Summary
- EA is shutting down servers for multiple games, including popular titles like Need for Speed and FIFA.
- Battlefield games on PS3/Xbox 360 had servers shut down in November 2024, while games on PC still run.
- Fans can still play Command & Conquer 3 online on PC using fan servers despite official shutdown.
With all that EA is notorious for, shutting down online servers for active games is probably comparatively mild. It doesn’t involve firing whole studios or scrapping promising projects, but for every game that somehow ran online for decades, there have been a few that only hung on for a few years before getting cut off forever.
8 Best EA Games You Can No Longer Play
These notable EA games might have draws eyes at one point, but now, they're pretty inaccessible due to licensing issues or being delisted entirely.
For example, Need for Speed Rivals, NHL 12, Madden 22, and FIFA 23 will have their servers switched off in October 2025, joining 13 other games EA has shut down this year alone. However, players at least have some time before the plug gets pulled (at the time of this writing). That's not the case here. These are just some of EA’s top games that had their online servers shut down.
Battlefield Games
Fought The Good Fight, But Lost The Battle
Battlefield 3
- Released
- October 25, 2011
WHERE TO PLAY
- ESRB
- M for Mature: Blood, Intense Violence, Strong Language
- Genre(s)
- FPS
Companies can’t keep their online servers going forever. Eventually, the old must make way for the new. Even so, if anyone played the Battlefield games on the PS3 and Xbox 360 back in the day, their days of playing online ended in November 2024 when Battlefield 3 & 4 were shut down. Their shutdown came just one year after Battlefield: Bad Company 1 & 2 and Battlefield 1943 met their online ends in December 2023.
If anything, it’s surprising how long they lasted, given they came out between 2009 and 2013. Still, they include some of the best entries in the series, with Battlefield 3 and Bad Company 2 being particularly beloved. If players want to keep playing these games online, they’ll have to play them on PC, as they’re the only versions whose servers are still running (for now).
Command & Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars & Kane’s Wrath
How Fans Kept the Conquest Going
Command & Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars
- Released
- March 28, 2007
WHERE TO PLAY
- ESRB
- t // Animated Blood, Mild Language, Violence
- Genre(s)
- Real-Time Strategy, Strategy
Likewise, players will need to get a PC to keep playing Command & Conquer 3 online, be it in its original Tiberium Wars form or the Kane’s Wrath standalone expansion. The game was considered a return to form for the classic RTS series back in 2007, and Kane’s Wrath was a further step-up with its additional modes and features, like the console-exclusive Kane’s Challenge gauntlet or the PC-only Global Conquest mode.
The game’s Xbox 360 online servers were shut down in November 2022, 15 years after its original release. Even if players have a PC to continue playing, it'll take some work. Officially, its shutdown happened a decade earlier when Gamespy closed their servers, but the fan community has plenty of fan servers available for players to connect to in order to get a game going, complete with FAQs on how to get started.
Syndicate
ADark RTS Game Becomes An FPS
Syndicate
- Released
- February 21, 2012
WHERE TO PLAY
- ESRB
- t
- Genre(s)
- FPS
The original Syndicate was a sly RTS where players could use all sorts of unscrupulous means to take over a country for their corporate backers. Assassination, kidnapping, attacking civilians, any method was good so long as it accomplished the mission. Then, that game was rebooted in 2012 into a first-person shooter with some hacking mechanics. Not quite the classic callback old-school fans were hoping for.
Its new story and characters were a mixed bag, but the shooting and DART-6 mechanics were good and unique for the time. The game even had online 4-player co-op and multiplayer, which was fun, but its servers got shut down back in June 2023. Ironically, it’s easier to play the online multiplayer in 1996's Syndicate Wars via GOG than it is to play the reboot that was meant to revitalize the series.
FIFA 17
Full-Time For The Classic Soccer Series
FIFA 17
- Released
- September 27, 2016
WHERE TO PLAY
- Platform(s)
- PC, PlayStation 4, Xbox One
After nearly 30 years of being the biggest name in soccer games, EA’s licensing agreement with EA Sports ended in December 2022. This meant, on top of every EA Soccer game changing its name to EA Sports FC, its older entries' days were numbered. Without the FIFA license, EA would soon pull these titles from digital storefronts and switch off their online servers.
