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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?"
Find this maddening.
Edward@Tomato - /home/Edward/ man woman
man: no entry for woman in the manual.
"Qua!?"
Perhaps they will release the next version as Madden 0x10 so it will be good until 2016?
"Freedom in the USA is not the ability to do what you want. It is the ability to stop others from doing what THEY want"
That's like a mugger leaving a card thanking you for your custom and asking you to use his services again.
If you were blocking sigs, you wouldn't have to read this.
So which EA executive is a recent hire from Apple?
Also, what kind of traffic are these titles currently generating on EA's servers?
but my buddy who is still semi-involved in the BNET-D legal debacle can use this type of thing in that court case.
I for one think the whole company run server idea is a good one, but I think they should release code for every game as well for this very reason. Custom servers were half the fun of old Unreal Tournament games, and I know a lot of people who are into custom Enemy Territory servers.
Remember, the reason BNET-D started to begin with is Bizzards servers sucked back in the day, as far as I'm concerned this sort of bull shit justifies that sort of thing.
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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.
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
I'm not games, so I presume that I don't have to follow the following format? Good thing too, because I can't make sense from that directive.
Suddenly, a lot of used games just lost some value.
Madden '07 sold 2 million copies the first week it was available. Microsoft claimed to have logged 228 years worth of game time played on their servers in the same time frame.
The road to tyranny has always been paved with claims of necessity.
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.
If I may defend EA on one point, they do actually make it very clear they will shut down the service anytime they feel like it. In fact I think it's on the back of the game boxes as well. This isn't a surprise. They did this with their PC versions for some time.
This why people shouldn't buy their games. There is no need for EA to be the middle man in online gaming but they do it purely to have control. They don't need you playing Madden 08 year after year. They need you to buy every version. Quite frankly I'm surprised they don't shut the servers down for the previous version the day the new version is released. It probably will get to that point.
Our company has provided commercial game server management services for almost 10 years for a large ISP client in Australia. We have watched games rise and fall over this entire time. And the games with dedicated server software - games like Quake, which came out in 1996 - are still just as playable today as they were back then (often more so thanks to enhanced community-created features).
There are a few exceptions to that - AvP2 ran into problems recently when they shut down the master server/s. But a community project has worked around this.
We recently published a guide - the Mammoth Dedicated Server Guide - for game developers and publishers trying to explain to them why they should release dedicated server software (inspired in no small part by Modern Warfare 2's lack of dedicated server). We're hoping to make more people aware of it, and more importantly, more gamers aware of the issues surrounding games without dedicated servers (such as this story!!!!), so that when they're choosing what games to spend money on, they can show more discrimination.
Never by anything from EA that has a date in the title
Or called Facebreaker
[Intentionally left blank]
Surely it is not beyond the resources of EA to buy a server farm and run virtualized instances of game servers on demand. If a game becomes less popular, the VMs timeout and shutdown. If it's very popular more instances get spawned. I don't see any reason that they have to physically decommission or repurpose anything in this day & age.
Good points, and I guess that is why other game vendors (Valve) offer dedicated servers for download. You can install those on some rented server at an ISP which has a much better internet connection than at your home. This way, the game vendor has to support only the matchmaking service which is presumably much cheaper to run - Valve still supports Half-Life 1 under Steam which is 10 years old. The obvious downside is that you pay for the game server. But I still like this model better than having my games killed after a year.
EA could do this too of course.
C - the footgun of programming languages
We can set up dedicated servers for the games we love. Oh wait... Hard to believe that you pay for 60 euro's for a game and 1 or 2 years later you can't play it anymore. Now what should I do. Buy the new Madden, or buy a modchip...
"Yes, Madden 07 and 08 are included in the shutdown... but Madden 09 on all consoles as well"
The economy blows, so to the average guy, is it really worth $50 to upgrade to 10 or is 09 good enough as it is?
It just boils down to money. Plain and simple. Not even the cost of running the servers, but forcing everyone that thought Madden 09 was just fine for their needs to go out and pickup Madden 10.
Name...That...Autocomplete!
For most games on Xbox Live microsoft hosts the matchmaking servers and the friends thing as well. It means that you should be able to play the game online forever until microsoft shuts down the server.
I know of one non-EA exception which only shut down part of the online component to a mech game that needed a special controller (very niche), and it was for the original xbox.
EA forces online games to use their servers for matchmaking rather than the general ones. It means that at any time EA can stop providing them and you can no longer play those games online (such as all the ones with 20XX in the name) possibly forcing you to upgrade.
The players on consoles are the servers in that they host the actual gameplay related stuff like this person shoots here, this person jumps, etc. The status info (so and so is playing Game X) on the consoles is still handled by microsoft/sony/nintendo.
The whole part of EA being able to stop online play on old games is why I don't buy from them. I could understand taking off old games that were for the original xbox for example but nothing from the last couple years.
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
BNET-D started because several individuals had banned CD-Keys or wished to play with pirated versions of Blizzards games.
