Closing down online game services is all the rage at the moment, with Nintendo switching off elements of its Wi-Fi services on the Wii and DS on 20th May. It appears that EA is now joining in the fun, with online services for over 50 games closing at the end of June.
The range of games is old enough to incorporate a period when EA still made games for Nintendo systems — or owned companies that did — so DS and Wii owners are about to see their online gaming options shrink even further. Below are the DS and Wii titles with online services ending on 30th June this year.
- Bejeweled 2 — WiiWare
- Dracula: Undead Awakening — WiiWare
- Dragon Sakura — DS
- FIFA Soccer 08 (KOR) — Wii
- FIFA 08 — DS
- FIFA 09 — DS
- FIFA 10 — DS
- FIFA Street 3 — DS
- GREEN DAY: ROCK BAND — Wii
- Madden NFL 08 — DS
- Madden NFL 09 — DS
- MySims Party — Wii
- MySims Racing — DS
- MySims SkyHeroes — Wii and DS
- Need for Speed: ProStreet — DS
- Need For Speed: Undercover — DS
- SimCity Creator — Wii
- Skate It — DS
- Sneezies — WiiWare
- Spore Creatures — DS
- Spore Hero Arena — DS
- The Beatles: Rock Band — Wii
- Tiger Woods PGA Tour 08 — DS
There's always an air of inevitability to online services shutting down, but will you miss any of these when they're gone?
Thanks to Ryan Millar for the tip.
[source ea.com]
Comments 45
Yay!
You see "EA" and "shutdown" in a headline, and you get all excited. Sadly just online servers. Maybe next time...
I wish they'd made some more MySims games. Aside from the horrible MySims Party they were all great fun.
Does anyone still playing those games???
I will miss the Sneezies
According to Google, Dragon Sakura should be Zakura? Makes no sense to me neither… seems to be a Japan only game… didn't realise EA made those?
@ChessboardMan They may have published it? These are clearly games where, one way or another, they're running the online
So, basically you only leased part of these games? I have always felt that single player or local only multiplayer is the best option for me for this reason exactly. I can play my Nintendo (EDIT: NES, Gameboy, SNES, N64, GameCube, etc) games forever without ever having to worry about my service being shut off. I suppose this is me being old and standing on a soapbox, but I just don't and won't support "digital download only" or any games deeply rooted in online based play.
Are those online servers still active with people? No way..
Honestly I didn't even know there was a Bejeweled game on WiiWare, nor that Sneezies even existed. Makes you realise just how much more Nintendo are pushing digital content this generation; we get a substantial amount of hype and info about every game.
Always sad to hear online features shutting down, but I am not surprised. More surprised that some of those were still active.
Meh, don't care.
Nintendo is going to have to suck up big time to EA for any future support. Otherwise EA is a dead ringer for "pick-and-choose" corporate fodder.
THOSE WERE THE BEST WII GAMES I CAN NEVER FORGIVE EA NOW HOW COULD THEY DO THIS?!?!??!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?1?!?!?
lol
@XCWarrior I did exactly the same thing...we can but dream
Hm... now I really wonder if anyone plays even one of those games online.
Wow EA really brought their A list games to the table for the wii. I mean Bejeweled 2. What ever shall we do?
@SanderEvers Nah, I'm pretty sure many people played the NFS and FIFA games.
@Swiket By that I meant NES, SNES, N64, GameCube games. I know Wii games are getting shut down, but even so, I never played any Wii games that required me to use any sort of online feature.
@MamaLuigi Nintendo does not need to suck up to EA for anything. Besides I don't think that is how it works anyway. Imagine Nintendo buying a box of chocolates for EA and a hallmark card, or doing EA's laundry.
@XCWarrior Well played.
Yea this is such a shame because EA brought all of their top games to the Wii. Haha I joke I don't even care.
There is no inevitability if companies do the right thing and release a dedicated server. (Or they patch the game so it can continue working).
This is part of the reason why online gameplay sucks.
