As previously posted, EA original DVD version is working. I checked it again a few hours ago, I'm still able to go online and I did see some weekly and daily activity on the leaderboards, most of it players doing career mode while logged in, so others, apparently with the DVD or Steam version aren't having any issues.
On a probably related note, none of the "DLC" content for Shift 2 Unleashed can be unlocked if you don't already have a save with the content, as EA broke the server so that it no longer sends out "unlock" messages at log in, which Shift 2 uses instead of actual downloads to enable "DLC" content, or content like the Dr Pepper Camaro. Tech support has been aware of this for over 3 months and nothing has been fixed. Rather than fix the problem, Origin stopped selling the Limited Edition of Shift 2, but it's still available from online retailers like Amazon or Ebay, but now the extra Limited Edition content can't be unlocked. In my case this problem is compounded by yet another change EA made to the server which no longer allows you to update a password that has been changed when Shift 2 tries to login, and it just fails showing "invalid password" with no option to update the password (this used to work before EA broke it on the server side, the game was not changed). In my case EA forced a change since my old password didn't meet the new standards (it was all lower case letters), so there's no way for me to log in on any of my saves where I logged in previously, and if I use a save before I logged in, I don't get any of the Limited Edition content that I paid for.
