Yep EA

[Stoney Mason]

@OriginInsider With Gamespy ending support for multiplayer services will BFBC2, BF2, and BF2142 be recieving any kind of patch or fix?

‏@OriginInsider
@Tofugames We're working on transitioning those games after the shut down so you'll still be able to play them.

June 30th, 2014 -- Online Services Shutdown
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)

 


You know I get it that these are old games. And the support has to end at some point because relatively few play these games. Why lie to people though?

[Human Snorenado]

...this may be covered in an upcoming very special podcast.

[Rufus]

...this may be covered in an upcoming very special podcast.

It's about fucking time.

[thisismyusername]

It's really: Twitter account managers don't know what EA is doing: One hand doesn't know what the other is doing as the saying goes.

But really, if EA doesn't do something about it's gonna be another hoopla within the Battlefield community. It'd be easy to patch in Gameranger as the server browser or something if they wanted a quick and dirty port of a browser in-game to use to replace Gamespy.

[Himu]

Isn't BF2 a classic? Why would they shut down those servers?

[Stoney Mason]

Isn't BF2 a classic? Why would they shut down those servers? (Image removed from quote.)

Gamespy ran the master servers for these games. But it is shutting down soon.

http://www.polygon.com/2014/4/3/5579254/gamespy-technology-shutdown-date-multiplayer-server-hosting-matchmaking.

It effects a lot of games from that era. So its understandable there would be issues here. It's just the way the messaging has been is terrible.

[Himu]

I know gamespy servers are closing down, I'm just shocked that EA has no plans for BF2, arguably their most praised fps ever. It's like Valve closing down servers for CS.

[Stoney Mason]

I know gamespy servers are closing down, I'm just shocked that EA has no plans for BF2, arguably their most praised fps ever. It's like Valve closing down servers for CS.

They should update it and launch it as a free to play game imo.

And not the shitty way they actually tried to do like with Battlefield Play4Free which is a shitty bastardized version of BF 2.

[Himu]

I know gamespy servers are closing down, I'm just shocked that EA has no plans for BF2, arguably their most praised fps ever. It's like Valve closing down servers for CS.

They should update it and launch it as a free to play game imo.

Agreed.

[thisismyusername]

I know gamespy servers are closing down, I'm just shocked that EA has no plans for BF2, arguably their most praised fps ever. It's like Valve closing down servers for CS.

They should update it and launch it as a free to play game imo.

And not the shitty way they actually tried to do like with Battlefield Play4Free which is a shitty bastardized version of BF 2.

P4F (and Heroes) could've been good if the economy wasn't fucked. (Oh and hacked accounts from Russians because... who the fuck knows. EA security sucks)

Kinda like Ghost Recon: Phantoms if they improved the maps and got rid of P2W bullshit...  But, yeah: The server shutdowns for BC2 and earlier are mostly because of the Gamespy master server. Battlefield (and Burnout) are about the only two EA titles that EA wouldn't dare shutdown due to fanbases backlash if they had the choice of keeping Gamespy running.

[benjipwns]

They should update it and launch it as a free to play game imo.

And not the shitty way they actually tried to do like with Battlefield Play4Free which is a shitty bastardized version of BF 2.

1942 is free on Origin and they're still shutting down the servers.

[fistfulofmetal]

I doubt enough people are playing those games to warrant spending money on online resources on them.

[Joe Molotov]

EA got panicky when they failed to win Worst Company in America this year.

[Stoney Mason]

EA has issued an official update regarding yesterday’s announcement that the company would no longer be able to support a number of titles affected by the GameSpy shut down.

“Since GameSpy’s announcement, our teams have been working to evaluate options to keep services up and running,” EA writes in a recent news update.

“Unfortunately, due to technical challenges and concerns about the player experience, we do not have a solution at this time. Online services for EA games on the GameSpy platform will be closed down at the end of June.”

The company also writes that they are “investigating community-supported options” to keep some of their multiplayer-focused titles alive and kicking, but have nothing to announce at the moment.

“We know some of these games are still fan favorites, including Battlefield 2, Battlefield 1942, Medal of Honor: Allied Assault and Command & Conquer games. We are still investigating community-supported options to preserve online functionality for these titles, such as multiplayer. Significant technical hurdles remain, and at this time we don’t have anything to announce.”

