In a recent update to its
online services shutdown listing, publisher Electronic Arts has signaled a June 30th 2014 shutdown for the online services for the PC and Mac versions of classic miltary shooters Battlefield 1942, Battlefield 2, Battlefield Vietnam, and Battlefield 2142. The more recent Battlefield: Bad Company 2 is notably absent from the list.
The move is presumably related to the pending shutdown of Gamespy services, which many classic EA games were built around, however the publisher had
previously indicated that it was "working on transitioning those games after the shut down so you'll still be able to play them", so its a midly concerning to see their names appear among a bunch of other titles headed for multiplayer mothballing.
Game servers for all classic Battlefield games on PC are publicly hostable, so no manner of shutdown is going to affect LAN play or directly connecting to online multiplayer servers, but the master list that powers the in-game server browsers, and features like the persistent unlocks and stat tracking in the later games are all still dependent on EA-hosted infrastructure.
We've reached out to EA and DICE for more clarification on the expected future of these old Battlefield games.
Posted 11:18am 12/5/14
Posted 11:25am 12/5/14
Posted 11:36am 12/5/14
That's assuming people still play 1942. I haven't played any of them since then... I tried playing 3 on PS3 but it made me want to drive the controller through my eye socket.
Posted 12:55pm 12/5/14
Posted 01:02pm 12/5/14
Personally, I think the Desert Combat mod should get a resurgence. That mod is a better game than BF4 still imo.
Posted 03:28pm 12/5/14
With Vietnam and 2142 coming in close second and third.
Posted 03:35pm 12/5/14
Posted 04:09pm 12/5/14
Posted 04:13pm 12/5/14