Originally Posted by Kevlar281 I think there should be some kind of patch for games that lose server support that unlocks all online achievements. I know I'll probably be in the minority on this but it's something companies should consider.

I don't think they'll ever do this, especially since MS is now making a habit of policing gamerscore. Personally I dont want them to just randomly "give" out achievements that people did not earn due to server shutdowns. If you want the achievements, go out and earn them either legit or by boosting. There are plenty of achievement whores out there on trueachievements.com and x360a.org who are willing to help.

Originally Posted by benjamouth I'd like to see an end to achievements based on online play full stop. Especially ones that rely on Ranked matches. It's just an attempt to get more people online, if your game is good enough people will play it online regardless (see MW 1 +2, Halo 3 etc). And people who do go into online games just for achievements probably aren't playing properly anyway.

I would definitely be for no online achievements or at least no ranked achievements. But you know how it is, most achievement lists are just copies or re-hashes of other games. EA seems to like to duplicate things often, especially on the sports games. I think NCAA basketball 09 & 10 have the exact same lists across the board. Including play 75?!??! ranked games. WTF.

Originally Posted by bigdaddybruce44 Why do people expect a company to operate servers for old games that almost no one plays? I severely doubt the Madden 08 community is bursting with activity. Hell, even a game like NBA Street Homecourt, which has no successor, was a pain in the ass to get a game going with. It might be a little easier now that people are rushing to try and get the achievements, but a year ago, there was no one...ever.

Yea, that is why I don't make a big deal about these shutdowns. Nobody is playing these titles legit any longer. People have had plenty of time to get their achievements in these games and EA gave everyone over a month's notice prior to shutdown. According to EA these games are taking up 0.3% of their average bandwidth and most are more than 2 years old.

not sure why achievement is a big deal as there are games where you can't get every AP due to glitch

Originally Posted by GLOCKGLOCK ...According to EA these games are taking up 0.3% of their average bandwidth and most are more than 2 years old.

Exactly, they are hardly taking up any bandwidth, and by extension the server amount can be pared down to meet demand. As the number of players decreases so can the money they spend on servers, but shutting it down completely is purely to push newer titles.

Like I said before, I'm sure servers can be set up to host multiple low-demand games dynamically.

I don't know about you, but when I see "online multiplayer 2" listed as a feature on the back of my copy of Madden 08 I see that as part of what I paid for. Who cares if I haven't used it yet, I may feel like it later. Plus, I have no intention of buying any newer football games, if I ever feel like playing one I'll return to '08. I can't be the only one who thinks that way.

if i pay 4 dollars a month, i want some kind of online system. how is it that i have to pay for xbox live when 95% of xboxs community play three things halo/gear/MW2

excuse me while i play unreal tournament 1999 with 5000 people and with unlimited FREE content

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Originally Posted by GLOCKGLOCK Yea, that is why I don't make a big deal about these shutdowns. Nobody is playing these titles legit any longer. People have had plenty of time to get their achievements in these games and EA gave everyone over a month's notice prior to shutdown. According to EA these games are taking up 0.3% of their average bandwidth and most are more than 2 years old.

I agree with this because I realize that nobody is playing some of these games. . .

Originally Posted by Filbert Exactly, they are hardly taking up any bandwidth, and by extension the server amount can be pared down to meet demand. As the number of players decreases so can the money they spend on servers, but shutting it down completely is purely to push newer titles. Like I said before, I'm sure servers can be set up to host multiple low-demand games dynamically. I don't know about you, but when I see "online multiplayer 2" listed as a feature on the back of my copy of Madden 08 I see that as part of what I paid for. Who cares if I haven't used it yet, I may feel like it later. Plus, I have no intention of buying any newer football games, if I ever feel like playing one I'll return to '08. I can't be the only one who thinks that way.

. . . but I agree here because it seems like a low cost way to address the situation. . .

Originally Posted by timesplitt if i pay 4 dollars a month, i want some kind of online system. how is it that i have to pay for xbox live when 95% of xboxs community play three things halo/gear/MW2

. . . however, the clincher might be part of this point. If I PAY for online service and I PAY for a game I expect full functionality. As this continues older games will begin to be a big problem for people who are not aware of closed servers when they buy, say Chromehounds, and go home to play only to find that they can't even play online, which from what I understand was the best part of CHromehounds. I'm more ok with older sports games getting the axe, but I think they should be three or more years older as alot of poeple don't upgrade EVERY year so give people time. I'm surprised CH got the boot, although Sega is smaller than EA and it's an older game, but it seems like people still played it some and it's not like a sequel is out that everyone has moved on to.

Except for Facebreaker which is a little different sports game and pretty recent compared to some others, the rest don't bother me too much. However, it makes me wonder what's next? Mercs 2? LoTR Conquest? As a CAG I've got a big backlog of older games and now I wonder how many of them will get shut down soon.

