onlysublime Posted March 14, 2012 Share Posted March 14, 2012 (edited) This is the reason why I hate EA and how they manage their own servers. They can prematurely shut down any game server they want. The game servers run by Microsoft can run indefinitely. There are plenty of ancient Xbox 360 games still running because Microsoft runs the servers. But because EA has such major clout, Microsoft backed down when EA demanded they run their own servers or else Microsoft would not be getting EA games. Microsoft had no clout to stop EA because way back when, the 360 was just about to launch and you can't have a game system that has no EA games. Sony was the dominant force but they didnt' care about online back then so it's not like they stood in the way of EA and it's not like MS had the strength to toe the line. There have been many other games that were shut down on other platforms that kept running on the 360 because Microsoft managed them. Grid was shut down long ago on the PC and PS3 because that's what Codemasters wanted but it kept on ticking at Microsoft. http://www.ea.com/1/service-updates The decisions to retire older EA games are never easy. Thank you, Electronic Arts April 13, 2012 -- Online Services Shutdown 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 March 31, 2012 -- Online Services Shutdown BATTLEFIELD™ 3: Aftershock for iPad, iPhone, and iPod touch Fantasi Safari for iPad, iPhone, and iPod touch Ghost Harvest for iPhone Previously Shut Down Online Service Arena Football™ for PlayStation 2 and Xbox Arena Football™: Road to Glory for PlayStation 2 Armies of Exigo™ for PC Army of Two™ for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 Army of Two™ Demo for Xbox 360 Battlefield 2: Modern Combat™ for Xbox and Xbox 360 Battlefield 2: Modern Combat™ Demo for Xbox 360 Battlefield 2142™ Demo for PC Burnout™ Revenge for PlayStation 2 and Xbox Burnout™ Dominator for PlayStation Portable Burnout™ 3: Takedown ™ for PlayStation 2 and Xbox Def Jam® for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 EA SPORTS™ Fantasy Football 09 for Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 EA SPORTS™ FIFA Manager 10 for PC EA SPORTS™ Fight Night Round 2 for PlayStation 2 and Xbox EA SPORTS™ Fight Night Round 3 for PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, PlayStation 2, PlayStation Portable and Xbox EA SPORTS™ MMA (Live Broadcast Feature only) for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 Facebreaker™ for Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 FIFA Soccer 2005 for PC, PlayStation 2 and Xbox FIFA 06 for PC, PlayStation 2, PlayStation Portable, Xbox and Xbox 360 FIFA 07 for PC, PlayStation Portable, PlayStation 2, Xbox and Xbox 360 FIFA 08 for PlayStation Portable, PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, Wii and PC FIFA 09 for PC, PlayStation Portable, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and Wii FIFA 09 Ultimate Team for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 FIFA 10 for PC, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 FIFA 10 Ultimate Team for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 FIFA Street 3 for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 The Godfather™ The Game for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 GoldenEye: Rogue Agent™ for PlayStation 2 and Xbox LITTLEST PET SHOP Online for PC The Lord of the Rings™, The Battle for Middle-earth™ for PC The Lord of the Rings™, The Battle for Middle-earth™ II for PC and Xbox 360 The Lord of the Rings™, The Battle for Middle-earth™ II, The Rise of the Witch-king™ for PC and Xbox 360 The Lord of the Rings: Conquest™ for PC, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 MVP Baseball™ 2005 for PC, PlayStation 2 and Xbox MVP™ 07 NCAA® Baseball for PlayStation 2 and Xbox Madden NFL 05 for PC, PlayStation 2 and Xbox Madden NFL 06 for PC, PlayStation 2, PlayStation Portable, Xbox and Xbox 360 Madden NFL 07 for PC, PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3, PlayStation Portable, Xbox and Xbox 360 Madden NFL 08 for PC, PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3, PlayStation Portable, Wii, Xbox and Xbox 360 Madden NFL 09 for PlayStation Portable (all regions), PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, Wii and Xbox Madden NFL 10 for PlayStation Portable (all regions), PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and Wii Marvel Nemesis™: Rise of the Imperfects™ for PlayStation 2 and Xbox Medal of Honor Airborne™ for PlayStation Portable Medal of Honor Heroes™ 2 for PlayStation Portable and Wii Medal of Honor Pacific Assault™ for PC Medal of Honor™ Rising Sun for PlayStation 2 Mercenaries 2: World in Flames™ for PC MySims™ for PC NASCAR® 05: Chase for the Cup™ for PC, PlayStation 2 and Xbox NASCAR® 06: Total Team Control for PlayStation 2 and Xbox NASCAR® 07 for PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3, Xbox and Xbox 360 NASCAR® 08 for PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 NASCAR® 09 for PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 NBA LIVE 05 for PC, PlayStation 2 and Xbox NBA LIVE 06 for PC, PlayStation 2, PlayStation Portable, Xbox and Xbox 360 NBA LIVE 07 for PC, PlayStation 2, PlayStation