EA Announces Server Shutdown for 14 Games

[Ted]

http://arstechnica.com/gaming/news/2012/03/ea-announces-server-shutdown-for-14-games-citing-dwindling-player-numbers.ars

Most of them I have never heard of, but the notable one is the MMA game.  The article makes a point about having to purchase the online pass if you bought it used, but then again they are shutting it down because less than 1% of the people on their servers are playing that game.  I wonder what the exact number is of players that actually play MMA online.

[Jason]

Someone on the OS forum mentioned that there's never more than 20 people online for the PS3 version, so I can understand why EA wants to shut the server down. Having said that, EA should really disable the option to purchase an online pass for any game that is within a 30-day period of getting its online servers shut down. As the article mentioned, it would be extremely unfair for someone who purchases an online pass right before the online servers go offline. They could also consider dropping the price of the online pass (or making it free) for games that have been out a certain amount of time...possibly a year.

With all the online gameplay issues and online passes, I'm almost happy that I don't play online much anymore. Instead of forcing people to buy online passes, maybe these companies should consider lowering their prices to better compete with used games.

[Ted]

I wonder if the online pass has anything to do with the low turnout.  I mean it could be actually a reverse cause and effect.  People won't pay for an online pass when they buy a used game.  Gamers move on to other games so they turn in the new one.  Servers empty out.  Maybe?

[Jason]

I could see that happening. Personally, I'd never pay separately for an online pass. On the other hand, MMA has been out for a while now (1.5 years), so there's probably not much interest in the game anymore, especially with UFC 3 available. I can't imagine there's a lot of people playing Madden 10 or 11 online anymore either.

[Brad Company]

You'd be amazed at how few people are actually playing current-year sports games online.
Madden in-season maybe has 20,000 on at any given time. NBA 2K is about the same,and
The Show might have 6 or 7 thousand. Taken together, that is about how many are playing the Call of Duty from 2 years ago.