Sad news for those of you that like playing older titles, Sony Computer Entertainment Europe is preparing to shut down the servers for a few games on PS3 and PSP, meaning that you won’t be able to play online.

SCEE broke the news on their website saying that MotorStorm Pacific Rift, Arctic Edge and SOCOM: Fireteam Bravo 3 will lose online features in October, while The Eye of Judgment Legends will be offline only from the end of August:

Important notice for all PlayStation 3, PlayStation 2 and PSP owners regarding online games.

As of 1 October 2012 you will no longer be able to use the online features of the following game:

PlayStation 3

MotorStorm Pacific Rift

PSP

MotorStorm Arctic Edge
SOCOM: Fireteam Bravo 3

After this date, you will still be able to play these games offline.

As of 31 August 2012 you will no longer be able to use the online features of the following game:

PSP

THE EYE OF JUDGMENT™ LEGENDS

After this date, you will still be able to play this game offline.

We would like to thank everyone who has taken part in these PlayStation online communities and hope you enjoyed them.

Not only is this bad news for those who like playing those games online, but Pacific Rift has a hefty portion of trophies that can only be earned online.

http://www.playstationlifestyle.net/2012/07/20/scee-shutting-down-servers-for-4-older-ps3-psp-games-trophy-hunters-should-platinum-motorstorm-pacific-rift-while-they-still-can/

Kinda annoyed about Pacific Rift as I'm just playing it at the moment, but I have tried getting online quite a few times and there's been no-one, so I kind of understand.

The SOCOM one is surprising too since the game is only 2 years old, but I don't think Europe is the biggest SOCOM fan anyway, so I could imagine there not being many people online.

Unfortunate but that's business.

This is entirely off topic so I'm sorry but I just wanted to get this off of my chest:

I bought WWE 12 for the Xbox 360 the day it came out last year. I had to have my DLC of THE ROCK (My favorite wrestler of the attitude era). I also paid an additional $20 for some sort of season pass of additional DLC. They had the stuff you pay money for on an entirely different server than the online component. With the online, you can play different types of matches and download additional wrestlers that other users have made, and download user created storylines, moves, etc. Anyway, the online component is a pretty important part of the game.

This part NEVER worked. I love wrestling but I tossed the game on the shelf. Whenever I tried to do anything, the game would always say "The servers for WWE 12 are unavailable right now" or something. After a while, I was like "fuck it". The servers only worked like 30% of the time back then. Well, my little nephew is a big wrestling fan and he's been coming over a lot this summer. We tried to play WWE 12 and, not only could we not go online and download stuff--it would log me off of Xbox Live! It's the only game that did this. We played Call of Duty and a couple of other games and they work great but WWE 12 is actually a broken game.

And this is my biggest fear of these online games. WWE 12 isn't even a year old and it's over and done. Hell, it actually never got started. My $60 a year for XBL and an additional $20 I payed for that season pass on top of the $60 I payed for a game I pre-ordered and NEVER got to really enjoy because it's broken and never got fixed. I wish there was some sort of class action law-suit I could file.

That's the problem with this generation in general, unfortunately.  All games are made for the 'here and now'.  They're designed so we'll play the online modes at the moment and then never think of them again in the future.  I'll probably be playing Timesplitters with friends in 10 years time but I won't even be able to play any of this generation's games (save for a select few).

And when the online mode doesn't even work as it should?  Even bigger kick in the balls.  You're right, there probably should be some kind of legal action you could take.

Well I guess that sucks for the people that play those games. But I hope it doesn't happen for the more popular games.

this is a reason why I also hate patching for console games.

how the hell do I get them again later? At least with a PC you can downlaod the patch and store it seperately somwewhere.

This is kind of an offshoot, but this is why I hate trophies/achievements that are in the online mode. If the servers go down or no one plays anymore its impossible to get them.

I've bought so many quality games over the years for very little money because I waited.  Now, thanks to online modes and trophies it feels like I won't be able to complete this generations play modes.  Motorstorm Pacific Rift is an awesome game, but there is no way to platinum that game now.  The servers for it are already down if you ask me.  I tried over a year ago to get in on the weekend race mode with no luck.  I tried again last weekend same result.

What would be nice is if Sony, MS or any third party that does this sort of thing could patch the game with new trophies/achievements or have the game platinum once the offline mode is done.  They have to realize that not everyone can afford $60 games or want to pay that much to begin with.  People still buy games years after they are released why not make the online trophies/achievements optional if you're not willing to maintain the servers.

Yeah, I agree about the patching part - I think that should happen with any game which had a requirement of online trophies, they should just patch it so you can do the races, but against bots instead.

I honestly think Sony could & should do so much more to boost the population of some of these online games, though.  It's such a shame, because like you said - getting into a Pacific Rift online game right now is already impossible, but it didn't have to be.

Sony could and should, for example, offer games like this for free on PS+.  Now, I think the PS+ selection is great and maybe people would be a bit pissed at getting 4 year old games for their investment, but idk.  If you threw them in with some of the newer releases it wouldn't be bad.

The knock on effect from this, you'd hope at least, is a temporary boost to the online community for these games.  Possibly a permanent boost if some of the PS+ people take a liking to the game.  I mean, it can't hurt Sony to try something like this - they won't be selling many copies of a game like this new any more, if anything it might re-invigorate interest in the series and convince people to go out and buy a new Motorstorm game (Apocalypse or RC).

I also think DLC for older games should be made free after a while.  It's the kind of thing that might make older players go back and give it another try if they see new maps/vehicles/challenges for free.  Meh.

Edit: And the thing is, they've already taken steps towards this model - Starhawk's DLC is going to be 100% free throughout its life, and Uncharted 2's DLC got made free recently.  They're clearly interested in the idea, why not go the whole hog?