Publisher and developer Electronic Arts is shutting down the multiplayer hosting for numerous games with the upcoming shutdown of GameSpy in June. As a result, a great deal of multiplayer titles that rely on this service will be stranded.
EA announced the shutdown on its official blog earlier this month and Ziff Davis has plans to take the service offline May 31st. Some EA games, however, will be given an extra month by EA to keep going as multiplayer hosting is brought to bear by EA—but many games will be seeing a lights out by end of May.
Multiplayer gaming is a fundamental part of what gave rise to the concept of MMOs and still persists today for a great deal of titles on both PC and console—as is obvious from the number of titles affected by the upcoming GameSpy shutdown, it’s a notable chunk of the market from the past decade.
Such titles include games from the Battlefield series, Crysis, Command & Conquor, FIFA, and more. The full list is published below borrowed from gaming blog Polygon.
Without the GameSpy service, EA doesn’t currently have the hosting capability to keep multiplayer going for many of these titles. As a result, sacrifices need to be made.
EA has said to news media that it has been working to transition games from the Battlefield series as quickly as possible to other servers as to not disrupt the gaming experience. However, other games will most likely not be receiving such red carpet treatment and players will have to rely on their own wits to find ways to get multiplayer without the GameSpy service.
A small number of details have been available for GameSpy customers on the website. Here the site notes that the entire service will go dark May 31st.
It’s an end of an era for the multiplayer hosting service. Originating from a Quake fan site launched in 1996, which turned into a multiplayer hosting service for numerous games by newly-established GameSpy Industries. In 2000 GameSpy was acquired by IGN and ran for 14 years with over 800 video game publishers using it. A broad boast for an excellent company.
It’ll be hard to see this asset go.
The full list of titles scheduled to go offline on June 30 follows:
- Battlefield 1942 for PC and Mac (including The Road to Rome and Secret Weapons of WW2 expansions)
- Battlefield 2 for PC (including Special Forces expansion)
- Battlefield 2: Modern Combat for PlayStation 2
- Battlefield 2142 for PC and Mac (including Northern Strike expansion)
- Battlefield Vietnam for PC
- Bejeweled 2 for the Wii
- Bulletstorm for PlayStation 3
- Command & Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars for PC and Mac (including Kane’s Wrath expansion)
- Command & Conquer: Generals for PC and Mac (including Zero Hour expansion)
- Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3 for PC and Mac
- Crysis 2 for PC
- Crysis for PC
- Crysis Wars for PC
- Dracula – Undead Awakening for the Wii
- Dragon Sakura for Nintendo DS
- EA Sports 06 for PC
- F1 2002 for PC
- FIFA Soccer 08 (KOR) for the Wii
- FIFA Soccer 08 for Nintendo DS
- FIFA Soccer 09 for Nintendo DS
- FIFA Soccer 10 for Nintendo DS
- FIFA Street 3 for Nintendo DS
- Full Spectrum Warrior: Ten Hammers for PlayStation 2
- Global Operations for PC
- Green Day: Rock Band for the Wii
- James Bond: Nightfire for PC
- Madden NFL 08 for Nintendo DS
- Madden NFL 09 for Nintendo DS
- Master of Orion 3 for PC
- Medal of Honor: Allied Assault for PC and Mac (including Breakthrough and Spearhead expansions)
- MySims Party for Wii
- MySims Racing for Nintendo DS
- MySims SkyHeroes for the Wii and DS
- NASCAR Sim Racing for PC
- NASCAR Thunder 2003 for PC
- NASCAR Thunder 2004 for PC
- Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit 2 for PC
- Need for Speed: ProStreet for Nintendo DS
- Need for Speed: Undercover for Nintendo DS
- Neverwinter Nights 2 for PC and Mac
- Neverwinter Nights for PC, Mac and Linux (including Hordes of the Underdark and Shadows of Undrentide expansions)
- SimCity Creator for Wii
- Skate It for Nintendo DS
- Sneezies for the Wii
- Spore Creatures for Nintendo DS
- Spore Hero Arena for Nintendo DS
- Star Wars: Battlefront for PC and PlayStation 2
- Star Wars: Battlefront 2 for PC and PlayStation 2
- The Beatles: Rock Band for the Wii
- Tiger Woods PGA Tour 08 for Nintendo DS
That’s too bad… :/ Well thanks for information anyways.
Tnx for this information dude