Battlefield 3 is going offline for good this month, say your goodbyes

EA has recently announced that several of their older Battlefield titles will lose ongoing support and be delisted from storefronts. This means that your favourite Battlefield title may be going offline.

It’s certainly the case for Battlefield 3, perhaps the general favourite of the series, which will see its servers switched off later this year.

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It sounds like it’s time to get the squad back together for a last hurrah. On 31 July, Battlefield 3, Battlefield 4, and Battlefield: Hardline will no longer be available for purchase via digital platforms for Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3.

Following this, on 7 November, the servers for each of those games will go offline and all multiplayer components will stop working. This doesn’t impact the single-player aspects of the games though.

Both Battlefield 3 and Battlefield 4 will remain playable on PC and Battlefield: Hardline will still feature multiplayer on all platforms, however, it’s worth noting that this could cease soon as EA moves through its catalogue.

The older Battlefield games are favourites among many and while the later games haven’t been able to recapture the lightning in the bottle, Battlefield remains a stand-out franchise.

The shutdowns come as more and more people move on from older titles and games companies can’t keep the lights on just in case somebody comes home. It’s a sad moment because it shows that online gaming is practically impossible to preserve.

Of course, if you’re playing on PC, even when official servers are shut down, oftentimes you’ll find a dedicated group of players will establish some way to play via private servers, but sadly this isn’t possible for console games.

If you’re a fan of these older shooters, now is the time to go back and get a last hit of nostalgia before they’re sunset for good.