If you wanted to purchase an older Need for Speed game yesterday, you might have noticed that they were impossible to find. That’s because publisher Electronic Arts is retiring them and, as such, pulled them from all digital storefronts yesterday.
The affected games are:
- Need for Speed: Carbon (2006)
- Need for Speed: Undercover (2008)
- Need for Speed: Shift (2009)
- Need for Speed Shift 2: Unleashed (2011)
- Need for Speed: The Run (2011)
Fans of the series who still own any of the games mentioned above, whether digitally or physically, can still use online features until August 31st. On that date, online services will be shut off and players will only be able to use each game’s offline features.
“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,” Community Manager Max_Joker wrote in the Reddit announcement.
He highlighted the need to retire the franchise’s older titles as “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.”
