EA Removes Classic Need for Speed Games From Digital Stores

Many older Need For Speed games were removed from digital stores on May 31, meaning players can no longer purchase the titles online.

EA announced on Monday that Need For Speed: Carbon, Shift, Shift 2, Unleashed, Undercover, and The Run were being delisted from digital stores. This includes Xbox Live, the PlayStation Network, Steam, and Origin.

Speaking in a post on Reddit, an EA employee explained that this has been done “in preparation for the retirement of the online services for these titles which will happen on August 31st 2021.” This is seemingly to allow developers to concentrate on creating new Need For Speed entries in the future.

According to the spokesperson, from the shut-off date players will only be able to access offline portions of the game. The statement also confirmed that the decision to delist the games was not an easy one but that it had become unfeasible to “continue the work behind the scenes required to keep [the delisted titles] up and running.”

More recent games, including Most Wanted, Rivals, Payback, Heat, and Hot Pursuit Remastered will continue to operate as normal for now.