EA's Poor-Performing Console, iOS Game Servers Being Shuttered

Electronic Arts has announced that beginning at the end of March and for a couple weeks thereafter, it will no longer be supporting online gameplay options for a large number of Wii, Xbox 360, PS3, and iPhone/iPad games. The company noted that the affected titles, though seemingly large in number, only accounted for less than 1% of all peak online gameplay connections. The maintenance of keeping those servers running just wasn't worth it.

In a statement on its website, EA said, "The decisions to retire older EA games are never easy. But as games get replaced with newer titles, the number of players still enjoying the older games dwindles to a level ... where it's no longer feasible to continue the behind-the-scenes work involved with keeping these games up and running." The total number of games being taken out of commission is 14, with three on the iOS platform and the remaining 11 on traditional game consoles.

The iOS games in question are Battlefield 3: Aftershock, Fantasi Safari, and Ghost Harvest. Here's the breakdown of the console games: Boom Blox Bash Party for Wii; Burnout Revenge for Xbox 360; EA Create for PC, PlayStation 3, and Xbox 360; EA Sports Active 2.0 for PS3, Wii, and Xbox 360; EA Sports Active NFL Training Camp for Wii; FIFA 10 for PlayStation Portable and Wii; The Godfather II for PC, PS3, and Xbox 360; MMA for PS3 and Xbox 360; Need for Speed ProStreet for PS3 and Xbox 360; The Saboteur (and The Midnight Club access) for PS3 and Xbox 360; and Spare Parts for PS3 and Xbox 360. The iOS game servers will go offline on March 31. The console games will go dark on April 13.

[via PC Mag]