Five Need for Speed games spanning the PlayStation 3 generation have been taken off the PS Store permanently, with little to no warning from publisher EA. As confirmed in a Reddit post yesterday, the five titles were removed from the storefront that very same day. The games were Need for Speed: Carbon, Need for Speed: Undercover, Need for Speed Shift, Shift 2: Unleashed, and Need for Speed: The Run. In-game stores for all aforementioned titles have also been closed, and online servers will follow on 31st August 2021.
This is being done so that the teams working on the franchise can focus on the future. "The development teams and operational staff have put a lot of time and passion into the development, creation, release and upkeep of the game over the years, and we love to see you play. But the number of players has come to a point where it's no longer feasible to continue the work behind the scenes required to keep Need for Speed Carbon, Need for Speed Undercover, Need for Speed Shift, Need for Speed Shift 2: Unleashed and Need for Speed The Run up and running."
If you already own a digital copy of any of these PS3 games then you'll still be able to play them — offline eventually too. However, if you're only just finding out about this news, physical copies are the only way you'll be able to access these titles henceforth.
Community manager Max Joker makes sure to mention that the latest Need for Speed games, such as Need for Speed Payback, Need for Speed Heat, and Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit Remastered aren't affected by this sudden removal and can be freely played online in the coming future. How do you react to this decision? Should EA have provided a longer heads up? Post your thoughts in the comments below.
[source reddit.com]
Comments 20
I bet that CM makes the best jokes 🤪😌😏
Something about game preservation maybe, even if they are generally rubbish NFS games?
Just to balance the furore earlier in the year.
What?! This is an outrage. I had planned to purchase these all 5 NFS titles on September 1st of this year too. Damn you EA🤬 you ruined Xmas!!
Is that really his name?
I find it kind of peculiar they completely removed them. Couldn’t they discount them and remove the online multiplayer?
Seems drastic…. But hey, I haven’t wanted to play a NFS game in 20 years.
I thought NFS 2016 was going to be one for a sec... Which would have been ludicrous considering they just put it on sale again. People who woulda bought it would have been maaaaad. However, there are probably also a smooooll percentage of people that bought one of these recently, too.
@Futureshark The only true game preservation system right now is piracy.
"This is being done so that the teams working on the franchise can focus on the future."
That seems... unlikely. When would be the last time "the teams" did anything with these games which was remotely time-consuming, other than maybe rebooting a server once a month?
Still, the notice given seems fine to me. If you haven't bought the game by now, you probably weren't going to anyway... and it gives you a good 3 months to mop up any trophies you may need.
I'm sure there'll be the usual outcry from the usual vocal minority, but if they really cared, they'd still be playing, and the figures wouldn't have dropped low enough to justify turning the servers off.
Still, I look forward to seeing how (un)social media spins this to somehow be Sony's fault - or indeed if it gets anything like the backlash Sony gets for doing the same; you know, how important it is to 'preserve' these retro games, etc.
I'd be happier seeing the likes of NFS Underground 1 & 2 on the ps2 classics range emulator on ps4...oh & add SSX,Tricky,Burnout series etc. while they're at it!
@godofwarj5 Probably not worth renewing the various licences for the cars, music etc. Makes sense to delist them from a business perspective.
@Ichiban you jest but I actually bought 4 of these two months ago and I already owned undercover and I was actually planning on trying them eventually.
Although I mainly bought them because I’m trying to full set PAL ps3.
bye.
not like these are midnight club games anyway . need for speed is like burger king if mc donalds was out of business .
thats an american reference btw , since idk if theres a burger king in the UK , lol .
@Residentsteven I'd highly recommend Hot Pursuit 2010 (now Remastered). That's a legit excellent NFS title.
more notice would have been the correct thing to do
All the sarcasm is great and all but they should have given more notice. They didn’t decide yesterday. Saying a couple of months ago - we are taking the titles down in 3 months seems fair.
Whilst these are “only need for speed” games. Game preservation is important. At least these aren’t digital only.
Too bad they didn't announce the delisting ahead of time.
They could have got some last minute sales...
Now these games are going to be $50 physical at least.
Work on servers? as far as I know, I can still go play AC: Brotherhood online. Haven't checked in a while, but last year I found a match when I looked. I highly doubt it actually takes away from the teams. So many games have their online up where the original teams aren't even around anymore. This does make me a little mad, but what really gets me is that the reasoning is so unbelievable. Just say it's a cost-reducing measure to get rid of a small cost. Do not try to make it sound pretty.
@Robocod I would like to see Need for Speed Hot Pursuit 2 re-release PS2 Classics too.
I hope need for speed (2015) gets a patch so it doesn't need to be online before that one gets its servers shut down
I don't think any servers should ever close.
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