5 Need for Speed Games Get Delisted Abruptly

If you remember some of the older Need for Speed games fondly, you'd better hope you have them preserved somewhere whether online or on physical formats because five of them just got delisted abruptly. Electronic Arts announced this week on Monday that it would be taking down five different Need for Speed games from digital storefronts with effective soon after the announcement on the same day. Those games have now been stricken from the online stores with online services for them scheduled to end on August 31st.

The games in question are Need for Speed Undercover, Need for Speed Shift, Need for Speed Shift 2: Unleashed and Need for Speed The Run, according to the Need for Speed community manager Max Myrus who posted the announcement on the Need for Speed subreddit. With May 31st already come and gone just hours after the announcement was made, the games have been delisted with their in-game stores shut down, too.

"This is in preparation for the retirement of the online services for these titles which will happen on August 31st 2021," Myrus said. "Until that date, you will be able to play and race your friends (and rivals) online. From September 1st 2021 onwards, you can still play the games and use the respective offline features of these titles."

While Need for Speed fans probably would've appreciated a bit more notice to get their collections in order if they didn't have one of the games on digital platforms by now, the announcement does at least bring some good news for the series. There's a new Need for Speed game coming out which we already knew about with that game releasing in 2022 following a delay, and according to the community manager, the decision to delist these games comes from a decision to refocus on the future of the series.

"Decisions to retire games are never made easy, but we are now shifting gears to focus on the future of Need for Speed," Myrus said. "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."