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EA Shutting Down Video Game Servers Prematurely
Spacezilla writes "EA is dropping the bomb on a number of their video game servers, shutting down the online fun for many of their Xbox 360, PC and PlayStation 3 games. Not only is the inclusion of PS3 and Xbox 360 titles odd, the date the games were released is even more surprising. Yes, Madden 07 and 08 are included in the shutdown... but Madden 09 on all consoles as well?"
I remember back in the early eighties EA used to release some great games.
Anyone remember Skyfox, Pinball Construction Set, The Bard's Tale series and Racing Destruction Set?
All they seem to do now is publish endless sports titles and I imagine the licensing fees must be huge.
Maybe it is a "Good Thing" they are shutting down the services for these titles - one less reason to buy them.
The decision seems to be mainly the Sports Division of EA hopefully this decision won't start affecting other games genres.
Games affected:
February 2, 2010 Online Service Shutdown
* UEFA Champions League 07 PC and x360
* Facebreaker x360 and PS3
* Fantasy Football 09 x360 and PS3
* FIFA 07 PSP, PS2, PC
* Fight Night Round 3 PS2
* Madden 08 Wii
* Madden 08 PC
* Madden 09 Xbox1
* Madden 09 Wii and PSP
* March Madness 07 x360
* NBA 07 PSP, x360
* NBA 08 PS2, PSP, Wii
* NBA 09 Wii - Europe only
* NBA Street (2007) PS3 and x360
* NCAA Football 08 PS2
* NCAA Football 09 PS2
* NASCAR 08 PS2
* NASCAR 09 PS2
* NASCAR 09 PS3 and x360 - Europe Only
* NFL Tour PS3 and x360
* NHL 07 PSP and x360
* NHL 08 PC
* Tiger Woods 07 PC
* Madden 09 x360 and PS3
* Madden 07 Xbox 360
Suddenly, a lot of used games just lost some value.
The back of the box clearly states(in small print) that the online service is only provided for 1 year from release date. The fact that they've lasted this long is just a bonus. I could understand if people were bitching and there was no warning, but there is.
From what I understand, I thought each of these games on consoles, that one of the players will be the 'server' - and that the role of the EA server is matchmaking etc, but clarification would be cool.
I'm pretty certain that in all cases none of the consoles involved is acting as a server. If one was than that player could have a significant advantage due to relative latency issues. Also having a console act as a server means having to deal with NAT, firewalls and other routing/network issues - the only guaranteed way for all the consoles to see the server being if the server is public (i.e. not on a console on someone's home ISP connection) or for a public server to act as a relay for those that can't connect directly.
you are wrong, most console games don't have dedicated servers, and you can host even if you are behind a nat, they probably use something like udp hole punching
you probably missed the rage of pc call of duty players that now have to use the same matchmaking system(iwnet) as console players without dedicated servers