Motor City Online Calls It A Day
- February 26, 2003 11:47 AM PST
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EA decides to end support for their underappreciated car-PG after over a year of service. "I'm painting all my cars black," says Dan Elektro.
Electronic Arts announced today that Motor City Online, the massively-multiplayer car racer they released in October 2001, will go offline this August. According to a notice posted on the MCO website, the game servers will be disconnected on August 29; current subscribers will receive an offer for a free copy of Ultima Online or The Sims Online in their email.Motor City Online got off to a hot start when it was released in 2001; at its height it had between 30,000 and 40,000 subscribers tracking dirt across its four online servers. Unfortunately, EA famously stopped advertising the game soon after its release, and the MCO team experienced layoffs in the middle of last year, further darkening its future. Current MCO gamers will be able to play online as normal until August 29, although most of the community programs (except for player event submissions) will be closed at the start of next week.
"MCO was (and still is) very different from a lot of subscription-based games because of its competitive nature," said a notice posted by the MCO team on the website. "It was evident that the game was quickly dominated by skilled players. Anyone who can modify cars and race well succeeded while the less-skilled players failed. New players were faced with more defeats than helping hands. Though the overall subscription base was growing, we also experienced a substantial outflow of existing subscribers."
