If a new piece of hardware breaks compatibility with old software, at least you have the ability to hook up the old hardware. When Electronic Arts closes down the online services for a bunch of games on August 11, there's no going back. SKATE, Army of Two and others are going offline.
"The decisions to retire older EA games are never easy," reads the company's support site. "The development teams and operational staff pour their hearts into these games almost as much as the customers playing them and it is hard to see one retired. But as games get replaced with newer titles, the number of players still enjoying the older games dwindles below a point--fewer than 1% of all peak online players across all EA titles--where it’s feasible to continue the behind-the-scenes work involved with keeping these games up and running."
EA is usually pretty clear about when its games are going offline. You can view a whole list of what games have moved into the dark on the same support website. Here's what's gone in just a few weeks:
- Army of Two (PlayStation 3, Xbox 360)
- Army of Two Demo (Xbox 360)
- Battlefield 2142 Demo (PC)
- Battlefield 2: Modern Combat (Xbox 360)
- Battlefield 2: Modern Combat Demo (Xbox 360)
- Medal of Honor Airborne (PSP)
- Medal of Honor Heroes 2 (PSP, Wii)
- NASCAR 09 (PlayStation 3, Xbox 360)
- NCAA Basketball 10 (PlayStation 3, Xbox 360)
- NCAA Football 10 (PlayStation 3, Xbox 360)
- Need for Speed Most Wanted (PC, Xbox 360)
- Need for Speed Undercover (PSP)
- SKATE (PlayStation 3, Xbox 360)
- Tiger Woods PGA TOUR 10 (PSP, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, Wii)
- Tiger Woods PGA TOUR 11 Demo (PlayStation 3, Xbox 360)
In addition to these titles, EA plans to end support for both Madden NFL 10 and NHL 10 as of October 1st. If for some reason you're especially fond of the rosters in either of these two-year-old sports games, you might want to start getting as many games in as you can.