As I understand it, the bnetd developers contacted Blizzard to ask how to verify CD keys, and when Blizzard refused to cooperate, the bnetd developers continued without the feature.
(soapbox alert) So why even play these games at all? What do you get after an hour of playing video games, besides a headache and high blood pressure?
Troll.
Why not go play an instrument, or play sports for real, or do something to improve yourself or the rest of the human race?
I have a game console and a mountain bike. My friend the football coach plays Madden. Grow up already.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
"Not only is the inclusion of PS3 and Xbox 360 titles odd . . ."
Why is it odd to include PS3 and Xbox 360 and not-so-odd to shut down servers for PC gamers?
Its a short sited probably ultimately self defeating goal. I was listening to PBS business report just last night and they were interviewing some economics professors who were discussing how the move to always maximize share holder value has not actually lead to better share holder returns over the longer time period of the past two decades.
They also pointed out one company P&G pretty well stayed on the build new business and protect the customers perception of value, noting that it outperformed the market over those two decades. Now obviously you'd need to go through alot more data to reach sound conclusions.
I do think there is enough evidence out there that a longer term view eventually yeilds better returns. We should try and break the 18mo CEO cycle.
Repeal the 17th Amendment TODAY! Also Please Read http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/right-to-read.html
Some weeks ago, there were some heated discussions here and elsewhere about COD4 Modern Warfare 2 and the decision NOT to include the capability to create dedicated servers for online play. There was a great deal of anger from some COD4 fans who had found that the LAN play was the most exciting part of the COD4 experience.
The reaction from the MW2 fanboy community was "What could possibly go wrong?".
Well, here's your answer.
You are welcome on my lawn.
This is probably just a ploy to kill off the second hand and discounted games market. Only people who pay full price for the latest update get to play online.
const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
If you buy their games you deserve nothing less.
No, you still deserve better. However, you should also have known better.
I never understood why people play soccer games anyways. Why people watch soccer is already mysterious enough to me, but remotely understandable; but why the hell would you play a game which imitates something you could easily do with a bunch of friends (or even strangers) somewhere outside, for cheap? I'm not a big soccer player, but I sure know that regardless of how bad I am, I'm gonna have more fun playing *actual* soccer than some strange video game copy of it.
Wow, where do you live? Terrific weather year-round, eh? And the days are always long enough that after you get home from work there's still plenty of daylight left for your soccer game! And all those strangers you pick up for your soccer games are really friendly and never care when you dork out and let the other team win.
Even forgetting the fact that it sometimes isn't (for most people) more fun to play soccer in the real than to play a computer game, I'd just guess that the answer to your question is "A lot of people are quite different than you, and by the time you become an adult this shouldn't surprise you in the least".
Money. Now.
Organizations commonly become short-sighted. They become so worried about increasing profits this quarter that they really stop caring about the distant future.
The Daily Show interviewed a legislator in some state with budget shortfalls. Her plan was to sell the government buildings to a private company and then lease them back for twenty years. That would let them fill a $20 million gap in the year that the buildings were sold. When asked how the state would ever pay the rent in following years without a $20 million windfall, her response was: "We have to get through this year first. I'm just trying to balance the budget this year."
Killing all those servers will immediately lower administration and bandwidth costs. And it may very well give a kick to sales of the current versions. When the boss sees lower costs and higher sales he'll be happy. When sales slump again in six months they can blame piracy.
We should try and break the 18mo CEO cycle.
A good way to start would be to NOT give $100 Million to every failed CEO as you're kicking his ass out the door.
one more reason to avoid EA games.
One more reason to avoid any game that depends on its publisher's servers. If I want to play Quake online I still can, and that came out well over ten years ago.
Free Martian Whores!
Because starting in February, if you want to play "football" with your friends, you must pay licensing fees to NFL. And anyone watching your game must pay royalties to NBC.
THL phish sticks
Last time I went around the neighborhood asking 30+ year old Dads to come out and play they all looked at me funny.
No, it's just that it's sort of hard to miss their name on the box when it's right smack in the middle of the front cover.
Bingo! Give that man a cigar! Publishers tried to claim that we wanted dedicated servers so we could run pirate games, but now we see what happens when you do not have that ability: totally broken games that are only as useful as the publishers allow. I can still whip out my copy of Freelancer or Mechwarrior 4 and find folks to play against. Hell Freelancer still has some pretty decently sized communities built around huge mods that give me dozens of new systems to explore and pillage, and all for $0.00!
So while I still buy the occasional EA game when it is in the bargain bin (last was the MoH 10th anniversary) I avoid anything new from EA and look at anything by them as most likely broken by design. Dedicated servers and mods is what got me into PC gaming in the first place, and the amount of extra value I have gotten from even budget titles thanks to mods and communities have made PC games much more of a "bang for my buck" than the consoles. EA has frankly always been a bunch of douchebags and this latest move just simply proves what we have known for years. The new slogan at EA ought to be "EA: We're the Symantec of gaming!"
