EA closing servers, Online Pass games affectedSupport for Burnout Revenge, EA Sports Active, The Saboteur and more cutEA has revealed it will be shutting down online servers for a handful of its titles, some of which required a paid Online Pass to access.
From April 13 the online components of Burnout Revenge, The Godfather II, FIFA 10, MMA, The Saboteur and Need for Speed ProStreet will no longer be accessible.
EA Sports Active, EA Create and recently released XBLA title Spare Parts will also lose online support. You can check out the full list of impacted games on the official EA service updates page.
According to
Beefjack, EA says just one percent of its total player base is playing the affected titles and this lack of activity has been cited as the reason for the closures.
"As games get replaced with newer titles, the number of players still enjoying the older games dwindles to a level - fewer than 1% of all peak online players across all EA titles - where it's no longer feasible to continue the behind-the-scenes work involved with keeping these games up and running," reads the official statement.
"We would rather our hard-working engineering and IT staff focus on keeping a positive experience for the other 99% of customers playing our more popular games."
The move might make sense for the publisher, but it's unlikely that those who've paid money for an Online Pass in games like EA Sports MMA will see it from the same perspective. Are you playing any of these games and if so, how do you feel about this?
Full List:
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