Before there was Steam, game developers were more or less forced to use GameSpy Arcade's server technology to power their games' multiplayer modes. The system was far from desirable, as it had a tendency to lag the hell out of everyone. Its popularity among developers, presumably due to costs and its ease of implementation, was a setback on multiplayer gaming on the PC. It goes without saying that GameSpy Arcade was one of the worst things to happen to videogames—at least on the PC.
Today, GameSpy Arcade unceremoniously disabled online support for a good chunk of the games running on the service, stating their failure to pay. News of the games going offline first surfaced when Aliens vs Predator dev Rebellion complained that the online servers for their titles had been shut off without any forewarning. Their titles were among a dozen or so titles which had their multiplayer server lists terminated, which include Rise of Nations, Star Wars: Battlefront, and Neverwinter Nights.
These games relied heavily upon GameSpy for multiplayer matchmaking and shutting the servers off without even so much as a warning prompted thousands of gamers, still hooked on these titles, to take their complaints to GameSpy's Twitter and Facebook accounts. Unfortunately for them, the complaints were directed to the wrong GameSpy, as we've come to learn that GameSpy.com (a publication owned by IGN) and GameSpy Technologies (a company which operates the servers) are two distinct entities and have been so since their split last year. Details about the differences between the two companies have been elaborated upon in an article by GameSpy.com's EIC, Dan Stapleton.
In any case, the servers are offline and GameSpy Technologies insists that they warned the companies before shutting them off. They released a statement pinning the blame solely on the game developers' refusal to pay the fees they levied onto them for continued operation of the servers.
"A number of our publisher partners elected to allow their contracts for GameSpy Technologies’ services to lapse by not continuing to pay for these services. In some cases this lapsing ranges back as much as four years," reads the statement GameSpy Technologies made on Facebook. "GameSpy Technologies has continued to provide months, and in some cases years, of service support for free. However we cannot be expected to provide a service free of charge to publishers who choose not to renew their service agreements and in some cases remain delinquent in delivering payment for past services."
"It is regrettable that these publishers chose not to inform their users of the impending discontinuation of support. We understand the frustration of fans that until now weren’t clear on why their game has lost some of its functionality, but hope that this clarifies the situation."
Regardless of who's to blame for the shutdown of the servers, the only losers here are the gamers.
