EA / Origin is removing old games without any warning

EA is being prickish and acting against the interests of gamers? Really?
Also: water is wet!

:P

Life gets quite a bit less frustrating as a gamer if you simply stop giving any money to EA. Your own sanity will thank you for pretending EA doesn't exist.

Syndicate, Mercenaries 2 and Saboteur are games I'm still hoping they give more love to. Maybe they actually remaster them.....probably not, maybe they actually release them on Steam.....probably not.

What EA did to Darkspore was unforgivable!!!

Just to clarify, removing from their store. If the game was already in your library, you still have it.

Given that Syndicate Plus just rolled out on GOG, it seems probable that it will eventually appear on Origin and that might be why the original was hidden. This could bode well for an updated version of Mercenaries 2.

https://www.ea.com/service-updates

I'm pretty sure I read somewhere about the removal of old Need for Speed games from store. Not sure about the other ones.

Honestly, I tried Saboteur on Origin. Extremely Buggy. Most of the time it simply would not start. I bought it on GOG. ZERO issues. Ran perfectly.

Well I previously already owned NFS The Run and Saboteur, and then just picked up Syndicate a few mins ago...but Mercenaries 2 seems impossible to find anywhere now. Which is actually the one I most wanted to play of the bunch. Ah well, here's hoping for a remaster or something.

Saboteur is still available on GOG.

What most removed games had in common (recently): SecuROM online. As EA isn't exactly in the mood to patch out the copy protection in old games (no serious financial gain there), they are just removing them from sale.

As for the really old games (Dungeon Keeper, Populous, Ultima and so on), it's better to get them from GOG. Also, show your interest for the old games that have no Origin integration. Vote for those titles on GOG.

Don't even think about the titles that had licensing (NFS, FIFA, NHL, NBA, MLB and so on). Those are gone for good. There are many factors that will prevent the re-release of those: in the NFS case, many of the tuning companies showcased in titles like Undercover, Undercover 2 and Most Wanted 2005 are gone. The licenses can't be renewed. Also, the licensing costs skyrocketed since then. The music, the brands will cost more and it doesn't justify the investment. The profit will be marginal or non-existent.

Sorry, that's the wonderful world of the outdated copyright.

EA lost the licenses for: Harry Potter (currently with Warner, which has zero interest to release games made by a rival, plus EA won't give them access to the software used in those games - graphic engine and so on, as that is EA proprietary tech and they won't give a rival access to that), Dune (currently with Funcom, see above, the same situation), James Bond 007 (no one has the license currently and the IP owners are not interested into giving it to someone else), Lord of The Rings (Warner + Amazon, the Tolkien estate won't allow EA to use it, as they've made some really profitable exclusive deals with the two media giants, and those two are in a really different league than EA).

Other titles that EA can't rerelease because licensing: Nascar, NCAA, their football managers series, their golf series (well generally insert any sport here). As the F1 goes, we will see if they can still use the Codemasters license after that expires (EA bought Codemasters, but that doesn't mean that the license will be renewed and as you may remember, plenty of Codie titles removed when the licensing expired, Dirt and Grid being the main examples).

There is also Godfather (EA used a license granted by the peeps behind the movies, but those didn't had the rights to sublicense and there was a lawsuit, where the Puzo Estate won, hence the titles were removed from sale - Puzo estate has zero interest in videogames)

I think i covered the biggest names there. There are a few others titles where the rights are split between EA and the dev companies (now defunct), which also makes impossible a re-release.

Motherfucking piece of shit. I opened Mercenaries 2's page so many times and contemplated about buying it. It was cheap, even at full price. But I always thought "I'm gonna wait for the slightest sale, and then I'll buy it for sure". And I would have, but the sale never came. I did this for years. Years. Fuck EA.

https://www.steamgifts.com/discussion/nYxZh/nfs-will-be-removed-from-digital-storefronts-upd-nfs-sale-until-june-13
No clear warning??

Also Syndicate plus was removed from GOG and now back again for free, so it isn't just a blame on EA/Origin.