Another EA News Post...EA is Sued for Shutting Down Online Games too Quickly

[EChondo]

http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20130802/12464524046/ea-faces-class-action-suit-over-sports-titles-online-gaming.shtml
 

Justin Bassett claims he bought several sports-themed games for Xbox 360 for about $59.99 each, relying on Electronic Arts' representation that the games were enabled for unlimited, online play. But the games were available for only a limited time, he says. 

"Had plaintiff known at the time that he would not be able to play the products online for a certain amount of time, he would not have purchased the products or paid the price he paid for the products," Bassett claims.

Nobody is suggesting that EA has to keep their online play servers going indefinitely, but reasonable should mean reasonable. There may be some folks out there that buy Madden every year, but most do not. They update their rosters, either on their own or with help, and keep playing that title for 2-4 years. Is a 3 year online play window really unreasonable? And if they weren't going to support online play for that long, shouldn't EA disclose that in their advertising and/or packaging?

And this is why I don't buy sports titles from EA anymore. Personally I don't know why EA games are the only games that have server support, while the rest of the Xbox and PS games are all P2P. If you're going to give us dedicated servers, then allow us to create our own servers after you have shut down yours. I'm not going to pay you every month so I can have my own private BF3 server, I can host servers out of my garage!

[piplupgao]

EA *fist bump*

[TTesla]

Man, you are just hammering that post new topic button. LOL But they are all intersting so great

But, to me this just seems like another thing EA would do.

[Guest GRRigger]

whats the point of buying game for full price, if you cant use key features. 

[bcredeur97]

You know what we should get have a petition to have EA let the community host their own servers! I WOULD LOVE TO HOST A BF SERVER IN THE BACK ROOM OF MY OFFICE!

[Samdb]

Can EA actually do anything right?

[Emperor_Piehead]

Can EA actually do anything right?

DRM

[Xorbot]

Idea..

 

(though it would never happen)

 

A rule or by-law could be introduced that would require the release of shut-down game servers to the public domain.  From there, the communities can run the games indefinitely.

 

However, even my political stance wouldn't make this a law, so I'll just leave it as an idea for discussion purposes.

[EChondo]

Idea..

 

(though it would never happen)

 

A rule or by-law could be introduced that would require the release of shut-down game servers to the public domain.  From there, the communities can run the games indefinitely.

 

However, even my political stance wouldn't make this a law, so I'll just leave it as an idea for discussion purposes.

I completely agree.

 

However, I would go further and say that the community should be able to create servers right when the game releases. The company can have some of their own servers if they want, but we should always have the option for our own dedicated servers.

 

In EA's case, I think they like to be in control too much, which is why I think they should release the actual server files so we can create our own after their official servers have gone down.

[Nort]

Did the guy win the lawsuit? I mean, surely EA had something in their EULA stating that they could shut down the servers when they deemed it fit.

[colonel_mortis]

I completely agree.

 

However, I would go further and say that the community should be able to create servers right when the game releases. The company can have some of their own servers if they want, but we should always have the option for our own dedicated servers.

 

In EA's case, I think they like to be in control too much, which is why I think they should release the actual server files so we can create our own after their official servers have gone down.

In BF3, it's my understanding that you already can host your own server for PC. At least, different servers have a slightly different ping even within the UK, and you can rent a server from a variety of different companies. EA/DICE don't actually seem to have many if any PC servers up these days (since not long after launch). I don't get why they don't let people do that on all games where official support ends though, except to make people buy their newest game. Props to them though, there are still some medal of honour warfighter servers live, even if there were only about 10 populated servers when I looked randomly today.

[mgsstar]

They had to shut down servers in order to avoid bankruptcy. Guess once this person wins EA's debt will increase and sooner or later they will be bankrupt lol.

[Beskamir]

I completely agree.

 

However, I would go further and say that the community should be able to create servers right when the game releases. The company can have some of their own servers if they want, but we should always have the option for our own dedicated servers.

 

In EA's case, I think they like to be in control too much, which is why I think they should release the actual server files so we can create our own after their official servers have gone down.

Some companies are awful while others are doing everything right. Star Citizen promises that the comunity will be able to host servers so if somebody doesn't like EA's way of doing things just DON'T BUY THEIR GAMES!! once enought people don't buy their games EA "might" begin the learning process...

[ajoy39]

 

Certainly most owners of sports titles don't purchase them every single year

HAHAHHA OH GOD HAHAHAHHAH HOW OUT OF TOUCH WITH REALITY DO YOU HAVE TO BE