Anyway, I'm going to be playing Facebreaker, NBA Street HC and NBA 07 until the end to get those APs so FR JDawgg77 if you want to play.

Originally Posted by Filbert Exactly, they are hardly taking up any bandwidth, and by extension the server amount can be pared down to meet demand. As the number of players decreases so can the money they spend on servers, but shutting it down completely is purely to push newer titles. Like I said before, I'm sure servers can be set up to host multiple low-demand games dynamically. I don't know about you, but when I see "online multiplayer 2" listed as a feature on the back of my copy of Madden 08 I see that as part of what I paid for. Who cares if I haven't used it yet, I may feel like it later. Plus, I have no intention of buying any newer football games, if I ever feel like playing one I'll return to '08. I can't be the only one who thinks that way.

How many new titles do you think they will sell by shutting out 0.3% of their total bandwidth? People will just move on to another low cost option instead of plunking down $60 for Madden 11.

The last part of your statement is what makes me laugh about this whole thing. I'm willing to bet most of the people bitching about these server shutdowns don't even play the mentioned games online. They just feel that they are entitled to lifetime support on everything. Unfortunately that isn't how things work especially with yearly sports releases. For the most part, if you don't use it, you lose it. People move on to new games and companies have compelling reasons to shut down the servers. Sure they could partition part of a server for Madden 07 Madden 08 and other games, but its alot cheaper to just dedicate it all to one game. So this is what you have. I wouldn't be surprised to see EA shutting down servers for other games throughout this year. I really feel this is just the start of things.

Originally Posted by jdawgg76 . . . however, the clincher might be part of this point. If I PAY for online service and I PAY for a game I expect full functionality. As this continues older games will begin to be a big problem for people who are not aware of closed servers when they buy, say Chromehounds, and go home to play only to find that they can't even play online, which from what I understand was the best part of CHromehounds. I'm more ok with older sports games getting the axe, but I think they should be three or more years older as alot of poeple don't upgrade EVERY year so give people time. I'm surprised CH got the boot, although Sega is smaller than EA and it's an older game, but it seems like people still played it some and it's not like a sequel is out that everyone has moved on to. Except for Facebreaker which is a little different sports game and pretty recent compared to some others, the rest don't bother me too much. However, it makes me wonder what's next? Mercs 2? LoTR Conquest? As a CAG I've got a big backlog of older games and now I wonder how many of them will get shut down soon. Anyway, I'm going to be playing Facebreaker, NBA Street HC and NBA 07 until the end to get those APs so FR JDawgg77 if you want to play.

Well EA is taking down the online for these games on the PSN too so I'm not sure your argument about paying for Live is valid in this case. If Microsoft controlled the servers that is one thing, but they don't with EA. Sony and MS let EA control the servers for their games so this is inevitably what happens. Read the terms and conditions for any of these services and nowhere does it imply that you will be able to play these games forever online. I agree it sucks to do something like this, but it is the reality with EA so I suggest knocking out the online achievements early for all EA games or risk being left out.

Not sure how Chromehounds ended up dying. It did still had a pretty robust community, but I'm guessing the nature of the game made it more difficult to host since it was a dynamic ongoing war that everyone online was competing in. Actually when they announced the server shutdown it became very shitty though because everyone flocked to the game to try to get the online achievements out of the way since over 800 of the 1000 points are online. The die hard legit players hated the fact that the achievement whores started playing so their goal was to basically grief everyone and try to stop people from boosting. It was just really ugly in the end. Tons of in-fighting between groups. As soon as a Squad got out a secret weapon to boost for Valors the legit players would focus on taking down the territory in order to shut everyone out.

Originally Posted by GLOCKGLOCK How many new titles do you think they will sell by shutting out 0.3% of their total bandwidth?...

And by extension, how much money do you think they'll save by cutting off only 0.3% of their total bandwidth and server load?

At this point it's not about the money; it's about public relations. Shutting down the servers for these games isn't doing their image any favors.

Originally Posted by GLOCKGLOCK . . . I really feel this is just the start of things.

Agreed. We might need a permanent thread listing games that no longer have online components anymore.

Originally Posted by GLOCKGLOCK Well EA is taking down the online for these games on the PSN too so I'm not sure your argument about paying for Live is valid in this case. If Microsoft controlled the servers that is one thing, but they don't with EA. Sony and MS let EA control the servers for their games so this is inevitably what happens. Read the terms and conditions for any of these services and nowhere does it imply that you will be able to play these games forever online. I agree it sucks to do something like this, but it is the reality with EA so I suggest knocking out the online achievements early for all EA games or risk being left out.

Sure, that argument would only be valid for the 360 players and not PS3 gamers and realistically only to a point because once a game gets so old and never played online it really is time to cut it off. I expect to see more games dropping out as time goes on. Wow at some of the nonsports last gen games getting cut off, but I don't know how many people play last gen Burnout Revenge online anymore. Or current gen Burnout Revenge for that matter.

