With the shutting down of GameSpy’s multiplayer servers at the end of June, we knew a number of old games would be put out of their misery. It looks like the back catalogue of EA will be among the hardest hit by the closure of GameSpy’s multiplayer services with over fifty titles seeing the multiplayer portion of the games closed permanently.

Citing the costs of keeping the games operational and the low number of active players (pegged at less than 1% of all EA game players), EA has selected a number of older games that will not have their online multiplayer support continued by EA after the GameSpy multiplayer servers are turned off on June 30th.

In addition to a number of PC games that will no longer have multiplayer, EA is dropping multiplayer support for some PlayStation 2, Wii and DS as well.

Here’s the full list:

Battlefield 1942 for PC and Mac (including The Road to Rome and Secret Weapons of WW2 expansions)
Battlefield 2 for PC (including Special Forces expansion)
Battlefield 2: Modern Combat for PlayStation 2
Battlefield 2142 for PC and Mac (including Northern Strike expansion)
Battlefield Vietnam for PC
Bejeweled (r) 2 for the Wii
Bulletstorm for PlayStation 3
Command & Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars for PC and Mac (including Kane’s Wrath expansion)
Command & Conquer: Generals for PC and Mac (including Zero Hour expansion)
Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3 for PC and Mac
Crysis 2 for PC
Crysis for PC
Crysis Wars for PC
Dracula – Undead Awakening for the Wii
Dragon Sakura for Nintendo DS
EA Sports 06 for PC
F1 2002 for PC
FIFA Soccer 08 (KOR) for the Wii
FIFA Soccer 08 for Nintendo DS
FIFA Soccer 09 for Nintendo DS
FIFA Soccer 10 for Nintendo DS
FIFA Street 3 for Nintendo DS
Full Spectrum Warrior: Ten Hammers for PlayStation 2
Global Operations for PC
GREEN DAY: ROCK BAND for the Wii
James Bond: Nightfire for PC
Madden NFL 08 for Nintendo DS
Madden NFL 09 for Nintendo DS
Master of Orion III for PC
Medal of Honor: Allied Assault for PC and Mac (including Breakthrough and Spearhead expansions)
MySims Party for Wii
MySims Racing for Nintendo DS
MySims SkyHeroes for the Wii and DS
NASCAR Sim Racing for PC
NASCAR Thunder 2003 for PC
NASCAR Thunder 2004 for PC
Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit 2 for PC
Need for Speed: ProStreet for Nintendo DS
Need for Speed: Undercover for Nintendo DS
Neverwinter Nights 2 for PC and Mac
Neverwinter Nights for PC, Mac and Linux (including Hordes of the Underdark and Shadows of Undrentide expansions)
SimCity Creator for Wii
Skate It for Nintendo DS
Sneezies for the Wii
Spore Creatures for Nintendo DS
Spore Hero Arena for Nintendo DS
Star Wars: Battlefront for PC and PlayStation 2
Star Wars: Battlefront II for PC and PlayStation 2
THE BEATLES: ROCK BAND for the Wii
Tiger Woods PGA Tour 08 for Nintendo DS

Just when you think that the gaming world has been tossed on its head with Microsoft doing something that its customers wanted, EA goes and does something very EA. Granted, not many of those games are likely to have many players. I would think, however, that there would be a healthy community for the Battlefield, Crysis and Battlefront games. Apparently, I’d be wrong.

I hope that they release a patch or mod allowing gamers to setup their own servers for these titles. At least that would allow some good to come of this. Emphasis on some.

Source: EA