This is followed by Mercenaries 2 (PS3, Xbox 360), Command and Conquer: Red Alert 3 (PS3, Xbox 360), Command and Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars, and Command and Conquer 3: Kane’s Wrath (Xbox 360) on November 9th. Onrush’s servers shut down on November 30th, while Mirror’s Edge, NBA Jam On Fire Edition, Gatling Gears, and Shank 2 will lose their online services on January 19th, 2023.

The publisher stated, “The decisions to withdraw particular features or modes of certain EA games, or to retire online services relating to older EA games are never easy. The development teams and operational staff pour their hearts into our games, their features and modes almost as much as the players, and it is hard to see one retired.

“As games are replaced with newer titles, the number of players still enjoying the games that have been live for some time dwindles to a level – typically fewer than one percent of all peak online players across all EA titles – where it’s no longer feasible to continue the behind-the-scenes work involved with keeping the online services for these games up and running. We are also committed to constantly updating and improving the features and modes to keep in our games to ensure they remain exciting to play for as long as possible. That commitment to great gameplay sometimes means that we need to remove outdated features and modes.”

Some games are still playable offline, and features like “players’ inventory of virtual currency, and/or in-game items may continue to be used,” even if the in-game store has been disabled. As such, removing online support for older titles and DLC isn’t too surprising. Ubisoft announced in July that several titles would lose online functionality before backtracking on the same after extensive backlash.

Given the relative age and popularity of many of Electronic Arts’ titles, it’s unlikely the decision will be reverted. Nevertheless, stay tuned for updates on the same.

Deus Ex: Mankind Divided – Augment Your Pre-Order

Based on anonymous reports, Deus Ex: Mankind Divided faced a number of issues in development including a possible sequel that may never see the light of day. However, Square Enix decided to start early with ruining consumer interest by introducing the “Augment Your Pre-Order” campaign. Basically, depending on the number of players who pre-ordered the game, a subsequent tier of bonuses would unlock. So one unlocked tier gave new costumes, another provided an extra in-game mission, four days early access, you get the idea. This didn’t go down well for a number of reasons. Even if you did pre-order of your own volition, you were at the mercy of other players pre-ordering to get all the benefits. Square Enix was probably banking on players to “encourage” others to pre-order through word of mouth, making this a low-key pyramid scheme. The publisher later explained that it was an alternative to different rewards for different regions but why didn’t it just give all the rewards to anyone who pre-ordered? Fortunately, it scrapped the campaign and did just that.