Online shooter Battlefield Heroes is one of four games being shut down by EA over the next few months, it's been announced...
NewsWe can still remember when, back in about 2009, interest in DICE's free-to-play shooter Battlefield Heroeswas so great that the game's website crashed from all the would-be players lining up to claim a beta key.
Five years is a long time in gaming, though, and EA has now announced that Battlefield Heroes and three other titles are to be shut down over the next 90 days.
As well as Battlefield Heroes, Battlefield Play4Free, FIFA World, and Need For Speed Worldare all to meet their maker by the summer.
The news was broken in a blog post written by EA's executive vice president Patrick Soderlund, who wrote that, while EA's free-to-play Star Wars: The Old Republic is still pulling in players, there are other games that "are not as popular as they once were."
"So we find ourselves announcing the tough decision today that we are stopping development and winding down support for four PC free-to-play titles," Soderlund writes.
The games affected are already making preparations. Battlefield Heroeshas set its closure date for the 14th July, and urges players to spend their in-game currency before that date.
Need For Speed World is closing on the same day, and has already disabled in-game purchases of SpeedBoosts. Again, players are being encouraged to spend their game currency on other items before the 14th July.
While the days may be numbered for the likes of Battlefield Heroesand Need For Speed World, Soderlund has said EA will continue to support the free-to-play Star Wars: The Old Republic, and reveals that more updates to its story will be added in 2015.
"[The Old Republic] continues to have a very enthusiastic and growing player community," Soderlund writes, "and we have plans to introduce more new story-driven game updates to our Star Wars: The Old Republic players this year."
Given just how much money EA and BioWare reportedly put into making The Old Republic - $200 million is the tag often bandied about - they'll probably want to keep it running for as long as possible.
