| Post new topic Reply to topic | Message |
|
||||
 |
The Playstation 2 saw a string of bad luck in the past few months. Here is a wrap up of what went down. Sony has increased the monthly fee for EverQuest Online Adventures from $9.99 to $12.99/month. The reason mentioned by SOE is that the costs for running EQoA have increased. In some respects I can see why they increased the fee. For those of you who do not check the homepage for this game, SOE updates this game constantly. They add just as much new content, quests, and events as any of their PC MMO’s. On the upside Sony offers multi-month subscriptions for this game. So you could buy a whole year worth of EQoA for $89.99, which comes out to $7.49/mo. Even still you have to wonder what the multi-month cost would have been before the price increase. It’s a downer that the price increased, but I guess you do get what you pay for.
In even worse news, game publishing giant Electronic Arts decided to axe 7 of their PS2 online games this past month. All of them were PS2 exclusive broadband and dialup compatible titles. The services for the following games were shutdown on June 15th: NCAA Football 2004 FIFA Soccer 2004 NASCAR Thunder 2004 Tiger Woods PGA TOUR 2004 NBA LIVE 2004 NHL 2004 NCAA March Madness 2004 Some of you may or may not have owned / played these titles online. Even if you have not, this is bad news. It shows that EA has zero long term dedicated to online gaming. They should just mark on the front of the box “temporarily online”. Good thing TimeSplitters Future Perfect has LAN, and MOH Rising Sun has a LAN option past the DNAS menu incase EA tries to take these games from us. Even more alarming, Tony Hawk Pro Skater 3, Playstation 2’s very first online game, apparently was pulled from GameSpy’s online services a few weeks ago. We are still awaiting final confirmation on this. If anyone has recently tested his or her copy please check the Extreme Games forum to put the final nail in the coffin. It’s pretty crazy to think that in the US we already have over 15 games that have been taken offline for the PS2. We are just lucky that Tony Hawk Pro Skater 3 is fortunate enough to have LAN capabilities, so we can tunnel the game online on our own. Last edited by lordnikon on Tue Oct 18, 2005 6:54 pm; edited 10 times in total |
|||
| _________________ The most effective, in this war? The Bydo have it... and they control it. |
||||
|
||||
 |
it does suck that these games are no longer online but at least there is a 2005 or advanced version of the game for people to play. I bet there was barely any one online on those games anyway. EA probably said they wearnt worth keping them but it would of been nice to keep them for gamers who only have the 2004 titles....
Its sad to see nhl 2004 to go offline because i played hat nonstop back in its prime time.....but at least there is the 2005 and soon to be 2006 version to play |
|||
| _________________ Everyone needs Sorrow------------------- |
||||
|
||||
 |
Well I had NCAA 2004 and i was very sad to see this game go offline. Ea did keep the servers up longer than i expected for ncaa 2004 but also there was still about 20 people online everyday. Most people didnt like the new 2005 version like myself and chose to play 04' instead. Temporary online should be written on the games front cover definately. Also if you read the manual or the SOE guidelines/service agreement it says they can take down the game basically after 3 months of its release or something like that. Sad to see this game go especially that 05' and 06' where not very good games in my book. I think they do this to force the consumer to pick up the updated game. Unfortunately their way of making consumers invest in their next years title is wrong and unfair. All thats really happening in these cases are the rosters are updated and new features added. Most of the new features in 05' and 06' are experimental things that they are trying out for the next generation platforms. I dont want to spend $49.99 so EA can experiment on me and see what works and what doesn't work. I'm thru with EA until the next generation after spending over a hundred dollars on both 05 and 06 (even tho i took them back and got my money back). After 2 titles in a row that are basically trash its a huge dissapointment to try to give ea chance after chance to get it right. Just seems like after they bought out the license the games have been trash and they dont care because they kno its the only fb game that is going to be released. | |||
| _________________ ... |
||||
|
||||
|
|
yea mostly they keep the sports games onlne longer than the book says | |||
| _________________ Everyone needs Sorrow------------------- |
||||
|
||||
|
|
I just lose a lot of faith in the online feature when a company is bound to pull the thing from the internet.
Why buy Burnout 3? it has no LAN and EA could yank the thing from the net. At this point the PS2 does have a VERY solid list of LAN titles already, but it just sucks spending money on games and having the online stripped at a later date....when the ONLINE capabilities are the main reason you picked up the title in the first place. |
|||
| _________________ The most effective, in this war? The Bydo have it... and they control it. |
||||
|
||||
 |
I absolutely would hate to see EA, or any other publisher, start pushing the trend of quickly offlining games in favor of the newest yearly release. The Japanese market does this quite a bit, as players and publishers clamor for the newest thing, but I don't want to be forced into that cycle.
I collect the games I want, and I keep them instead of trading them in. I'll be damned if I'll start buying a title repeatedly just to play a slightly different version online. In the long run, I think that sort of behavior will hurt a franchise by building resentment instead of help build a dedicated fan base. Keep 'em online! |
|||
| _________________ Gamespy ID: Kingofgrills Online with: Tribes: Aerial Assault, Cold Winter, Tony Hawk's Underground, ESPN NBA 2K5, ESPN NFL 2K5 Hello Children! Check out Scent of a Robot at http://www.petemiser.com/ |
||||
|
||||
|
|
well as long as people buy they will be making newer version,,,,, it almost seems as a tool to make you buy the new version by taking it offline | |||
| _________________ Everyone needs Sorrow------------------- |
||||
|
||||
 |
And I think that now that NFL games are strictly EA affairs, all they have to do to get most people to buy 2006 is to take 2005 offline a few weeks after it's release. And on and on...
Latley, with online games that I've been buying, It takes something really special for me to buy an online game that doesn't feature LAN play. At least with LAN I'll pretty much be able to play it online forever. Tunneling is awkward, it can be difficult to setup for those who aren't tech-heads, and you have to have a ninja connection to play smoothly, but it's ours, and it's ours forever. I hope that more games are released either with LAN so we can tunnel, or we get server software released after the game's online cancellation. I figure a game like THPS3 going offline sucks, but from a financial standpoint it makes sense. They have to have as much server space available for the next big game, the one that makes them a ton of money. So, put the weight onto the hardcore fans and let them administer their own servers. This way, when "Developer X" drops their game's servers, the commited fans can still keep the community up and running. More stuff like Q3 on the Dreamcast, that's what I want. |
|||
|
||||
|
Tiger Woods 2004 was one of my first online games for the Ps2.
I sucked at it, but it was fun every now and then. |
||||
| _________________ PM me if you're interested in playing any of the games I currently own! |
||||
You cannot post new topics in this forum
You cannot reply to topics in this forum
You cannot edit your posts in this forum
You cannot delete your posts in this forum
You cannot vote in polls in this forum
You cannot reply to topics in this forum
You cannot edit your posts in this forum
You cannot delete your posts in this forum
You cannot vote in polls in this forum