Epic Games has announced that it will be turning off online services and servers for several older games, starting today. The company is moving to solely support Epic Online Services, which offers a unified friends system, voice chat, parental controls, and parental verification features. Most of the affected titles will still be playable offline, while others will no longer be accessible to players.
Epic Games to discontinue online services for select titles
The following games will have their online services disabled on January 24, after which players can continue playing single or local multiplayer modes offline:
- 1000 Tiny Claws
- Dance Central 1-3
- Green Day: Rock Band
- Monsters (Probably) Stole My Princess
- Rock Band 1-3
- The Beatles: Rock Band
- Supersonic Acrobatic Rocket-Powered Battle-Cars
- Unreal Gold
- Unreal II: The Awakening
- Unreal Tournament 2003
- Unreal Tournament 2004
- Unreal Tournament 3
Epic has also started removing games that were still available from digital storefronts and has disabled in-game DLC purchasing. The Mac and Linux versions of Hatoful Boyfriend and Hatoful Boyfriend: Holiday Star were also removed from storefronts, as well as the mobile title DropMix. Players who already own these titles will still be able to play.
Additionally, Battle Breakers will shut down on December 30 and will no longer be accessible to players. Epic will automatically refund players for any in-game purchases made via Epic direct payment 180 days prior to today. Unreal Tournament (Alpha), Rock Band Blitz, Rock Band Companion app and SingSpace will be shut down and no longer accessible to players on January 24.
Epic has stated that it has plans to bring back online features for some titles via Epic Online Services in the future. The company has thanked players and communities for enjoying the affected titles over the years.
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(Source)
