EA taking a huge amount of multiplayer games offline next month

<< LINK REMOVED >><< LINK REMOVED >><< LINK REMOVED >> As far as I know, Steam doesn't have a multiplayer online infraestructure; just a community, updates and minimal matchmaking service (which P2P games like Dark Souls can take advantage of without setting up large servers). Setting up servers for games is entirely up to the developer.

Correct me if I'm wrong :)

<< LINK REMOVED >><< LINK REMOVED >> Steam does offer an online infrastructure (Dark Souls 2 uses it, plus all the Valve games use it- just as an example) but EA isn't going to invest in porting it and Valve isn't going to go easy on EA because they don't (rightfully possibly) seem to like each other so I suppose it would be complicated for EA to move over to that when the game wasn't built originally to use it.

EA doesn't want to spend any money moving these games to another online infrastructure so basically unless there is a fan option (ergo, an option they don't have to put resources into) then these games won't be online anymore.

Fans will probably come up with something, though.

<< LINK REMOVED >> Yeah small print and legal jargon, theres a reason they call it small print because they don't want you to notice it, because they wouldn't make as many "Sales" because less people would be inclined to "Rent" !

@de-astroturfer @cornbredx You should probably read those terms and service you agree to. Also apparently no one reads EULAs anymore. When you buy a game, you buy the privilege of playing the game.

<< LINK REMOVED >> Let me make this clear ! No they don't currently use the cloud because the cloud isn't fully up and running yet, but all we've heard from Microsoft in response to the 720p debacle is that the cloud will be used in future to increase the performance of these games. and when that support is switched off i.e. when a sequel arrives, you will effectively loose those games.

We can sit around and pretend that what is now will always be, but that would be a lie because Microsoft has already proclaimed it to be the future !

@de-astroturfer @cornbredx @Daveof89 Let me make this clear, because apparently I didn't with my first post...

XBOX ONE LOCAL GAMEPLAY DOESN'T REQUIRE INTERNET.

You keep saying "oh, the single player games require cloud". No, that's a load of crap. Can they be enhanced with the cloud? Possibly, but on all the single player games thus far, the cloud usage is primarily for game saves, which you could also put on your console if so desired.

<< LINK REMOVED >><< LINK REMOVED >><< LINK REMOVED >> well I think we had our wires crossed a bit, because thats precisely my point obviously some companies with limited resources can't be expected to host a game forever, but now these companies are baking redundancy into games with online only and in the case of Microsoft online only cloud dependant single player games. also it isn't as easy to get third party server support on consoles as it is on PC and I would bet EA and the like will make it impossible in the future.

<< LINK REMOVED >><< LINK REMOVED >><< LINK REMOVED >> For older games they do all the time, it's not hard to find.

"I am with you on other games where there is no other options (Titanfall above is a good example of that), but I don't buy those games and that is one of the reasons."

I'm quoting myself there as I already agreed with you on the otherwise =)

<< LINK REMOVED >><< LINK REMOVED >><< LINK REMOVED >> Thats assuming someone decides to give free server support and besides its not that easy if the single player is server dependant i.e. the xbox one and the cloud, or the whole game is online only Titanfall. Your options are limited when compared to just a few years ago

<< LINK REMOVED >><< LINK REMOVED >> You do own the game, and can still play it. You don't own their server infrastructure (which in this case was run by Gamespy which went out of business). Simple as that. You can still make your own private servers to play online if you wish.

So, in essence, you've lost nothing.

I am with you on other games where there is no other options (Titanfall above is a good example of that), but I don't buy those games and that is one of the reasons.