Too Soon to Shut Down Calling All Cars?

[Chris_D]

The well received PSN game, David Jaffe's Calling All Cars, will no longer be playable from January 14, 2010. Online that is. This is the date that all remaining Calling All Cars servers will be switched off. From 1UP (http://www.1up.com/do/newsStory?cId=3176536):


One of the downsides of online-enabled games with dedicated servers is that, almost invariably, those servers that handle multiplayer will someday disappear. It's happening with Chromehounds early next year; it happened with Metal Gear Solid 3: Subsistence back in 2007; and it's happening again with Calling All Cars.

PlayStation downloadable games blog PSN Stores caught wind of the news this morning. "On January 14, 2010 the servers for Calling All Cars will be taken off-line. We would like to thank ya for yar support," reads an in-game announcement.


It is not uncommon to shut down servers for online console games at some point in their life span, especially sports games, where the publishers would like you to buy the newest title each year. However, in this case there is no sequel to Calling All Cars. Also, there is no way to run your own server like with most PC games.

With the PS3 Slim out, sales up, and lots of new PS3 owners out there, is it too soon to be killing off a game like Calling All Cars? Would a price drop to $3-5 or some new DLC have been more appropriate? How expensive is it really to maintain a single server running on a VM somewhere?

Source: 1UP (http://www.1up.com/do/newsStory?cId=3176536).

[Gorvi]

That's surprising a little I guess, but the game was released before it's time and didn't get the attention it deserved. I agree, though, I'd rather see a price drop to bring interest back, the game is a blast to play, though more fun with others in the same room.

[Xydarc]

As long as you can still play offline, I don't see this as a big deal. Especially since I usually play it offline anyway.

[Darken Skye]

I just bought this game two weeks ago. :(

[total]

I've never even seen anyone to play online. Damn fun game locally though.

[Gorvi]

As long as you can still play offline, I don't see this as a big deal. Especially since I usually play it offline anyway.
That, and every time I've gone online the servers have been D-E-D dead. Completely. I've checked, too, I really like the game. :(

[Chris_D]

Is it still $10? (at least that's what I think it's launched at). I find it a little disheartening when I see stuff like this. Hell, paying $3-5 would be worth it even just for a couple of nights online with fellow CoGs. Why do good games have to die?

It reminds me of how, with so much gaming content now being online, there are tons of gaming experiences being lost every time a server shutdown occurs, with no way to ever go back. I'm sure MMO players are well aware of the idea of whole gaming worlds being lost when a game dies, but looks like we'll be experiencing it in more and more genres.

[DoctorFinger]

Moved to news.

[Chris_D]

That, and every time I've gone online the servers have been D-E-D dead. Completely. I've checked, too, I really like the game. :(

It's a shame but I assume if the motivation was there we could schedule games etc. As for local, well that's great, except I probably only get together for local multi a couple of times a year these days. I wonder if they'll have the balls to charge the same price for it once the servers are no longer available.

[Mike Kelehan]

That's one of the great things about Xbox Live. Since it's centralized, you can put in a copy of original Xbox Live launch games Unreal Championship or Whacked! and still be able to play online. Sure, some companies run their own servers, which can be taken down (Chromehounds), but those are rare.

Man, one day, Demon's Souls will be down.

[Stoke]

Having the servers for a game taken down are always a bummer. I remember when PSO's servers went down it felt like a part of me died. Like Chris mentioned, in a game like that there are tons of experiences tied to the servers and when they are turned off it makes them feel farther away. :(

[rein]

Man, one day, Demon's Souls will be down. That's stretching it a bit.

IMO, It will always be too soon, but at minimum, I believe any game released on a digital distribution service should be supported the consoles life-cycle. I wonder if there will ever be a way for users to host servers for games like this that have their online support removed? Even more, I wonder what will happen when we are in an age of digital distribution and they start pulling games from servers and download access is removed?

[Wilkz07]

As long as you can still play offline, I don't see this as a big deal. Especially since I usually play it offline anyway.

i was tempted to get this game, not so much after reading the first post, but now may reconsider that you can still play it offline.

[mightbe]

I've never even seen anyone to play online. Damn fun game locally though.

DUH. It's a PSN game.

