing? I own Fifa 09 and haven't bought any of the newer ones yet it is getting cut at the same time as games that are 3 or 4 years old. EA can be awesome sometimes but stuff like this just seems dickish as to what they'll cut in the future and their servers are absolute garbage anyway. I've had a less laggy games on p2p than on their junk.

Makes sense to cut the service for games that aren't being played, but I could see someone playing some of these still. The latest sports game can sometimes actually play worse than an earlier one, and if that happens and they cut the online for the better game it would indeed suck. 

I know they would never go back to a game to patch in an alternative online setup. But shipping with a "sleeper" P2P mode that they could flick the switch on would be friendly. Not all online games need servers, EA. 
 
I miss Burnout 3 & 4's multiplayer.

" 2 things they should do when disabling the online...  -Get rid of the online achievements and round off the rest to equal 1000 GS. -Patch the games to get rid of the online option. If I notice an online option and there's no servers to play on, then I feel that my game is incomplete.  I doubt any of this will happen, but one can dream, right? "

My research tells me they're not shutting down The Sims Carnival: SnapCity. That game, along with The Sims Carnival: Bumper Blast, are retail PC games that as far as I can tell don't even have multiplayer components.
 
EA is actually shutting down The Sims Carnival, the service they actually named in their shutdown announcement. The Sims Carnival appears to be a portal for crappy Flash games. Its loss will not be mourned.

Looking at EA's list of games that can no longer be played online, it has become clear to me that EA needs to stop putting multiplayer-only achievements in their games.

I'm totally still playing Fifa 09. Not online though. Guess that means I'll never get that platinum trophy.

This makes me never want to buy a Madden, FIFA, or NCAA game. Ever. 
 
Just FYI, EA. 
 
FYIEA, 
Alphazero

I still play NHL 09 daily, not online but I've been meaning to get around to it. I own All the NCAA games with the exception of this year, I don't really return to play the old ones online because it's already near impossible to find someone online to play.

Good! Now use them for improving the often buggy BC2. 

Makes sense for the sport titles, so I don't really have an issue with it.

I am A-okay with this. People invested in sports games are invested enough to switch to the current-year game anyways. Nobody is going to cry, except for a couple of angry, irrational fanboys.

NHL 09?! i still didn't finish that best of 5 tourney with my cousins online. better get to that before Feb ; ;

So lame. It's like Halo 2 being killed all over again, all the time! Heartbreaking for dedicated fans.

how long until they just offer a monthly subscription fee to stay up to date with their server shutdowns and get a yearly patch to the sports game data and binary?

So long as they don't shut down Burnout Paradise yet, I'm good.

My copy of NHL 10 is still safe!

Pay extra money to play on the servers that they'll eventually shut down. Great plan EA. >_>

Does this scare anyone else with their steam purchases?

It's just EA trying to get rid of everything that isn't "needs a CD key to play online" like all recent sports games, etc.

I understand that EA might not want to maintain their servers. After all, they're a company with finite resources, who have to develop games for the future.  
 
But how about a compromise? EA stops the multiplayer, but then allows anyone to set up their own multiplayer server. I know it would be very hard to code the game to allow for this, and that it would encourage piracy - but the games are already 3 to 4 years old, so I don't think EA is getting much money from those titles anyway. This way, EA can stop supporting the games, while allowing the fans to keep on playing the games. 
 
Now, I know that my solution will never be accepted by EA - companies are jealous guardians of their IP after all. There's probably a whole team of lawyers at EA who would shake their head at me solemnly, saying that it can't be done, and who knows, maybe it can't be. 
 
But I just hope that all future developers will code their games with the option that would allow fans to support it after the company decides to abandon it. I mean, why not? 

well at least it's all sports games.

I hope people understand that these closures represent approximately 1% of the current online peek gamers on their servers...