EA Shutting Down 'Battlefield Heroes' and Other Free-to-Play Titles
EA has released information it will be canceling "Battlefield Heroes," along with three of its other free-to-play games two months from now.
Once one of Entertainment Arts' major attractions, "Battlefield Heroes" is due to be shut down on July 14, together with three other EA titles, "FIFA World," "Battlefield Play4Free," and "Need for Speed World."
Launched in 2009, "Battlefield Heroes," a third person shooter game, was EA's original free-to-play model. The game was created to be less demanding on PC specifications to help the developer increase its audience base.
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While EA has put its stock on free-to-play games in the past, with "Battlefield Heroes" reaching 10 million registered users in 2012, the developer is looking at moving forward on a different path, and has started shutting its free-to-play titles down.
Patrick Söderlund, EVP for EA Studios pointed out that "Battlefield Heroes" as well as the other titles were released over five years ago, and video games have drastically evolved since then.
EA has been looking at other free-to-play game experiences for PC gamers around the world, and it has concluded some of its own games have lost their popularity over the years. Söderlund further mentioned of another of its titles, the MMORPG "Star Wars: the Old Republic," which has garnered a strong following. EA is ready to take their games towards that direction with strong story-driven themes and updates.
Earlier on, EA closed down "Dawngate" MOBA game after 18 months in beta stage. It also canceled "Shadow Realms," then under development by BioWare Austin.
"Battlefield Heroes" and the other endangered titles will continue to operate for another three more months before EA ceases development and support for them and they go offline.
EA has also informed players of the soon-to-be-canceled titles that the shut down will delete all characters and game progress. It has also advised gamers to spend their in-game currency balance as no refunds will be available after July 14.
