Customer says publisher has failed to meet promise of Online Pass support
Electronic Arts is to switch off its online servers for eleven contemporary games, one of which was released as recently as 2011, due to what it claims to be low activity rates.
The server switch-offs, commencing April 13th, will block online play on various Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 games such as MMA and Need for Speed ProStreet.
The full list of affected games can be found below.
One, a PSN and XBLA game called Spare Parts, was the last commercial project released by now defunct Guildford studio EA Bright Light. The game launched in Janruary 2011.
EA said the decision to retire older games is “never easy”, but said it shuts down game servers when it is “no longer feasible to continue the behind-the-scenes work involved with keeping these games up and running”.
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Yet one EA customer has complained on the publisher’s forums specifically about the MMA server closure.
The sports game introduced an Online Pass system – which charges customers an extra $10 for online access if the game is bought pre-owned – on the basis that these additional revenues will be used to fund online services.
“Wait, I am slightly confused because you went way out of the way to justify your Online Pass crap as being there to support the online servers (since those dirty second-hand purchasers didn't invest in supporting those servers),” the customer’s post began.
“Now you are telling me that you are going to shut down the online service for a game that started the joke that is your Online Pass service.”
EA has not yet responded to the comment.
Three iOS games will also be affected as part of the phased shut-down.
The full list of affected games follows:
BOOM BLOX Bash Party for Wii
Burnout™ Revenge for Xbox 360
EA Create for PC, PlayStation 3, Wii and Xbox 360
EA Sports Active 2.0 for PlayStation 3, Wii and Xbox 360
EA Sports Active NFL Training Camp for Wii
FIFA 10 for PlayStation Portable and Wii
The Godfather™ II for PC, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360
MMA for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360
Need for Speed™ ProStreet for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360
The Saboteur™ (loss of The Midnight Club access) for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360
Spare Parts for PlayStation 3 Xbox 360
Battlefield 3: Aftershock for iPad, iPhone, and iPod touch
Fantasi Safari for iPad, iPhone, and iPod touch
Ghost Harvest for iPhone
This is because Online Passes are not used to fund these services, and are just yet another cash cow for the industry, hidden behind a false veil of "these costs are needed to keep our servers running".
Buying games from EA
2012
You people should know better by now, they are the cancer killing the video gaming industry. On-disc DLC (changing an integer from 0 to 1 unlocks the content on the disc, no joke), shady business practices, non-existent support, banning customers from single player games, etc
Fucking EA. They are the cancer killing vidya, and people are still buying games made by them, with day 1 DLC and shutting down servers because they have no online pass. I say that we should boycott EA. If you have origin, uninstall it. If you have any EA game, sell them and pirate them instead. Show them that us gamers will not be silenced
EA RETURN OUR RIGHTEOUS ONLINE
In the case of The Saboteur, they are taking away a feature that doesn't even need to rely on a gaming server. "The Midnight Show" should become a free feature available to everyone if you're unplugging the server that's used to activate or disable this feature that we've paid for. If you're unplugging the server, then patch the game!
The acronym for dlc use to be "downloadable content". EA has now changed it from that to "disk locked content"
Plus way to go ea, Implement a online pass into almost every single game and have the nerve to say that you need to close server's to due to low population?
Someone mentioned above that activision doesn't even have online passes and keeps the majority of their servers up even today?
So what if they included the DLC on the disk? It's not like DLC is only imagined after the game is released, so why not make the DLC experience more convenient if they already have the assets?
It doesn't subtract from the quality of the DLC or increase the cost of the media (well it might if it brings it over a threshold, but if it's already over that then it won't).
WELSHSLAYER, so how does you condoning and possibly commiting piracy (which is a CRIMINAL OFFENCE BTW)harm EA? It's you that will be screwed over, fined and end up with a criminall record NOT EA! EA and all other corporations (Apple, Microsoft, Sony etc) are in it for their own interests not the end users' and it's always been that way and always will be. The best way to deal with it just vote with your feet
EA makes it really easy to pick which games to support. Thankfully no EA title since Mirror's Edge has really been too enticing to me.
So, Burnout Revenge, which was far more playable than Paradise IMO, gets turned off while other far more obscure XBL titles continue to work. Just because EA insisted in putting their stupid EA online components into the game instead of just using Xbox live like everyone else, thanks EA.
Nottsbloke.
Piracy as Welshslayer meant is actually a civil matter.
Only redistribution (like bootlegging) is a criminal matter in the uk. The original uploader of the torrent is in this category.
Not condoning it, but that's why the police don't do anything about piracy like torrenting. It's up to the owner of the work to pursue the infringer for the piracy through the courts.
