EA pulls five Need for Speed games from storefronts as maintaining servers is “no longer feasible”

EA is pulling five of its older Need for Speed titles from storefronts, as it prepares to disable the games’ servers on August 31st.

The news comes from a member of the development team speaking on Reddit, where it was revealed that Need for Speed Carbon, Need for Speed Undercover, Need for Speed Shift, Need for Speed Shift 2: Unleashed and Need for Speed The Run have been removed from storefronts as of May 31st.  Additionally, the servers for each game will be shut down as of August 31st.

From then, the titles will remain playable as single player games, but will only remain available for purchase through secondhand physical copies.

“Decisions to retire games are never made easy, but we are now shifting gears to focus on the future of Need for Speed,” read the post. “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.

“But 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.”