Electronic Arts has moved quietly to begin the process of shutting down the online servers for a bunch of old games. Some of them are absolute classics, some you would be forgiven for having forgotten all about.
First spotted by TrueAchievements, the list includes favourites like Mirror’s Edge, 2010's NBA Jam reboot, and Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3 (the Tim Curry “the one place that hasn’t been corrupted by capitalism” one).
Shutting down the servers will have a few impacts. Firstly, it’ll obviously close down the multiplayer servers for any game that supports the feature, though games like Red Alert 3 that still have an active community already have fan-supported workarounds for that.
Secondly, it’ll stop you from getting any achievements that have an online component; NBA Jam has a couple that require you to play online, so they’ll be locked out for good once the servers go down.
Thirdly, and most despairingly, going down this list has made me realise that Mirror’s Edge and Red Alert 3 are now 14 years old, that the Mercenaries games were great and are sadly missed, and that 2010's NBA Jam reboot is now almost as old to us as it was to the original NBA Jam.
Via IGN, here’s the full list of games that are about to be affected (you can see previous fallen heroes at this site, where EA keeps a record):
October 20, 2022
- Army of Two: The 40th Day
- Army of Two: The Devil’s Cartel
- Dragon Age: Origins (Multiplayer Screenshots Server)
November 9, 2022
- Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3
- Command & Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars
- Command & Conquer 3: Kane’s Wrath
- Mercenaries 2: World in Flames
November 30, 2022
- Onrush
January 19, 2023
- Mirror’s Edge
- NBA Jam: On Fire Edition
- Gatling Gears
- Shank 2