Bummer about Chromehounds. Wonder if all the Facebreaker players will get pissed at us.

Originally Posted by Filbert And by extension, how much money do you think they'll save by cutting off only 0.3% of their total bandwidth and server load? At this point it's not about the money; it's about public relations. Shutting down the servers for these games isn't doing their image any favors.

Yea, at this point EA is in the power position and they really do not care about their public image. Their hardcore customers buy Madden every year regardless of what minimal improvements have been made. Same goes for their other yearly titles. Those type of customers probably don't even know that servers are being shutdown and even if they did they probably would not care.

The fact that you or anyone else was still playing Madden 07/08 instead of buying Madden 09/10/11 proves to them that you aren't in their core customer group so it makes it that much easier for them to shut these old games down and move on.

Somewhat changing the subject. I decided to look at all the EA games when they announced these server shutdowns and they still have some games up from 2006/2007 including Battlefield Modern Combat 2, Burnout Revenge and LotR Battle for Middle earth. Don't be surprised if those ones are gone sometime this year.

Well, if you're going to look at the box, right under the features, EA tells you quite clearly that they reserve the right to discontinue online features. They've always done this when they are the ones controlling online play. I remember it from when I use to play Madden online with the PS2. This is not some big surprise. EA's always done this. If anything, get annoyed at Microsoft for handing over control to EA.

There's no point in committing resources, no matter how insignificant, into a dead title. Right now, I'm sure there are people online with these games, desperately trying to get the last achievements. But before this announcement, do you really think anyone was playing? So, even if you could fire up that copy of Madden 08, you'd probably be waiting a long time to actually find someone to play.

Yeah, I am working on my last achievement for Dirt1 (drive 1000 miles in career) and tried online for the heck of it and there was noone on at all. Course it had poor structure for head2head racing.

My favorite EA closing servers moment is when they got control of NFL2k5's servers when they got the ESPN deal and immediately shut them down. Bet they were itching for that as there was still alot of activity on the PS2 and xbox servers even though it was 3-4 years later.

There's 1000+ in NBA 07 lobbies. Get there quick if you need that achievement. I still need the other three NBA 07 online achievements and about thirty wins in Facebreaker if anyone needs those and wants to play/boost. Not a big booster, but since they're shutting down the servers before I got around to playing these (FB & NBA HC, I got NBA 07 to help reach 1,000) I'm down with it.

set my alarm for 12:15 and woke up and turned off alarm and went back to bed forgetting about this.. dammit

Update: Microsoft has announced that Xbox Live support for ALL original Xbox games will end on April 15. I take it that this includes the ability to download DLC so I for one will have to redownload the DLC for Splinter Cell onto my newly acquired OG Xbox. This shutdown is for all original xbox games including BC games playable on 360s AND Xbox Originals purchased on 360s. Reminds me that I still haven't played Doom 3 co-op.

Just to clarify, you can still play your BC XBox 1 games on the 360, but their Live functionality will be gone.

I bet you'll also be signed out of Live when you start one up.

Did I read right that original xbox titles that were bought on the 360 marketplace ie fable, halo will lose support? That doesn't seem right. I understand ending BC support by not bringing on new games but games purchased on the 360 still should be supported.

Originally Posted by MSUHitman Just to clarify, you can still play your BC XBox 1 games on the 360, but their Live functionality will be gone. I bet you'll also be signed out of Live when you start one up.

Right, sorry if that was unclear, but when I typed Xbox Live support I was referring to being able to play online and download DLC (most likely).

Originally Posted by kklems Did I read right that original xbox titles that were bought on the 360 marketplace ie fable, halo will lose support? That doesn't seem right. I understand ending BC support by not bringing on new games but games purchased on the 360 still should be supported.

Once again sorry if that was unclear. No more online play for BC or originals or on the original xbox and most likely no more DLC downloading ability. I would think that BC game updates to enable BC compatability on the 360 would still work, but this has not been addressed yet.

http://www.majornelson.com/archive/2...and-games.aspx

The following is an important update regarding online service for Skate...aka OG Skate or Skate 1. Servers for the skate.Reel feature will be shut down on March 1st, 2010. After this date, you may continue to play the game online but no longer able to capture video clips and upload them to the skate.Reel galleries, both in-game and on the skate website. All of us at EA would like to thank you for your valued participation in our online gaming community and hope that your enthusiasm for Skate extends to Skate 2 and the upcoming Skate 3. If you have further questions about your account or the shut down of these services, please visit http://support.ea.com.

Here we go again. So if anone needs help on skate Celebrity (the onlne achievement that really needs boosting at this point) I will help out and hopefully get the favor returned.

I'll do that once my E74 is fixed.