Wait, so the 3rd party games will still have online after May 20th?
Bejeweled 2 is probably the best game on that list, you know.
I don't do online gaming much so it won't effect me too much.
I can honestly say that I haven't owned an EAgame since the days of PS2 and GameCube
@jpfan1989 They don't all suck. The Mass Effect trilogy and Dead Space series are solid.
@XCWarrior
hahah... yeah... i was quite hoping that it was EA being shut down next time... next time
LOL
No game should be "old enough" to have it's online abilities slashed. What's the point in investing in something that you won't be able to enjoy in the future?
I could never make Nintendo Wifi Connection work so this doesn't affect me at all! Everything is so much simpler now!
@Angelic_Lapras_King That is what I've been asking myself too. And I guess that it may be EA who made a mistake here and may not have realised that the DS & Wii titles (which means in contrast to the titles on non-Nintendo platforms) will already lose their online functions on May 20th. According to Nintendo, ALL WiFi-Games will lose their online functionality, third parties of course included, as the whole service is shut down. At least, all the EA-titles mentioned here appear in Nintendo's own list likewise, which clearly says May 20th: http://www.nintendo.com/consumer/gameslist/en/games-wifi.jsp
I think EA failed to notice this when they released their multi-platform list, and I don't expect that the EA titles on Wii & DS will retain their online functions till the end of June, but lose them with all the others on the 20th of May.
Perhaps NL could investigate this and clarify the situation.
Personally, I owned about 30 Wii titles with online functionality and I played all of them during the last couple of weeks since the shutdown was announced. With a very few exceptions – Onslaught – I found players for every game, which surprised me too.
Hmm, I seem to have no EA title with online functionality. Indeed, almost no EA titles for the Wii at all.
@unrandomsam You're saying that companies should have dedicated servers for online for every system from now until the end of time. That would be an unnecessary waste of money, time, and energy after a point.
Good, I don't even own or play 95% of the games on that list anyways.
I have ZERO EA titles for the Wii and DS. I won't be missing out on any of these.
@Number_6 I actually gave up on Mass Effect after Bioware was bought by EA.
Dead Space Broke me and I bit and surprising loved it and Extraction on the Wii BUT all of the following games in the franchise were awful. EA's best nintendo exclusive game was Beetle Adventure Racing and I've wanted a sequel to it ever since the N64 release and really wanted to see it on Wii's VC lol
@Angelic_Lapras_King It depends on if third-party games used Nintendo's servers. I don't know about EA games, but Call of Duty Black Ops and Modern Warfare 3 run on Activision's servers, which means they will not be affected when Nintendo's servers shut down.
So what does this mean for Rock Band DLC content. Will it still be accessible if we want to buy more tracks? What about re-downloading content that was already purchased?
People can grouse over EA being a lousy company, but they've published some excellent games. The Beatles: Rock Band is one example: easily one of the coolest games released last gen and something that will be tremendously fun to play for years to come.
@Hordak and @jc3bull I'm glad I'm not the only one who feels this way!
@Caryslan So does this mean Goldeneye's online multiplayer will carry on!? Whoppie!!
@unrandomsam Quite right, if a publisher doesn't want to run servers anymore they should let people who do take it over!
I wish EA would shut down completely. They disgust me. I will never buy an EA product again and it's sad because I would've liked to got into the mass effect series. Sure they have the soccer (I live). I think they have Star Wars and dragon age I can live without these. Every time I buy an EA game I find it to be .mediocre. Anyway and that is a shame because I would have still given them a chance had they not dissed the big N that way.
@River3636
Poor Nintendo.
Oh no I'll have to get my playing time in now! ...oh wait, that's right, I don't own any of EA's game. Nor want to own any of them. Nor care. EA has already shutdown in my world.
My Bejeweled 2 on WiiWare had online stuff?
Edit: Oh, and aside from some sounds randomly and unnecessarily coming out of the Wiimote that game was top notch.
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