13 April 2012 R.I.P. Burnout Revenge Online

And I don't like it one bit! I assume something can be done but what, as xbox servers are not the same as pc servers though it's coming to BF3/Ren-ta-server, could it not be done for other xbox games?

That's almost 2 years since the Xbox/PS2 Server shutdown of Burnout 3!

Just signed in to send my condolences to Burnout Revenge players. It will be another bad birthday as Zombie says because it's more or less exactly 2 years after Burnout 3 closed down.

It always seems so harsh and lacking in care for their 'products' to cripple the features that are often responsible for the game being as much of a success as it was. EA spend fortunes on marketing and PR but how much bad PR do they cost themselves just so they can save on some server money.

"But as games get replaced with newer titles, the number of players still enjoying the older games dwindles to a level -- fewer than 1% of all peak online players across all EA titles -- where it’s no longer feasible to continue the behind-the-scenes work involved with keeping these games up and running. We would rather our hard-working engineering and IT staff focus on keeping a positive experience for the other 99% of customers playing our more popular games.  We hope you have gotten many hours of enjoyment out of the games and we appreciate your ongoing patronage."

EA release a LOT of games on a lot of platforms, some of them quite big. I wonder exactly how much they count towards that total. Presumably all games that have nothing more than an online leaderboard count as much as games with actual multiplayer.

Every game they release adds more online players so the actual player numbers could be increasing for older games and they would still fall into the 1% just because of all the new people being added to the 99%. It's an impossible target to meet and guarantees the closure of old titles. It's not an occasional decision made on an individual basis. It's hardwired int to games from the start.

This time they're including games that they sell Online passes for. They valued online at $10 if you bought a game second hand. Even having fresh money coming in direct to them specifically so people could use online is not enough for them to keep the integrity of the gaming experiences they are selling to us.

It's a bigger issue than Burnout Revenge but  for now I'm tempted to have some more trips around White Mountain in the Euro Classic or the Nixon even though I see I haven't played it online since 2008. Burnout 3 was always the online choice for me. Revenge has enough Burnout genes in it to still hold fond memories though.

I also have trouble understanding the 1% cut-off that they are talking about. Some kind of human logic should be behind the decision. If the game still has a healthy online community like Burnout Revenge the negative publicity must cost them more than running the servers.

It is also pretty interesting to see that Burnout Revenge still seems to be selling well. Looking at amazon.com prices range from $22 to $99.99. Looking at UK sites you can get it new from £12 - £30 which is pretty good for a 7 year old game. Burnout Revenge is also still for sale from games on demand on the Xbox 360.

To me it seems like EA is forgetting that people are still buying this awesome game. I’m sure that some fraction of what people pay ends up in EA’s pockets! This should be more than enough to power a few servers.

But maybe I’m getting it all wrong??? Maybe EA is actually losing money as long as people are playing this game? People playing Revenge could be spending their time playing other EA titles! Instead most of them have been playing Revenge for 7 years! Imagine all the sales that EA have lost.

Actually most games that are created today seems to be made in such a way that players loose interest a short time after the last DLC is released. Around the same time the publisher releases the next title… and people run to the shops to trade their 2 month old game. Of course no one will be interested in buying it since it requires a £10 online pass

It seems crazy to me that they would keep the servers online for the few hardcore players still active, and that a petition to that effect would be a waste of time.

What would be a greater use of the community's time would be to petition for a live arcade style HD remix like they have done on ps3  for 'god of war', 'ico/collossus' and 'metal gear'. They could repackage all the burnout games upto Revenge.

This would justify the reopening of not just revenge's server but the older games too.

umopapisdnpuaq wrote:

It always seems so harsh and lacking in care for their 'products' to cripple the features that are often responsible for the game being as much of a success as it was.

Amen. Xbox LIVE's infrastructure enables developers to use Xbox LIVE as a master server. In that way, the game only needs to connect to Xbox LIVE in order to be played online, and thus the online mode will remain functional forever ... or at least until MS discontinues support for Xbox 360 games. However, EA insists on having their games authenticate to their own proprietary servers ... and then pulls stunts like this! It seems to me that EA is intentionally implementing manufactured obsolescense.

It wouldn't be that bad if it weren't for the fact that it doesn't have system link. If the game had system link mode, we'd be able to play the game after the shutdown, using VPN software like XBSLink. It is actually possible to play the PSP Burnout games online using XLink Kai, though.