For some, the FIFA series lost its mojo way back before the 2010s, but others still vouch for more modern entries like FIFA 17. It offered a new engine, Squad Building Challenges, and solid, consistent gameplay that later entries lacked. But like those games, its servers got shut down in February 2023, and the titles were pulled from Steam. Once FIFA 23 goes out in October, there will be no (official) way to play a FIFA game online.
DiRT Rally Series
Still In The Race, But Only Just
Dirt Rally 2.0
- Released
- February 25, 2019
WHERE TO PLAY
- ESRB
- E For Everyone Due To
- Genre(s)
- Racing
Racing games aren’t safe from the axe, though the reasons for their shutdown are pretty straightforward. F1 2011-2014 and Race Stars were old, but the later F1 games are still accessible online. What’s more curious is the fate of the DiRT Rally games. Like FIFA, EA’s licensing deal with the car brands led to many of its entries ultimately getting delisted and shut down. Except they're not quite all dead, just mostly dead.
DiRT 1 and DiRT 4 are officially listed as being shut down across all platforms on EA's Online Shutdown list, but DiRT 2.0 and DiRT 3 aren’t. Neither game is being sold online now, yet PC-savvy players can still find ways to get races in those games going. Provided they already have a VIP pass for DiRT 3 (no longer available for purchase) and know how to fiddle with Games for Windows Live for DiRT 2.0, that is. It’s probably easier to just play DiRT 5 while it’s still available.
EA Sports UFC 2
Hanging Up Its Gloves For Good
- Developer: EA Vancouver.
- Platforms: PS4, Xbox One.
- Release: March 2016.
EA Sports has been dabbling in combat sports since the days of Knockout Kings. Though it didn’t seem likely they’d touch the UFC, as its head, Dana White, claimed the company told him, “[MMA is] not a real sport. We don’t want to touch this thing.” Then they made EA Sports MMA. White then declared himself at war with EA by giving THQ the UFC license.
Best UFC Games, Ranked
Fans of UFC have several entertaining games to choose from after watching the real thing on TV.
Later, EA ended up buying the UFC license when THQ went under, and the publisher has produced the official lineup of UFC games ever since. UFCs 4-5 can still be played online, but EA Sports UFC 2, arguably the best game in the series with its refined controls and ground-and-pound gameplay, had its servers shut down back in February 2023. Its closest contender, EA Sports UFC 3, lasted a little longer, going offline 2 years later in February 2025.
Dead Space 2
Get Killed By Necromorphs Alone Or With Friends
Dead Space 2
- Released
- January 25, 2011
WHERE TO PLAY
- ESRB
- M for Mature: Blood and Gore, Intense Violence, Strong Language
- Genre(s)
- Survival Horror
Survival horror thrives on isolating the player, where they’ll only have a few NPCs to interact with outside the monsters baying for their blood. But there are a few games in the genre that offer multiplayer fun. Or at least did offer it. After players had gone through the story campaign in Dead Space 2, they could go online in its 4-vs-4 multiplayer mode, a mode the fans and EA basically forced Visceral Games to add to the space horror sim.
In it, the human team had to complete a set of missions on each stage before the time ran out, and it was up to the Necromorph team to stop them. The former has a host of firepower, including the Javelin Gun. The latter just grabs and mutilates whoever’s in range. Alas, the mode went kaput for good across PC and consoles in December 2023. So, if players didn't get into it before then, they likely never will now without setting up their own server.
Crysis Series
The One Mode PCs Can't Run Anymore
Crysis
- Released
- November 13, 2007
- ESRB
- M
- Genre(s)
- Action, Shooter
*For a long time, people have been tinkering with PCs in all sorts of ways to make sure they’re as powerful as possible, where the only limit is their wallet. Anything to keep those frame rates high and stable, those textures crisp and pristine, and to have every ray traced. But back in the day, the best way to prove the might of one’s rig was to see if it could run Crysis.
It even had a neat online multiplayer mode that supported up to 32 players, but it was dismantled, along with similar modes in Crysis 2 and Crysis Wars, in June 2014 when Gamespy shut down their servers. Crysis 3’s online mode lasted much longer, kicking the bucket in December 2023. Today, if players want to play Crysis online, they’ll have to mod in co-op functions into the Remastered editions.
Best EA Games
No one knows controversy like Electronic Arts, but they've still made some great video games. Here are their best ones.