Portable, Xbox and Xbox 360 NBA LIVE 08 for PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, PC, PlayStation 2, PlayStation Portable and Wii NBA LIVE 09 for PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and Wii NBA Street (2007) for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 NBA Street V3 for PlayStation 2 and Xbox NCAA® Basketball 08 for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 NCAA® Basketball 09 for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 NCAA® Basketball 10 for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 NCAA® Football 05 for PlayStation 2 and Xbox NCAA® Football 06 for PlayStation 2 and Xbox NCAA® Football 07 for Xbox 360, PlayStation 2, PlayStation Portable and Xbox NCAA® Football 08 forPlayStation 3, Xbox 360, PlayStation 2 and Xbox NCAA® Football 09 for PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and PlayStation 2 NCAA® Football 10 for PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 NCAA® March Madness 06 for PlayStation 2 and Xbox NCAA® March Madness™ 2005 for PlayStation 2 and Xbox NCAA® March Madness® 07 for PlayStation 2, Xbox and Xbox 360 Need for Speed™ Carbon for PlayStation Portable Need for Speed™ Most Wanted for PC, PlayStation Portable, Xbox and Xbox 360 Need for Speed™ ProStreet for PC and PlayStation Portable Need for Speed™ Undercover for PlayStation Portable Need for Speed™ Underground for PlayStation 2 Need for Speed™ Underground 2 for PC, PlayStation 2 and Xbox NFL Head Coach 09 for PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, PC, PlayStation 2 and Xbox NFL STREET 2: Unleashed for PlayStation 2 and Xbox NFL STREET 3 for PlayStation 2 NFL Tour for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 NHL® 2005 for PC, PlayStation 2 and Xbox NHL® 06 for PC, PlayStation 2 and Xbox NHL® 07 for PC, PlayStation 2, PlayStation Portable, Xbox and Xbox 360 NHL® 08 for PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, PlayStation 2 and PC NHL® 09 for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 NHL® 10 for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 Pet Society™ Vacation for iPhone The Simpsons™ Game for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 SimSocial on Facebook The Sims Carnival SKATE™ for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 Tiger Woods PGA TOUR® 05 for PC, PlayStation 2 and Xbox Tiger Woods PGA TOUR® 06 for PC, PlayStation 2, Xbox and Xbox 360 Tiger Woods PGA TOUR® 07 for PC, PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3, PlayStation Portable, Xbox and Xbox 360 Tiger Woods PGA TOUR® 08 for PC, PlayStation 2 PlayStation 3, PlayStation Portable and Xbox 360 Tiger Woods PGA TOUR® 09 for PlayStation 3, Wii and Xbox 360 Tiger Woods PGA TOUR® 10 for PlayStation Portable, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and Wii Tiger Woods PGA TOUR® 11 Demo for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 TimeSplitters 3: Future Perfect™ for Xbox and PlayStation 2 Total Club Manager 06 for PlayStation 2 UEFA Champions League™ 2004-2005 for PC, PlayStation 2 and Xbox UEFA Champions League™ 2006-2007 for PlayStation 2 and PlayStation Portable UEFA Champions League™ 07 for PC and Xbox 360 UEFA EURO 2008™ for PC PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 2006 FIFA World Cup™ for PC, PlayStation 2, PlayStation Portable, Xbox and Xbox 360 2010 FIFA World Cup™ South Africa for PC, PlayStation 3, PlayStation Portable, Xbox 360 and Wii 2010 FIFA World Cup™ South Africa Demo for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 Edited March 14, 2012 by onlysublime Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Keatah Posted March 15, 2012 Share Posted March 15, 2012 This is why I don't do modern gaming, and especially online modern gaming. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SlowCoder Posted March 15, 2012 Share Posted March 15, 2012 I wish people could set up their own servers, like when we had the Half-Life and Unreal Tournament games on PC. Then I don't think it would hurt as much, and could go on as long as there was interest. Instead we are stuck with the vendor's schedule and when they decide it's time to take down their servers. However, it isn't logical to expect that they run servers for severely outdated games forever. Otherwise, their farms would just get too huge to manage effectively. Then you'd just have loads more downtime than we already have. Honestly, if they scheduled the termination of services for games on a particular platform for 2 years past EOL (end of life) for that platform, I think I'd be ok with that. That would give 99% of gamers time to play their games until they were completely bored, had gotten their money's worth out of them and were ready to move on. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Atariboy Posted March 15, 2012 Share Posted March 15, 2012 This is the reason why I hate EA and how they manage their own servers. They can prematurely shut down any game server they want. The game servers run by Microsoft can run indefinitely. There are plenty of ancient Xbox 360 games still running because Microsoft runs the servers. Those ancient 360 games are still online because there are no servers to shut down. All they use are the standard matchmaking functions of Xbox Live. The average 360 game relies on player's hosting their own matches, with EA games being one of the large exceptions on the platform. Microsoft isn't hosting your matches when you log into something like Halo 3's multiplayer. Microsoft has shut servers down before. Seems like they did that to one of the Steel Battalion games on the Xbox years before Xbox Live support ended. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