[Kelegacy]

I always wanted to play this game, but there's no demo. And now I probably won't buy it ever.

[roboninja]

I always wanted to play this game, but there's no demo. And now I probably won't buy it ever.

Same here.

[Mike Kelehan]

That's stretching it a bit.

Why? It will be down one day. In fact, when you boot Demon's Souls, it says that they only promise it'll be up until April 2010.

[Gorvi]

Why? It will be down one day. In fact, when you boot Demon's Souls, it says that they only promise it'll be up until April 2010.
Look at the backs of the cases for many games, they only guarantee that the servers will be up for 6 months after release, they say it to cover themselves.

[total]

DUH. It's a PSN game.

I can still find people playing Warhawk and Commandos. Hell I fired up Mortal Kombat II last night and found people to play. I never found anyone to play this with online though.

[Mike Kelehan]

Look at the backs of the cases for many games, they only guarantee that the servers will be up for 6 months after release, they say it to cover themselves.

Right, so is it really a stretch to say it'll go down one day?

[Gorvi]

Right, so is it really a stretch to say it'll go down one day?
Well, of course not, but that goes for any game.

[J Arcane]

You know, this sort of situation is easily corrected by releasing a dedicated server app to the public.

A lot of PC games don't even have official servers for more than a short while after release, there's no point when the community provides you with bajillions of their own.

PSN doesn't have draconian forced XBL policies in place, it's possible for them to support something like that, and I daresay it would be a good move for a lot of games. Look at the kind of extended lifespan of most PC games with dedicated servers, being able to make your own community like that makes for stronger ties to the game.

[rein]

Well, of course not, but that goes for any game.On any system.

[J Arcane]

On any system.
You'd be surprised how long PC games last.

You can still find servers for the original Doom these days, thanks to open source ports and modifications, and I personally know from having played there that there's an AOL group for matchmaking Marathon games.

[rein]

You'd be surprised how long PC games last.

You can still find servers for the original Doom these days, thanks to open source ports and modifications, and I personally know from having played there that there's an AOL group for matchmaking Marathon games.I wasn't really thinking about the PC when I made that comment but you are correct. Most PC games can be modded and hosted on alternate servers even if the publisher drops support. +1 for PC gaming.

[menage]

You'd at least expect them to fullfill their end of the bargain until the next console cycle. Then again, it's free.

[Rogue_hunter]

I managed to play two games online, and those were near launch. And both of those games were still not full.

That said, it's pretty damn fun when playing 4 player couch games. NBA Jam + Twisted Metal = pretty hectic games. It's just too bad that no one really bought it or ever wanted to play online.

[OldJadedGamer]

On any system.

Only if you have to go through their servers. The best solution would be to have dedicated servers to start with and when they wanted to shut them down, switch over to peer to peer.

[Widgetcraft]

Nearly every online game should have dedicated server kits available for download so that dedicated fans can run servers for the games for as long as they like. This is the case on the PC, and until consoles can catch up to that, online gaming on consoles will always be inferior.

[Deadend]

Nearly every online game should have dedicated server kits available for download so that dedicated fans can run servers for the games for as long as they like. This is the case on the PC, and until consoles can catch up to that, online gaming on consoles will always be inferior.

Or if they just go pure peer2peer and not have the problems.

[Widgetcraft]

Or if they just go pure peer2peer and not have the problems.

p2p is pure suckage. It is bottom of the barrel bullshit. On the PC, you simply do not join a p2p server, it isn't done.

[MagGnome]

This is unfortunate. I was looking forward to playing this when I eventually get a PS3, but it looks like that won't be happening.

[Crowe]

Looking at the screen shots this looks like a game that could have used p2p and been just fine.

[OldJadedGamer]

Looking at the screen shots this looks like a game that could have used p2p and been just fine.

This is when Sony was still crying that every game had dedicated servers. Then they wised up. It's weird to kill this game considering you get it for free when you buy a year of Qore.

[ElektroDragon]

Heck yeah its too soon!! I got the game free about a year ago and have yet to play it for more than 30 minutes! Again, suffering from TMG (Too Many Games).

[J Arcane]

Or if they just go pure peer2peer and not have the problems.
P2P still needs a matchmaker. Plenty of games on the Xbox have been shut down by simply disconnecting the match making server.

