It's not the best time to be an EA fan, as evermore shutdowns continue to loom on the horizon. Moreover, EA's slate of closures includes a particularly high-profile mobile game that's been on the market for 12 years.
EA has something of a reputation for shuttering both games and studios. Aside from the numerous online games that the company has closed down, with the publisher releasing annual replacements for multiple franchises, many studios have met the ire of its fanatical restructuring. This is, unfortunately, not uncommon in the present era of mass layoffs and industry reckoning, but EA has become infamous for closing studios like Visceral, Pandemic, and Ridgeline Games—which EA shuttered earlier this year.
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EA Games Facing The Reaper In 2024 And 2025
EA has an online record of what games it's shutting down or has shut down, stretching back to pre-2013, and it has grown to include some upcoming examples. From November 2024 to January 2025, six EA games will be getting the axe. Most of these games fall into the camp of titles that have essentially been 'replaced', older entries in franchises with annual or near-annual installments. On the other hand, one of these games is a particularly special case—one that's seen over a decade of support.
FIFA 22 And NBA Live 18 (November 4 And November 7)
The first of these games to get the shutdown treatment will be FIFA 22. The game's online features will be retired on November 4, which is pretty standard for FIFA games considering their release cycle. NBA Live 18 will be joining it on November 7, which also follows the trend of its series. Just as Battlefield games get phased out by later entries, so does EA's sports catalog—albeit to an even more rapid extent.
The Battlefield Games Facing Shutdown (November 7)
A trio of Battlefield games will be shut down on November 7, all of which are holdovers from the seventh generation. On that day, Battlefield 3, Battlefield 4, and Battlefield: Hardline will lose their online functionality for Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 devices (though offline features will remain intact). Console fans with later editions of the latter two will still be able to play online, though Battlefield 3 has yet to receive a port for later console generations. PC players, though, will still be able to play online on their platform's port of the game.
The Simpsons: Tapped Out (January 25, 2025)
The only game confirmed to be on the chopping block for 2025 is The Simpsons: Tapped Out, a city-building mobile game that's been around for 12 years now. Finally being put to rest, Tapped Out will be delisted October 31 and permanently closed on January 25, 2025. No plans for an offline release have been detailed, nor has a reason for the shutdown been put forward. What is known is that microtransactions have now been disabled, which was announced in-game alongside the sunset declaration. Fans have scarcely been content with the news, as a petition to save the game has reached almost 20,000 signatures at the time of writing.
The Simpsons: Tapped Out will get another update to close it out, though the leaks surrounding it hardly project finality. Reddit user PrimalPokemonPlayer revealed that a number of holiday-themed statues will be added as part of the game's swan song. The casual nature of these additions, which don't imply much of a last hurrah, has led many fans to speculate that much more content was planned for the game, and that fans aren't getting anything special. Indeed, the reasoning behind EA closing the game's doors is still unknown to fans.
- Date Founded
- May 27, 1982
- Headquarters
- Redwood City, California, United States
- CEO
- Andrew Wilson
- Subsidiaries
- EA Sports, Respawn Entertainment, BioWare, PopCap, EA Vancouver, Codemasters, Glu Mobile
- Services
- EA Play
- Known For
- FIFA, NHL, Medal of Honor, Battlefield, Madden NFL, Dragon Age