onlysublime Posted March 15, 2012 Author Share Posted March 15, 2012 No, on the 360, Microsoft has not ended server support for 360 games. Only for original Xbox games. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Skarrj Posted March 15, 2012 Share Posted March 15, 2012 Timesplitters still had a large fanbase when they shut the servers down... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
akator Posted March 15, 2012 Share Posted March 15, 2012 If you want great online games to keep running, the best answer is Dreamcast. There are still many "alternative" servers available, and it's relatively easy to setup your own. All hail the Dreamcast, still rockin' after being discontinued for almost a decade 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
onlysublime Posted March 15, 2012 Author Share Posted March 15, 2012 also, you can play system link games on the Xbox1 via server software such as XBConnect and Xlink Kai. that's how you can play games like Halo 2. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SoulBlazer Posted March 15, 2012 Share Posted March 15, 2012 90 percent of the games on there are old sports game, which no one is playing online anymore. I think EA only promises to keep online access for sports games going two years after release, which I totally agree with. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
onlysublime Posted March 15, 2012 Author Share Posted March 15, 2012 EA Sports Active 2.0 is only 1 year old and is one of the few online fitness games. Burnout Revenge is still the best Burnout game on the current gen systems and still has lots of racers out there. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
godslabrat Posted March 15, 2012 Share Posted March 15, 2012 EA did something that screws over their customers... it must be Wednesday. 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Keatah Posted March 15, 2012 Share Posted March 15, 2012 That's why I don't do modern gaming much, let alone online gaming. I never chase the DLC either. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Atariboy Posted March 15, 2012 Share Posted March 15, 2012 (edited) No, on the 360, Microsoft has not ended server support for 360 games. Only for original Xbox games. That's not what I said at all. I'm explaining why it generally doesn't happen to most Xbox 360 software. The average game relies on the player's hosting their own matches so there's nothing to shut down for that specific game. EA's games are some of the few exceptions here that rely on dedicated servers ran by the publisher to host matches. That's why EA Xbox 360 games go offline after a length of time so they can utilize that server capacity for newer releases. Microsoft has also shut down some of their games in the past that also relied on company ran hosting. Steel Battalion: Line of Contact on the Xbox (Not a 360 game I know, but it's still an example and Xbox Live isn't much different today) was one such non EA exception that relied on company ran servers. Microsoft pulled the plug what seemed like years before Xbox Live support for the console itself was discontinued. This reason is why people kept playing Halo 2 for weeks after Xbox Live support ended for the original console. The game only relied on Xbox Live for matchmaking and on Bungie for things like stat tracking. So as long as player's stayed in the server they were in prior to shut down, they were able to keep playing indefinitely despite Microsoft having turned off things at their end (Although I believe Bungie kept up stat tracking until the last person went offline). The average 360 game works the same way with company ran services just handling matchmaking, hosting of downloadable content, messaging, etc. Actually handling communication between players in the same online match still relies on one of the player's themselves. Not defending them, just explaining why it happens to EA games while seemingly most every other 360 game ever released with online multiplayer is still online. Edited March 15, 2012 by Atariboy Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