Not to mention all the performance problems with P2P. . .

[OldJadedGamer]

P2P still needs a matchmaker. Plenty of games on the Xbox have been shut down by simply disconnecting the match making server.

Not to mention all the performance problems with P2P. . .

Correct me if I'm wrong but the only Xbox games that have been shut down are ones that use their own servers like Chromehounds or EA games because they just like to be assholes and not support their older games to force you to buy new ones.

[Mike Kelehan]

Correct me if I'm wrong but the only Xbox games that have been shut down are ones that use their own servers like Chromehounds or EA games because they just like to be assholes and not support their older games to force you to buy new ones.

That's true. Most games will continue to work until Xbox Live shuts its doors, which of course won't happen as long as there are a few thousand paying users.

[Chris_D]

From David Jaffe's blog (http://criminalcrackdown.blogspot.com/2010/01/funeral-for-friend.html), his thoughts on the shutdown:

I think the game had it's flaws for sure.

The biggest one being a lack of stickiness.

Even playing tonite after 3 very, very fun matches full of shouting and overtimes and comebacks, I was done. I didn't want to play anymore. I think we did a really good job making a fantastic piece of bubble gum that was sweet and jam packed with sugar and had a hell of a bang when you put it in your mouth. But for some reason I still have not totally figured out, the flavor faded VERY fast. You could come back to it after 2-4 weeks and have that same great experience, but it was always a really short ride. Some folks say leaderboards and trophy support would have helped. And they would have, for sure. But the core game was lacking something that kept people coming back...I think most likely in our attempt to create a fast, furious, pick up play party game that reminded us of the classic SNES and arcade games we grew up on, we neglected the depth. I know you can have both in this kind of game...hard to know if Calling All Cars doesn't have the depth because we were so focused on short term play goals that we simply forgot to put it in or because it never occurred to us to put it in in the first place (i.e. we thought the moment to moment fun would be more than enough)...


I guess we just didn't know what the hell kind of game was expected of us, truth be told. No one's fault but ours. But you gotta remember, this was the launch of PSN and no one really knew what these small games needed to be. I mean, Geo Wars was huge on 360 but we were not making a high score driven game, so it was hard to use what we learned from playing that title when designing this title.

I guess it really came down to us gambling wrong in terms of what kind of and how much entertainment people wanted for their 10 bucks on a- at the time- $600 HD state of the art game machine. We just thought, for 10 bucks, people woulda been trying these things and sampling them like candy. But alas, much of the same logic that applies to what people buy for 60 bucks also applies to what they spend 10 bucks on.

Perhaps it would have done gang busters as a Wii game. Perhaps it would have done just as poorly over there (altho I do think we broke even on CAC and we did get a majority of favorable/ good reviews and got a decent number of GREAT reviews. I think CAC is perceived as a failure even tho it actually was not...it wasn't a smash hit or even a hit, but it was not a critical turd and I am pretty sure IF it lost any money, it was a very, very modest sum).

Whatever the case, for me, 10 bucks was totally worth the fun I've had online and off with the game. But for many, it was clearly not.

Still I'm really proud of our baby. It's a really fun game in short bursts and gets people yelling and laughing and swearing at the tv and that was always the core goal we set out to achieve. We wanted to make people happy with this game. And so when I hear stories of people playing together and having a great time, it really does mean tons to me. And I'm sure the rest of the team would agree. And so while I'm sad to see online go, most folks never played online anyway. It seems to have found a home- albeit a very modest home- via split screen and I'm glad Calling All Cars will live on as a local party game for years to come.

[Widgetcraft]

...Good thing I didn't buy this the other day. I would have been pissed.

[Gorvi]

The servers were shut down, but apparently you can still play online (http://thegameraccess.com/ps3/calling-all-cars-still-playable-online):
Well after 3 years on January 14, 2010 Sony decided to pull the plug on the online servers for good. After playing some other PSN games I started to wonder if I could still play this game online, so today Chase and myself tested it out and it works! You still have to have a host for the game, so technically your PS3 is the server, but you can still play Calling All Cars online.
So what the hell were the servers for?

[Chris_D]

Wonder why they weren't clear on that in the first place? Weird.