Friday, October 27th 2017
EA Forces Shut-Down of Fan-Run Servers for no Longer Supported Battlefield Games
Electronic Arts, who on their company's "vision" says that they "value being a generous company and community member", have brought about the demise of fan-run servers for some older, no longer supported Battlefield games. The games in question - Battlefield 2, Battlefield 2142, and Battlefield Heroes - had their multiplayer components shut down with the demise of GameSpy, and were being maintained by a fan coalition named Revive Network.
"We will get right to the point: Electronic Arts Inc.' legal team has contacted us and nicely asked us to stop distributing and using their intellectual property," the Revive Network team wrote. "As diehard fans of the franchise, we will respect these stipulations." Revive Network were distributing modified versions of the older Battlefield titles along with a launcher that allowed access to its own, rewritten server infrastructure - and this seems to be the reaon why EA sought closure. "Please stop distributing copies of our game clients and using our trademarks, logos, and artwork on your sites," EA's counsel wrote. "Your websites may easily mislead visitors to believe that you are associated or affiliated with EA-we're the only ones that get to wear the 'Official EA' dog tag."
It's one of those age-old facts: when servers for games that have a strong multiplayer experience - which may even be the games' focus - shut down, there's just no way players can actually play the game they paid for. This is an issue that has reared its head every now and then; sometimes, users themselves join up in crating fan-run servers that allow for those canned multiplayer experiences to thrive, letting users keep enjoying their spent money in ways that the companies themselves no longer see fit to support.
This time, like Blizzard has done before with World of Warcraft, EA has taken the stance of asking the managers of these unofficial servers to shut down their service. Revive Network started this revival process with Battlefield 2 in 2014, expanded its efforts to Battlefield 2142 last year, and had just created the server infrastructure for Battlefield Heroes a few months ago. Revive claimed over 900,000 registered accounts across its games, including nearly 175,000 players for the recently revived Battlefield Heroes.
Sources:
Revive Heroes, Ars Technica
"We will get right to the point: Electronic Arts Inc.' legal team has contacted us and nicely asked us to stop distributing and using their intellectual property," the Revive Network team wrote. "As diehard fans of the franchise, we will respect these stipulations." Revive Network were distributing modified versions of the older Battlefield titles along with a launcher that allowed access to its own, rewritten server infrastructure - and this seems to be the reaon why EA sought closure. "Please stop distributing copies of our game clients and using our trademarks, logos, and artwork on your sites," EA's counsel wrote. "Your websites may easily mislead visitors to believe that you are associated or affiliated with EA-we're the only ones that get to wear the 'Official EA' dog tag."
This time, like Blizzard has done before with World of Warcraft, EA has taken the stance of asking the managers of these unofficial servers to shut down their service. Revive Network started this revival process with Battlefield 2 in 2014, expanded its efforts to Battlefield 2142 last year, and had just created the server infrastructure for Battlefield Heroes a few months ago. Revive claimed over 900,000 registered accounts across its games, including nearly 175,000 players for the recently revived Battlefield Heroes.
56 Comments on EA Forces Shut-Down of Fan-Run Servers for no Longer Supported Battlefield Games
The EA way.
I get that making games today is a huge investment, but there should be some sort of balance that allows fans to continue to enjoy a title, especially since future titles often tweak the MP balance. With EA, even the DLC becomes unavailable over time. It just seems odd that a company is willing to essentially run their creations and effort into the ground through scheduled obsolescence.
I mean, on one end you have dumb suit run corporations like EA and Ubisoft and on the other we have companies like CD Project Red. One values and supports the customers and fans, the other ones is desperately trying to piss everyone off. We know who this last one is in a thread talking about EA. I mean, it's not like this game was eating up into their brand new Battlefield franchise. If people wanted to play it, they would. Clearly, they are not interested and they instead prefer the old franchise. Instead of EA jumping on it and saying, hey guys, lets make a small EA branch of such community folks who would maintain old titles like this with maybe tiny help from EA here and there to up the reputation and good will among people, nope, lets take a massive dump on all of them. That tells a lot how much we're worth. I know companies exist to make money, but there are companies who liek the money and value you a a customer and there are others for which you're just a number which makes more numbers with $ in front. That's EA.
I also wish they'd drop AC already and bring back Prince of Persia. That had way more going for it (setting wise and gameplay wise).
I wanted to play GTA4 so bad but returned it for refund on steam once i realized the stupid DRM. They sell an actual broken game on steam....i hate valve as well for not taking it down and refunding all customers and keeping companies accountable! :shadedshu::banghead:
They are on my blacklist. Included are also Ubisoft and Blizzard-Activision.
But its their choice and ppl choice. If ppl want crap, well go on, buy it.
Bunch of assholes... I don't think I could ever buy another EA game ever again.
But it's for that reason I hate them too.
Honestly. Bf1942, BF2, and 2142 are old games, they are old but they are loved by the community.
Who cares if people are mislead with such old games? Its not like they made a multiplayer patcher for BC2, bf3 or bf4. People love the games and EA rather then nurture a community that grew from one of their games has decided to kill it.
Why not just block all registered and unregistered BF2 game keys to stop people trying to play their damn game?
Its not hurting game sales so why shut down something that the community made out of love and dedication?
What a bunch of wankers
The games have run their course, there's nothing EA stands to gain from having them around anymore, and that, I think, is why EA is knocking them down. They don't want people to play them anymore. They want people to buy the new games instead. The thing is, most people playing those games likely bought the new ones already or wouldn't buy the new ones anyway because they don't like them. This isn't going to generate any sales for them, it's just a total dick move.
In short, Fuck EA.
Maybe some exceptions, but I'm not even sure of that.
They somehow, to this day, still have Ultima Online running and alive. Old subscribers are actually returning for things like their new client. It's terrifying, because it's so not the EA I'm used to seeing... and it's for a game from the 90s.
I think EA is just so backwards they don't know up from down at this point.
it wasn't even a cnd
it was a very polite notice(for ea anyway) asking them to NOT distribute the game files they made no mention or demand they cease running there servers
I don't even think the revive team members read it
the only game affected by this is heros. and thats only because the game files are not available for though other channels
I'm always so disappointed when I read stuff like this. Kick in the face to fans.