EA has confirmed that it will be shutting down two more of its games later in August. Most of EA’s games have a focus on online play, licenses, and live-service elements. As a result, many of EA’s games lose significant functionality as time goes on, with the company choosing to shut down their servers when it no longer makes financial sense to keep them running.
August has already seen one EA game shut down. Earlier in the month, Apex Legends for the Nintendo Switch was shut down, meaning those that were playing it on the home console/handheld hybrid can no longer play. A Nintendo Switch 2 version of Apex Legends exists, thankfully, but millions of Switch 1 gamers have yet to upgrade. Unfortunately, the Apex Legends Switch port was just the start of EA’s shutdowns for August, as two more games now find themselves on the chopping block.
List of EA Games Shutting Down Soon
- NHL 22 – August 31
- NHL 23 – August 31
- Grid Legends – September 11
- NBA Mobile 26 – October 27
EA has confirmed that it is shutting down two more games on August 31. On that day, both NHL 22 and NHL 23 will be shutting down, rendering their online modes completely inaccessible. Needless to say, any NHL fans that have these games will want to make it a point to play them online again before the shutdowns. It’s a shame that any game is ever shut down, but in the case of the NHL series, the bright side is that there are still multiple entries that still have live servers.
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NHL 24, NHL 25, and NHL 26 all currently support online multiplayer at the time of this writing, and the next game in the long-running franchise is right around the corner. NHL 27 is set to release on September 11 for PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S with San Diego Sharks forward Macklin Celebrini tapped as the cover athlete. It’s likely that NHL 27‘s online servers will remain active for at least a few years before they’re terminated, so it’s a relatively safe buy for any NHL fans that want a new video game to play.
The two NHL games aren’t the last EA games shutting down this year. It’s also been confirmed that Grid Legends is shutting down, with that racing game shuttering its online services on September 11, the same day that NHL 27 hits the scene. Then, on October 27, fans of EA’s games will have to say goodbye to NBA Mobile 26. Whereas most of these games that are shutting down will still have offline modes available, NBA Mobile 26 will effectively cease to exist when it’s shut down on October 27. It is already unavailable on app stores, though, so it’s unlikely to impact that many people.
Game shutdowns are an unfortunate reality of the industry, especially when it comes to sports games. Efforts like Stop Killing Games have yet to result in any legislation to keep these games alive, so fans should brace themselves for more shutdowns in the future.
- Released
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October 14, 2022
- ESRB
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E For Everyone: Mild Violence