onlysublime Posted March 15, 2012 Author Share Posted March 15, 2012 actually, the way Halo 2 was handled was not exactly what Microsoft said. they said that as long as people were still playing, the servers would still be up. but that's not true. gamers who wanted the servers to stay up stayed connected and kept it active but Microsoft shut it down anyway. but again, I haven't seen it with 360 games run by Microsoft. Ubisoft games, Codemasters, Majesco, etc. all still running on 360 while shut down on other systems. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Atariboy Posted March 15, 2012 Share Posted March 15, 2012 (edited) As far as I know, people stayed online in Halo 2 for weeks until there was just a single player left (With the rest slowly succombing to having to reset their modems, power outages, system failures, etc.). Did Microsoft kick him out in the end? If so, perhaps online multiplayer is more reliant on Xbox Live than just for matchmaking and such and they had to get rid of him to finish pulling the plug, but it doesn't change what I said. The average Xbox 360 game relies on player hosted servers. The reason so many Playstation 3 games go offline after a time is because the situation is the exact opposite over there. The average Playstation 3 game relies on company ran dedicated servers and publishers even have to handle things like matchmaking themselves. So obviously they want to repurpose those assets after a time to support newer releases where the bulk of their players are active. But on the Xbox 360 for a non EA game (The situation I've described on the Xbox and Xbox 360 is why it was several years after the launch of Xbox Live before EA Xbox games supported online multiplayer until Microsoft relented), it typically relies on player's hosting their own matches. Xbox Live is just used for matching up players, hosting downloadable content, communications, etc. There's nothing for a publisher like Ubisoft, Codemasters, and Majesco to turn off on their end on the 360. When you're playing something like Dirt 3 online, you're either hosting the game or someone else in your race is. But on the PS3, you're racing in Dirt 3 on a server provided by Codemasters. That's why Grid still has online multiplayer on the 360 but has been offline for a year or two on the PS3, for instance. Edited March 15, 2012 by Atariboy Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
moycon Posted March 15, 2012 Share Posted March 15, 2012 Burnout Revenge for Xbox 360. This one pisses me off. breakpack and I played this a few months ago and there were others playing that night as well. Some of these games (Burnout for instance) include online achievments. How the heck are you supposed to get the achievement when you can't go online! LOL. I hope someone figures out how to start up their own servers for some of these games. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
onlysublime Posted March 15, 2012 Author Share Posted March 15, 2012 As far as I know, people stayed online in Halo 2 for weeks until there was just a single player left (With the rest slowly succombing to having to reset their modems, power outages, system failures, etc.). Did Microsoft kick him out in the end? If so, perhaps online multiplayer is more reliant on Xbox Live than just for matchmaking and such and they had to get rid of him to finish pulling the plug, but it doesn't change what I said. The average Xbox 360 game relies on player hosted servers. The reason so many Playstation 3 games go offline after a time is because the situation is the exact opposite over there. The average Playstation 3 game relies on company ran dedicated servers and publishers even have to handle things like matchmaking themselves. So obviously they want to repurpose those assets after a time to support newer releases where the bulk of their players are active. But on the Xbox 360 for a non EA game (The situation I've described on the Xbox and Xbox 360 is why it was several years after the launch of Xbox Live before EA Xbox games supported online multiplayer until Microsoft relented), it typically relies on player's hosting their own matches. Xbox Live is just used for matching up players, hosting downloadable content, communications, etc. There's nothing for a publisher like Ubisoft, Codemasters, and Majesco to turn off on their end on the 360. When you're playing something like Dirt 3 online, you're either hosting the game or someone else in your race is. You're making the assumption that the vast majority of 360 games are peer to peer when they're not. Quite a few are but not the vast majority. and yes, for Halo 2, it wasn't one person. multiple gamers have claimed that they kept the servers alive, only to be booted by Microsoft. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Segataritensoftii Posted March 15, 2012 Share Posted March 15, 2012 Battlefield 3 Aftershock? Ouch. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VW Posted March 15, 2012 Share Posted March 15, 2012 Things like this are why I boycott EA now. I was still able to find matches instantly on FIFA 08 on PS3 a few days before they shut the servers down on it. I have no problem if EA wants to take down servers for their games but when they do so, they should provide a means for interested players to host their own servers. It is quite obvious especially with the sports titles that they want to force you out of the game to buy their newest edition, which since EA is EA is generally pretty close to the same thing. EA continues to move to a games as services instead of games as products business which I hate and will not support. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Atariboy Posted March 16, 2012 Share Posted March 16, 2012 You're making the assumption that the vast majority of 360 games are peer to peer when they're not. Quite a few are but not the vast majority. and yes, for Halo 2, it wasn't one person. multiple gamers have claimed that they kept the servers alive, only to be booted by Microsoft. It's not an assumption, it's a fact. The vast majority of 360 games don't rely on dedicated servers and that's why the vast majority of 360 games still have online multiplayer capabilities. Beyond Electronic Arts releases, very few do (I can't think of a single example off hand, and just a single example on the original Xbox). But anyways it's pointless to argue it. And I just found multiple articles at mainstream gaming sites that reported on the end of Halo 2. The number of players eventually dwindled to a single person after about three weeks, who reported being booted from the server. It doesn't look like they pulled the plug while online multiplayer action was still taking place and waited until there was just a single individual still logged in. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
onlysublime Posted March 16, 2012 Author Share Posted March 16, 2012 Atariboy, you're still changing the argument. The argument is that EA controls the entire process of you being able to play your game online. That's what they took away from Microsoft. All that matters is that a person can make a connection to another person to play. Whether it's 30% of 360 games are P2P or 100% of games are P2P doesn't matter. Skype is P2P whereas AIM is now a hybrid. Does that matter to the user? The user just wants to connect to people. In the case of EA, EA wanted control of the entire pipeline between the game and you. Why does EA run servers? It's certainly not some magnanimous decision. As for the Halo 2, go to the messageboards, not what the media reports. The messageboards show multiple users complaining that they kept the servers running only to be removed. Whether this is true or not, who knows because it's messageboards but in terms of closing down access prematurely, Microsoft is certainly not going to report that they booted people. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cimerians Posted March 16, 2012 Share Posted March 16, 2012 EA sucks. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Atariboy Posted March 16, 2012 Share Posted March 16, 2012 (edited) Atariboy, you're still changing the argument. The argument is that EA controls the entire process of you being able to play your game online. That's what they took away from Microsoft. All that matters is that a person can make a connection to another person to play. Whether it's 30% of 360 games are P2P or 100% of games are P2P doesn't matter. Skype is P2P whereas AIM is now a hybrid. Does that matter to the user? The user just wants to connect to people. In the case of EA, EA wanted control of the entire pipeline between the game and you. Why does EA run servers? It's certainly not some magnanimous decision. I don't believe I'm changing the argument. I actually agree with you 100% that this situation sucks. And I also don't believe that Microsoft should've ever relented and allowed EA to utilize their own servers since it has proven to be nothing but trouble for people that want to play EA published games online. Not defending EA over either. But since that is the situation and EA published games do utilize company ran servers, I think it's valid to point out the situation (EA games utilizing dedicated server space versus most 360 games relying on P2P) since it makes this decision on the part of EA seem more reasonable. It's not like they're shutting down old games that aren't taking up any of their resources here (If a publisher like Ubisoft was able to disable online multiplayer on their 360 games, I'd be the first one to complain since their games are P2P and Ubisoft isn't hosting a thing). Hope you don't mind that I mentioned our debate over in your thread about this at AVS. Thought maybe we'd have a few people chime in and confirm what I said about the vast majority of non EA 360 games relying on P2P with nothing for the publisher to turn off on their end. Edited March 16, 2012 by Atariboy Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GrizzLee Posted March 16, 2012 Share Posted March 16, 2012 Burnout Revenge for Xbox 360. This one pisses me off. breakpack and I played this a few months ago and there were others playing that night as well. Some of these games (Burnout for instance) include online achievments. How the heck are you supposed to get the achievement when you can't go online! LOL. I hope someone figures out how to start up their own servers for some of these games. Likewise for me. My son and his friends still play quite a bit of Burnout Revenge. It is actually one of my favorite XBOX360 games too date. This sucks big time! -GrizzLee Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lauren Tyler Posted March 21, 2012 Share Posted March 21, 2012 Is it me, or is EA willing to stop at nothing to get their own way in order to ruin things for us? I mean, trying to stop used game sales is bad enough, but insisting that they be allowed to manage their own servers instead of letting Microsoft do so? They're going too far. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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