EA’s shutting down online services for a lot of their games

In an unprecedented move, gaming giant EA has announced a massive list of games that they will be shutting down this year.

“As background information, the EA SPORTSâ„¢ games scheduled for shutdown in February and March 2011 represent roughly 1% of all peak online players across all EA titles. Despite some people’s perception, there is a lot of behind-the-scenes work involved with keeping these older games up and running. We would rather our hard-working engineering and IT staff focus on keeping a positive experience for the other 99% of customers playing our more popular games” Said EA on their website.

“These decisions to retire games is never easy. The development teams and operational staff pour their hearts into these games almost as much as the customers playing them and it is hard to see one retired. We hope you have gotten many hours of enjoyment out of the games and we appreciate your ongoing patronage.”

This movement starts on January 11 with Lord of the Rings: The Battle for Middle-Earth II and continues through March 1. Here is the full list:

Mar 1, 2011 Online Service Shutdown:

• Tiger Woods PGA TOUR® 09 for Wii

Feb 8, 2011 Online Service Shutdown:

• FIFA 07 for Xbox 360
• FIFA 08 for PlayStation Portable, PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and Wii
• FIFA 09 for PC, PlayStation Portable, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and Wii
• FIFA 09 Ultimate Team for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360
• FIFA Street 3 for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360
• EA SPORTSâ„¢ FIFA Manager 10 for PC
• EA SPORTSâ„¢ Fight Night Round 3 for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360
• Madden 09 for PlayStation Portable (all regions), PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and Wii
• Madden 10 for PlayStation Portable (all regions), PlayStation 2 and Wii
• NBA LIVE 08 for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360
• NBA LIVE 09 for PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and Wii
• NCAA® Basketball 08 for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360
• NCAA® Basketball 09 for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360
• NCAA® Football 07 for Xbox 360
• NCAA® Football 08 for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360
• NCAA® Football 09 for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360
• NCAA® Football 10 for PlayStation 2
• NFL Head Coach 09 for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360
• NHL® 08 for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360
• NHL® 09 for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360
• Tiger Woods PGA TOUR® 09 for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360
• UEFA EURO 2008â„¢ for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360
• 2010 FIFA World Cupâ„¢ for PlayStation Portable and Wii
• 2010 FIFA World Cupâ„¢ Demo for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360

Jan 17, 2011 Online Service Shutdown

• The Sims Carnival

Jan 11, 2011 Online Service Shutdown:

• The Lord of the Ringsâ„¢, The Battle for Middle-earthâ„¢ II for Xbox 360
• The Lord of the Ringsâ„¢, The Battle for Middle-earthâ„¢ II, The Rise of the Witch-kingâ„¢ for Xbox 360

We don’t even know what to say.

Source: EA official site