Im August kaufte der GLU Mobile, der Gigant des Mobile Gaming, Gamespy, das Ihnen vielleicht als Videospiel-Newssite bekannt ist, aber in letzter Zeit vor allem als Multiplayer Gaming Hub für ältere Titel fungierte.
Nun, die Leute von GLU haben sich nicht lange Zeit gelassen, einen Eindruck zu hinterlassen, denn Sie schalteten in aller Stille und ohne Warnung die Multiplayer-Server für Spiele wie Star Wars: Battlefront, die ersten beiden Neverwinter Nights Titel, Sniper Elite, SWAT 4 und Microsoft's Flight Simulator X ab.
Manche dieser Titel können noch immer gespielt werden, indem man direkt die IP Adresse eines anderen Spielers eingeben, aber für die meisten ist damit Schluss. Game over. Rebellion, Entwickler von Sniper Elite, schrieb einen offenen Brief an die Fans des Spiels, indem man die Situation zusammenfasste.
A few weeks ago, the online multiplayer servers for Sniper Elite were suddenly switched off by Glu, the third-party service we had been paying to maintain them.
For the past seven years we have run these servers at a cost to ourselves so that fans of Sniper Elite could continue to play online for free.
This decision by Glu was not taken in consultation with us and was beyond our control.
We have been talking to them since to try and get the servers turned back on. We have been informed that in order to do so would cost us tens of thousands of pounds a year—far in excess of how much we were paying previously. We also do not have the option to take the multiplayer to a different provider. Because the game relies on Glu and Gamespy's middleware, the entire multiplayer aspect of the game would have to be redeveloped by us, again, at the cost of many tens of thousands of pounds.
While we are not happy about the situation, as an independent developer we simply do not have the resources to pay the massive costs of new servers along with redeveloping a seven-year-old game.
We share the disappointment of fans who have played the game since it was published in 2005. This is not something we intended or wanted to happen, but unfortunately it has been beyond our control. We have always looked to support our fan community and we hope the past seven years of free multiplayer service have been evidence of that—we're sorry that the servers have been shut down in this way.
We would like to thank all the fans who have continued to support Rebellion and Sniper Elite.
Das ist eine wirklich traurige Lektüre. Es kann nicht mehr allzu viele Leute gegeben haben, die diese älteren Spiele spielen, weshalb die Entscheidung getroffen wurde, die entsprechenden Server abzustellen, aber eine kleine Vorwarnung wäre schon nett gewesen.
Official Announcement from Rebellion' Senior Management on SE1 server issue [Rebellion]
Gamespy [Facebook]
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