Meanwhile, we caught wind of reports that the Battlefield 2 mod, Project Reality, will survive the shutdown, as its creators have taken action to replace GameSpy’s hosting services.

Project manager “AncientMan” wrote this statement on the official forums:

“We’ve already developed our own master server, and it’s running quite nicely, replacing the services that GameSpy hosted. FH2 contacted us and they will be using our servers as well, so they’re fine too. After a bit of testing has occurred, this will be going out with v1.2, which will obviously be released before this shutdown occurs.

“For you regular player folk, the only thing you’ll notice about the whole situation is when updating to 1.2, you’ll get a message box saying some stuff, your profiles will be deleted, and you’ll be prompted to make a new profile. From there, it’s business as usual.”

There may be hope yet for those still enjoying some of those classic Battlefield titles and other EA games. We’ll be sure to keep you updated as we hear more.

http://mp1st.com/2014/05/12/ea-investigating-community-supported-options-keep-gamespy-shutdown-affected-titles-online/?utm_content=featured#.U3FV8PldUjE

[chronovore]

I'm stunned that anyone thought the Gamespy server-needing games would stay online. EA is widely known for shutting down online servers for their games.

[The Sceneman]

yep. Migrating and retrofitting a third party service would require a huge amount of resources.

Still, gamers: "WHY CANT YOU MAKE A GAME WORK ITS SO EASY"

[Himu]

I'm stunned that anyone thought the Gamespy server-needing games would stay online. EA is widely known for shutting down online servers for their games.

And many of those are classic games. Not coming up with a temporary server at least for it makes little sense.

[chronovore]

Based on your "And" instead of "But" -- I didn't mean to imply they should keep them running.
 
I'm saying EA will take a game's server down even if it's running normally. Setting up a temporary server in this case also means transitioning over to this Game Ranger technology, which is likely non-trivial. So it not only takes whatever server resources were already in place, but also needs code and QA time dedicated to making sure it doesn't shit the bed.

[thisismyusername]

Based on your "And" instead of "But" -- I didn't mean to imply they should keep them running.
 
I'm saying EA will take a game's server down even if it's running normally. Setting up a temporary server in this case also means transitioning over to this Game Ranger technology, which is likely non-trivial. So it not only takes whatever server resources were already in place, but also needs code and QA time dedicated to making sure it doesn't shit the bed.

Er-Gamespy->Gameranger is the same damn thing. It's a server browser for their games not a server browser they host. It's simply another masterserver list like Gamespys.

yep. Migrating and retrofitting a third party service would require a huge amount of resources.

Still, gamers: "WHY CANT YOU MAKE A GAME WORK ITS SO EASY"

Patching all the titles needs retrofitting/money, yes. But in theory it's not that hard to switch the Gamespy code with Gamerangers master server list. I'm wondering if the community will reverse engineer the clients and do it themselves like Project Reality already has done with it's total conversion.

[chronovore]

Will GameSpy's existing libraries and functions and whatnot automatically talk with Game Ranger instead of Gamespy without any changes?

[thisismyusername]

Will GameSpy's existing libraries and functions and whatnot automatically talk with Game Ranger instead of Gamespy without any changes?

Libraries, no. Functions, theory-wise: Yes. Remove Gamespys account login/creation for BF2. Replace it with Gamerangers. Remove the DNS/Gamespy specific master-server-list code for BF2, replace it with Gameranger pointing code.

If Project Reality did it themselves as a mod team it's not out of possibility that EA can do it themselves. The question is: Will they?

[Positive Touch]

no because it costs them money but doesn't make them any

[chronovore]

no because it costs them money but doesn't make them any

.

[thisismyusername]

no because it costs them money but doesn't make them any

Exactly. Which goes into:

Will the communities do it?

I really wish DICE would just throw the source code for BF1942/2/2142 out there, despite EA. It'd solve this issue completely.

[chronovore]

As long as we're wishing, I'd like a magic door which lets me go anywhere in the world.

[The Sceneman]

I want a free Xbone