As of June 30, a number of games – some of them among the best of all time – will have their online components cease to be supported.
Among the casualties will be Battlefield 1942 (PC), C&C Generals (PC), Crysis (PC), Master of Orion III (PC), Medal of Honor: Allied Assault (PC), the original Neverwinter Nights (PC) and its sequel, and both Star Wars: Battlefront titles on PC.
There are also some Wii, DS and even PS2 games among the casualties, but those ones listed above are the big ones.
The move comes as EA, who either made, published or now own the rights to all those games, reacts to the looming closure of Gamespy, itself an ancient online service which has been keeping these classics’ multiplayer alive on life-support for years. With Gamespy closing down on May 31, the EA games using it will be cut off as well.
Of course, this doesn’t mean the games will be dead. The singleplayer component of most of these will still work just fine. And as for multiplayer stuff, where there’s demand, fans usually take up the slack and host servers once official ones die off. For the big ones, like the Battlefield titles, EA is even “investigating community-supported options to preserve online functionality for these titles”, though it also admits “Significant technical hurdles remain, and at this time we don’t have anything to announce”.
But that kind of help won’t arrive for every game on the chopping block, especially the console ones, so if you’re one of the three people worldwide still playing the online modes of Green Day: Rock Band on the Wii, time to get your goodbyes ready.
The full list of games affected is below.
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 (r) 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 III 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 II for PC and PlayStation 2
THE BEATLES: ROCK BAND for the Wii
Tiger Woods PGA Tour 08 for Nintendo DS