An announcement about some older NFS titles.

[EA_David]

Starting May 31st 2021, Need for Speed Carbon, Need for Speed Undercover, Need for Speed Shift, Need for Speed Shift 2: Unleashed and Need for Speed The Run will be removed from digital storefronts and you will no longer be able to purchase them. In-game stores will also be closed from May 31st.

This is in preparation for the retirement of the online services for these titles which will happen on August 31st 2021. Until that date, you will be able to play and race your friends (and rivals) online. From September 1st 2021 onwards, you can still play the games and use the respective offline features of these titles.

Decisions to retire games are never made easy, but we are now shifting gears to focus on the future of Need for Speed. 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. We hope you have gotten many victories, satisfying drifts, moments of friendly rivalry, and hours of joy over the last few years out of these games.

And we hope you'll keep driving with us in one of our newer titles - Need for Speed Most Wanted (2012), Need for Speed Rivals, Need for Speed (2015), Need for Speed Payback, Need for Speed Heat and Need for Speed Hot Pursuit Remastered - many of which are available via our EA Play subscription. Pedal to the metal.

[tyl0413]

Could've told us before taking them down so we can buy them, so stupid do they not want money or what..

[Jacobba55]

@EA_David

Thank you for keeping us updated David! Got a question on that note:

Might I ask whether this applies to the PS3 (PlayStation 3) re-release of Need For Speed Carbon as well? I'd assume so, but I'd just like some clarification if that's quite alright...

If that is the case, it'd be a great shame; I'm part of a group of players who were occasionally getting together to restore the Carbon online scene to its former glory and to open up the opportunity to players who may not have had the chance to experience Carbon online before... 

However, I completely understand the logistics behind it and accept the fact that you can't profitably sustain the servers indefinitely... But, out of curiosity, is there a particular "quota" or threshold of players required to sustain the servers that we could try and hit perhaps?

Apologies for all the questions, I patiently await your response! Looking forward to hearing more about the next installment for 2022 too...

[TheRealJony]

This is just sad news to read about.

People should've gotten like a week-long warning that these five NFS games were gonna be delisted, so people can prepare to buy them if they still haven't done so. By instantly delisting them around the same time the announcement was made, people are gonna be angry and mad about the sudden delisting.

I was expecting NFS Carbon's servers to permanently shut down any day now (considering it's been online for over 14 years), but it's still upsetting to see that it's actually and really gonna be permanently shut down now. Good luck to those still trying to unlock cars in the online reward cards for the last 3 months!

Well as NFS The Run's servers are gonna get permanently shut down in 3 months, I gotta wrap up on unlocking all cars that are only unlockable by Multiplayer as quick as possible in these last 3 months.

R.I.P. NFS Carbon, NFS Undercover, NFS Shift 1, NFS Shift 2 Unleashed, and NFS The Run.

[boboiboyxstress]

I am so disappointed that Need for Speed: Carbon, Need for Speed Undercover, Need for Speed: Shift and Shift 2 and The Run will be delisted and permanently unavailable to play.

You should tell us earlier so that people had their last chance to obtain a copy of the five mentioned games in above. Or at least re-release Carbon first for a limited-time or I'm perhaps wanted to ask for a remaster of NFS Carbon: Own The City for Android and iOS and will hoping to be developed by Exient Entertainment and an Korean developer named Dalcomsoft. And also in COTC, at least add some new cars, more new crews, new races or add new features into the game.

Also since I've never played Need for Speed: Carbon, it's so unlucky for me to never had an copy of the game and wanted to try playing because as of today I've seen many people still playing the game by making some walkthrough videos on YouTube and at least I had playing Carbon Own The City and it is the best NFS game I've ever played. 

But in addition to that, I am very aprreciated to all devs at EA for bringing me good content and make all NFS fans happy with you guys. Last words, I will continue support you guys ahead of the upcoming NFS games. Ok, gotta go now. Ciao!

Regards,

Naufal Dzol.

[rcgldr]

@EA_David  - What about activation|re-activation for existing copies of Undercover, such as if a player buys a new system or otherwise needs to re-install and re-activate Undercover?  I purchased my copy back in 2008.  If the activation server is shutdown, will EA provide a work-around for the activation as it has for other EA games where activation servers were shutdown?