But I did notice that all the games were sports titles, and sadly EA could put out "shitty sports game wrapped in used condoms 2010" and the sports nuts would buy it. I went to school with a guy that went so far as to have a deal with the local Gamestop to have EVERY EA sports game for every machine he owned (PSP, PS2, PS3) delivered to his house on release day and charged to his CC, just so he would have them waiting for him on release day when he got off work. As long as it has the latest rosters they will buy it whether it is actually any good or not. So sorry EA sports nuts, this is a case of reaping what you've sown. You should have bought Sega Sports and demanded competition instead of just buying Madden no matter if it was any good or not.
ACs don't waste your time replying, your posts are never seen by me.
one more reason to avoid EA games.
One more reason to avoid any game that depends on its publisher's servers. If I want to play Quake online I still can, and that came out well over ten years ago.
4x4 Evo2 came out 10 years ago and uses private servers. But they publisher let the community take them over and it still works. But EA doesn't understand that kind of loyalty, and would never do it. It is why they will never get my money.
That same argument can be made about the vast majority of realistic video games.
FPS? Go join the military. Guitar Hero? Join a band. Fighting game? Go take MMA classes. Madden? Go play Football. Soccer game? Go outside and play soccer.
Naturally, if you give it more than the most superficial consideration - you'd be able to see that there is a world of difference between turning on a game and pressing 'play' and doing it in real life. You also make the incorrect assumption that everyone who enjoys video games is physically able to participate in the real-world physical version.
I can turn on FIFA 09 and play for 30 minutes after work. I'd be hard pressed to organize a game of soccer with 22 of my friends. I'd be even more hard pressed to play a full season of soccer with the World Cup as my goal.
First, the in-game players are designed to emulate the abilities of real world, *professional* players. 99.9999% of the population cannot play on that level. Second, there is dramatically different levels of risk associated with the two tasks. Playing soccer in real life is far more dangerous than on the video game. I broke my arm playing soccer, I've never done that playing a video game. Third, you've got logistic issues.....you need a place to play, you need goals, you need nets, you need gear, you should really have a ref. Those things aren't free. And if you want to have any sort of structure - with teams and scores - you'll need insurance.
I played on a local Rugby team around here for a season a few years after college. It was fun - but we were part of a league and the dues to cover the insurance, pay the ref, and hold a field were not cheap. And that's not addressing the costs of the uniform, the gear, nor the travel (nor the liquor afterwords, but that's a different story).
Bottom line is - you are talking about two things that are completely different. They aren't mutually exclusive. They are only superficially related. Not liking a type of video game is fine. Liking a real-world equivalent is fine. But advocating that the 'real world' version is a good replacement for the video game really misses the point of video games.
Thank god for dedicated servers and LAN play.
Oh wait.
It does have limits, though, doesn't it?
What if you park your car in a secure area without bills on the dash? Some might argue that if you walked everywhere you went you could have avoided this crime, and therefore you reap what you sew.
The fact you can make choices does not obviate the ability of others to do so, ergo nor does it the responsibility.
Boiled all the way down, this mentality opens the door to arguments such as, "You should have known he was a rapist, and you deserved it because you dress like a slut."
Thus, the limits.
Oh EA understands this kind of loyalty, but they don't make money that way. They make money by you buying the NEXT version, which most people will. This just means that people who don't care quite as much about having the most recent version, have that much less incentive to purchase last years Madden at the used game store.
A few days ago there was a link to an article about the most 'tarnished' tech companies. I suggested EA, because they used to be the very best of the best, and now they're...this.
"People who do stupid things with hazardous materials often die." -- Jim Davidson on alt.folklore.urban
Bingo. I refuse to buy games that require online activation for this very reason. The idiots who don't get why online activation is bad say "Oh, well they're a big company, they'll never go out of business and even if they did, they'd release a patch to remove it beforehand". Always stay away from letting a company control your property.
"The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants." ~Thomas Jefferson
We're talking farmers, not tailors, folks.
Sow: plant seeds.
Reap: harvest crops.
Sew: stitching cloth together.
Reap: Huh?
Good grief, kids these days. GET OFF MY VOCABULARY!
Oh why are you so irate about the rootkits?
"Most people, I think, don't even know what a rootkit is, so why should they care about it."
--quote Thomas Hesse, President Sony Global Digital Business, concerning the Sony Rootkit fuckup.
Sadly, he's right. Most don't know, don't care and only see what they want to see. Sure, they'll cry afterwards when the whole thing blows up in their face and blame Sony, the world and of course those evil pirates for it, but they don't care, don't listen and most of all, don't want to know.
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
You're paying $50 per game when each has a full-length campaign (according to Blizzard). This is not nearly as bad as you're thinking. You're implying that it's as if a normal-length RTS was split into thirds and each sold at full price, but that's not the case at all.
"16MB (fuck off, MiB fascists)" - The Mighty Buzzard