EA Closing Battlefield Heroes, Need for Speed World, FIFA World, and More
Publisher ending all support for a handful of free-to-play PC games, but Star Wars: The Republic will live on .
[UPDATE] EA has now published a post on its Support site that explains all four games will go offline on July 14. No refunds will be available for any unused currency. Read the full post to get all the details.
The original story is below.
Electronic Arts announced today that it is shutting down a handful of its PC free-to-play games, including Battlefield Heroes, Battlefield Play4Free, FIFA World, and Need for Speed World.
EA Studios executive vice president Patrick Soderlund wrote in a blog post today that, while free-to-play PC game Star Wars: The Old Republic is still going strong, the same can't be said for others.
"Some of our other PC free-to-play games are not as popular as they once were," said. "So we find ourselves announcing the tough decision today that we are stopping development and winding down support for four PC free-to-play titles."
The affected games, which will officially go offline in about 90 days, are:
- Battlefield Heroes
- Battlefield Play4Free
- FIFA World
- and Need for Speed World
A blog post on the Battlefield Heroes website reveals that the game will official close on July 14. Players who have a balance of in-game currency on their account are encouraged to spend it. Those who don't do so before the official shutdown will be out of luck, as no refunds will be available.
Effectively immediately, sign-ups for Battlefield Heroes have ended and existing players can no longer purchase in-game currency.
Logistics details for the closure of Battlefield Play4Free, FIFA World, and Need for Speed World are not available.
Soderlund went on to say that in the time since these games were released--in some cases that was more than five years ago--the way people play games "has changed dramatically." He said these titles were once "pioneering experiences" and thanked fans for their support of them.
"While we say farewell to these free-to-play titles in the next few months, we are always exploring new concepts and ways to bring great games to more players around the world," Soderlund said.
After the shutdown of these four games, EA will still have two major free-to-play games for PC: Star Wars: The Old Republic and Commander & Conquer: Tiberium Alliances. Beyond PC, EA has a large catalog of free-to-play games for mobile devices, including The Simpsons: Tapped Out and The Sims: FreePlay, among others.
On the subject of Star Wars: The Old Republic, Soderlund said the game "continues to have a very enthusiastic and growing player community." He added that EA will add more "story-driven" content to the game later this year.
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