Battlefield Bye Bye Bye: EA Closing Four F2P Games
Closing in 90 days
We received a report from the eerie ghost world of EA's free-to-play MMO drive 'em up Need for Speed World only last week. Its streets lay empty, making the twilight world a spooky haunted house of a city. And then... a car appeared. Oh, how much I'd like to have told young Jack "But Jack, NFSW closed down on this very day three years ago" and watch his jaw drop. But I couldn't, because it's only now closing.
EA today announced plans to close four of their free-to-play games: Need for Speed World, FIFA World, Battlefield Play4Free, and Battlefield Heroes.
NFS World was an MMO version of the racing series, like I explained only seven lines ago (are you even paying attention?). FIFA World was a F2P take on FIFA's multiplayer, and only entered open beta last May - it will never leave it. Battlefield Play4Free was a mix of Battlefield 2 and Battlefield: Bad Company 2. BF Heroes, lastly, was a cartoony third-person take on the FPS series. In short, they weren't popular enough to keep running - or even finish, in the case of FIFA World.
All four will close in 90 days' time. Accounts will be wiped, items and progress will be lost, leftover virtual cash will vanish, and no refunds will be given. Such is the peril of 'games as service'.
EA have closed off new registrations, but current folks can still play. I imagine we'll see the fascinating phenomenon of old folks drifting back to their former stomping grounds for one last drink/gig/game/fight/sandwich before the megacorp moves in and tears the block to the ground.
Wait, maybe All Hallow's Eve would've been a cooler comparison, because ghosts are cool and spooky and it'd be nicely tie back to the spooky intro well Alice I guess that's what you get for not thinking things through.