Electronic Arts to Shut Down 4 Free-to-Play Games Soon
Electronic Arts recently announced some sad news about some of their older free-to-play games online. Their older games namely "Battlefield Heroes," "Battlefield Play4Free," "Need for Speed World" and "FIFA World" will be taken offline 90 days from the day of the announcement.
In a blog post, EA's Patrick Sodërlund said: "Some of our PC free-to-play games are not as popular as they once were. We find ourselves announcing the tough decision today that we are stopping development and winding down support for four free-to-play titles. These games will be live for another 90 days, after which they will go offline."
The official shutdown of these four games is expected on July 14.
The blog post also mentioned that there are other free-to-play titles that are doing well, such as the "Star Wars: The Old Republic" and because of this, they are planning to introduce updates to this game later in the year.
EA also promised that despite the closure of these games, they "are always exploring new concepts and ways to bring great games to more players around the world." They also acknowledged that the establishment of these games were "pioneering experiences."
According to a report in Polygon, three of the four games in question have been live for years. "Battlefield Heroes" has been online since June 2009, while "Battlefield Play4Free" has been online since April 2011. Both games were developed by DICE and Easy Studios. One racing game, "Need for Speed World" was launched in July 2010, developed by EA Black Box and EA Singapore. "FIFA World" is relatively new, launched in May 2014, developed by EA Canada.
Not everyone agreed with EA's assessment about these games' supposed "unpopularity." Some fans of the "Need for Speed World" game posted their disagreement on social media, saying that EA was wrong and that the game was still widely played worldwide.
