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EA Removes 'Bejeweled 2', 'Flight Control' and Other Classic Titles from App Store

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It appears that EA has quietly removed a handful of classic iOS titles from the App Store, including games like Bejeweled 2, Flight Control, Real Racing, and more. The official removal of the games actually happened on September 1, but was just discovered overnight by our sister site Touch Arcade. The full list of games removed by EA includes:
electronic-arts.jpg

Bejeweled 2
Burnout(TM) CRASH!
Dead Space
Don't Fall Off
Flight Control
Flight Control Rocket
Fly With Me
Lemonade Tycoon
MASS EFFECT(TM) INFILTRATOR
MMA by EA SPORTS(TM)
Need for Speed Shift
Real Racing
Sims Medieval by EA
Skate It by EA
Spore(TM) Creatures
Spore(TM) Origins
SPY Mouse

As the company mentions in the support document posted to its website, the move means that every game on the list won't be supported or updated moving forward, with the decision to focus its "efforts on developing new and exciting titles, as well as bringing new content and updates to existing popular games." Fortunately, if players still have the game downloaded to their iPhone, EA mentioned that users should still be able continue their game and play as normal.
...And now they're gone, along with other fabulous iOS games. They didn't even get a proper send off, beyond silently announcing they're being removed on a obscure web page hidden deep inside of EA's support site on the same day they were removed. I can't find anyone else reporting on this either, meaning this plan worked surprisingly well, as it's been ten days before we even figured out that these games were gone.
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As Touch Arcade points out, about a year ago EA did the same thing with a slightly larger list of iOS games that included some well-known titles like Zuma's Revenge and Alice: Madness Returns. Although players with the games still installed don't have much to worry about, everyone else who may want to revisit any of these titles in the future are now out of luck.

Article Link: EA Removes 'Bejeweled 2', 'Flight Control' and Other Classic Titles from App Store
 
Article Link
https://www.macrumors.com/2015/09/11/ea-removes-classic-titles-app-store/
Get used to this, folks.

iOS isn't for gaming unless you think of your games as disposable.
I still rock NES, SNES and other games, and not only the ones that have cleared rights and sold enough back in the day so someone will bother today for them to get released (riddled with DRM) onto a virtual console as Nintendo calls it or through other download-only means.

[...]Although players with the games still installed don't have much to worry about, [...]
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☛ http://******.com/?q=ios+api+deprecation

Glassed Silver:mac
 
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The problem is if you've spent money to buy the game or in app purchases and don't currently have it on your phone, you've just lost that money.

I wonder in this is allowed under Apple's T&S.

UPDATE: Looks like if you've already purchased any of them, they still available in you Purchased history and download fine.
 
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I don't have a problem with them not updating old games. After all, this is normal with PC games too. I don't expect to be able to run my old SW games from years ago on Win10 or whatever. However, I do have a problem with them removing them from the store, so a purchased app isn't available for re-download. Hopefully that's not the case.
 
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macintologist said:
If I buy a new iOS device, will these titles not be available for redownload at all? Or are these just being removed from sale. My wife and I love playing Flight Control multiplayer.
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I just checked and I still have Flight Control available for redownload in the Purchased section in iTunes. They only removed it from the store, but existing owners can still download it.
 
macintologist said:
If I buy a new iOS device, will these titles not be available for redownload at all? Or are these just being removed from sale. My wife and I love playing Flight Control multiplayer.
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Flight Control and Real Racing are still showing up under my Purchased apps in the App Store app. I just redownloaded Flight Control to relive some memories. Hopefully it doesn't crash on iOS 9. :(
 
Bejeweled is probably the second oldest running mobile game. I remember playing it on some java midp phone back in the day.

The oldest is probably snake.
 
And to think you can't downgrade firmware, even on a spare device you don't expect your iOS 9 backup to work on a version much older on, is quite hilarious...

That's why I use Android for the few mobile games that seem not disposable and that I can't get on a proper platform.
Keep the apk backed up and use whatever Android version I want through an emulator or if the game has become retro on an Android tablet that sometime I'll probably be able to get for literally next to nothing.

macintologist said:
I specifically remember that not being the case for other games, where it wasn't even available for redownload. How do we know for sure?
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check the edited post, I included a screenshot showing Real Racing 1 (two version of it even)

Glassed Silver:mac
 
macintologist said:
If I buy a new iOS device, will these titles not be available for redownload at all? Or are these just being removed from sale. My wife and I love playing Flight Control multiplayer.
Click to expand...

I can install using the iCloud download button but none of these discontinued games have "pages" anymore. So (not talking about you) to the snarky comments about games being useless on iOS because we lose the games after a while...think again! :)

Glassed Silver said:
And to think you can't downgrade firmware, even on a spare device you don't expect your iOS 9 backup to work on a version much older on, is quite hilarious...

That's why I use Android for the few mobile games that seem not disposable and that I can't get on a proper platform.
Keep the apk backed up and use whatever Android version I want through an emulator or if the game has become retro on an Android tablet that sometime I'll probably be able to get for literally next to nothing.


check the edited post, I included a screenshot showing Real Racing 1 (two version of it even)

Glassed Silver:mac
Click to expand...
How are iOS games disposable?
 
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What EA says: "Efforts on developing new and exciting titles, as well as bringing new content and updates to existing popular games."

What EA means: "Yeah these games weren't making enough boatloads of cash for us, so we axed them."
 
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Glassed Silver said:
Once the app isn't updated anymore it's a matter of time until you can't run it anymore, again:

http://******.com/?q=ios+api+deprecation

Apple hates backwards compatibility with a passion.
Click to expand...

Why not keep an older iPod Touch around? They're cheap, and they work. The older ones are stuck on 4.3, which is good enough for iTunes match (which is why I have a couple of them).

I don't run into a lot of games that break, and I've been buying apps since the app store came out. Rolando still works on iOS 9, and I was just messing around with flight control the other day.
 
One more reason to hate EA. Overpriced, bug riddled, ad loaded, IAP driven garbage.

Some of these were actually made by other companies that EA later bought-- at least Flight Control and Real Racing were. I never bought RR3-- when they went to an IAP model, I was done.

Now that I think about it-- was that document dated Sept. 1 of this year? Because I'd swear most of these haven't been supported or updated since like 2010...
 
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