Interesting news coming out of the world of multiplayer games, specifically mobile ones, as GameSpy has closed down multiple multiplayer servers being used in games. The reason? Basically the short story is that they were not getting paid and that contracts were not being renewed, publishers were just letting them lapse. Obviously a company can’t run without making money so this has led to a shutdown of multiple servers.
This directly effects multiple Glu Mobile titles as well which is interesting since Glu Mobile bought GameSpy Technologies recently. So to let the servers go down by a company you own is pretty strange. Just to be clear though, GameSpy Technologies and GameSpy.com are two completely separate entities in the business world. GameSpy Technologies has released an official statement regarding the situation:
There have been a number of reports regarding the recent discontinuation of service to several online multiplayer games previously supported by GameSpy Technologies. We recognize that fans of games where the publisher has elected to discontinue GameSpy Technologies support are frustrated. However, reports that GameSpy Technologies “shutdown servers without warning” are simply inaccurate.
GameSpy Technologies – a separate entity from GameSpy.com – is a service provider to game publishers. Each publisher contracting with GameSpy Technologies elects at its sole discretion whether or not to maintain support for its titles.
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. 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.
In each case reported in the press where there was a discontinuation of GameSpy Technologies’ services, the applicable publisher was well aware that they had not made the required payments under their agreements with GameSpy Technologies.
For the sake of clarity – the situation is identical to fans attributing fault to the hosting company of a popular website for ceasing hosting services, when the website owner refuses to pay its hosting bill.
While we would hope and expect our publisher partners to message their user communities on changes in status of their games, often this is not done. The result is user confusion and frustration.
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.
Thank you.
Interestingly enough, if Glu Mobile games have been affected by these shutdowns, there certainly hasn’t been any mention of it from either GameSpy Technologies or Glu Mobile, at least not in a way that would make it publicly well known. As of right now, we haven’t see which Glu games have been affected on the Android side of things, if any at all have been. Other games on Android also use GameSpy Technology for multiplayer including Trendy Entertainment’s Dungeon Defenders. If you know of any games affected by this, let us know in the comments below.
Website Referenced: GamePolitics
