EA continues to consolidate and shut down online servers for games, with four games due to close their doors for good on Friday, May 24.
Players of these four mobile games will be able to enjoy them until the 24th, but they have been removed from app stores already so no new players can play. In-app purchases have also been suspended.
According to a post by a moderator on the developer forum for EA Sports MLB Tap Sport Baseball 2023, if players have purchased an in-game subscription they will need to manually terminate subscriptions with the app store provider.
The games shutting down are:
- EA Sports MLB Tap Sports Baseball 2023, a licensed baseball game for mobile
- MLB Tap Sports Baseball 2022
- F1 Mobile Racing, a licensed F1 game for mobile
- Lord of the Rings: Heroes of Middle-earth, a licensed RPG for mobile
What other games has EA shut down this year?
It’s been a tough year to be a fan of EA’s mobile offerings as these four shutdowns are just the latest in a line that will continue later through the year as well.
Some of the shutdowns have been for games over a decade old in franchises with a new addition annually, which doesn’t seem too bad, but the shuttering of MLB Tap Sports Baseball 2023, a game from March 2023, and Lord of the Rings: Heroes of Middle-earth which released in May 2023, has been a little harder to swallow for some fans. One Reddit user said they will “never play another CG [Capital Games, the EA subsidiary who developed the Lord of the Rings game] again.”
So far this year EA has shuttered these games, mostly in March:
- F1 2011
- F1 2012
- F1 2013
- F1 2014
- F1 Race Stars
- Micromachines World Series
- Rocket Arena
- Kim Kardashian Hollywood
- Madden NFL 20
There are also four more shutdowns planned for later this year:
- Super Mega Baseball 2 – planned shutdown date July 24
- Disney Sorcerers Arena – planned shutdown date July 31
- NHL 20 – planned shutdown date September 16
- FIFA 22 – planned shutdown date November 4
EA is trying to cut costs across its business and has been part of the recent ongoing mass layoffs in the gaming industry.
Featured image credit: EA Capital Games
