Your favourite Battlefield games are being axed
The Battlefield franchise has had a good run, and while it once looked like it was neck and neck with Call of Duty in the shooter scene, it's since had something of a dramatic fall from grace. Like disappointment with Halo Infinite, Battlefield 2042 fell well below expectations.
Even as CoD powers ahead with its annual releases and hopes to get back on its own top form with Black Ops 6, EA and DICE seem determined to resurrect Battlefield once again. Unfortunately, with all this focus on what comes next, it means that classic Battlefield games are being sent out to pasture.
EA axes more classic Battlefield games
After EA pulled the plug on several older Battlefield games on Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 in December 2023, the end is nigh for another crop of beloved Battlefields. EA's official server updates confirm that Battlefield 3 (2011), Battlefield 4 (2013), and Battlefield Hardline (2015) will all be shut down on November 7, 2024.
It's important to note this is just on Xbox 360 and PS3, meaning Battlefield 4 and Battlefield Hardline will live on for the PS4 and Xbox One, while all three will still be playable on PC. Still, many fear this is the beginning of the end for them. We know the Xbox 360 and PS3 are a little long in the tooth, but EA has taken a seemingly cutthroat attitude to its legacy games.
When the news was shared on the Battlefield subreddit, players mourned the imminent loss of these games but were relieved they live to fight another day on PC. The Battlefield 3 servers have been struggling for a while, and especially on console, it can be a bit of a graveyard.
Battlefield fans mourn their loss
Click to enlargeWorried about what games will be next, one concerned gamer wrote, "BF3 can still run on 15-year-old PC hardware. I don't see how it does make sense to shut down PS3/360 servers when the game and servers work perfectly fine as is. EA must have a baseline they measure against to determine at what point a game should be shut down.
"There definitely aren't as many players on the older consoles as there are on PS4/5/PC, but there is still a small community." When someone said, "My childhood will be ruined in just 5 months," another added, "Mine was in dec. last year, RIP Bad company."
Someone else concluded, "Only a matter of time until PC and PS4 servers are sunset. Some of my best times on gaming were had on 3 and 4, I even enjoyed hardline. Happy I got to experience this series when it was as phenomenal as it was."
You've got until November 7 to platinum all those trophies, so if you want to head back into the trenches of Battlefield 3, we'd do it now.
