PC players who want to continue hopping into online matches in some of EA’s multiplayer titles may want to finally pull the trigger on an OS upgrade, as the publisher has announced that it is dropping support for Battlefield 1, Battlefield V, and Star Wars: Battlefront 2 on Windows 7, 8, and 8.1. While more recent games like 2021’s Battlefield 2042 will continue to be supported on the aging OSs, fans of this trio of titles will no longer have any guarantee that their games will work correctly.
EA is dropping support for multiple games
EA announced that support for the three games will be ending at the end of November. Although players will still be able to load the games on their systems, EA will no longer release updates for copies running on older versions of Windows. According to a post from EA’s community manager announcing the news, the publisher “can no longer guarantee functionality of these titles” on Windows 7, 8, or 8.1 after November 30. The post states that the decision to end support for the aging multiplayer titles is meant to “ensure safe play” and links to information on how to upgrade to Windows 11.
The impact of the change should be limited by the somewhat advanced age of the games and Windows versions affected, but for some fans of the titles, it’s still likely to come as disappointing news. The lack of new content for Star Wars: Battlefront 2, Battlefield 1, and Battlefield 5 in recent years has caused the player base of the titles to dwindle, but there are still plenty of players who remain loyal to the trio of online shooters. While it’s unlikely that players will be able to enjoy each game’s multiplayer modes after November 30, the single-player mode for Battlefield 5 and the other two titles appear to be unaffected other than no longer receiving updates.
Unlike the move by EA earlier this year that saw online services for games like Battlefield 1943 and Dead Space 2 turned off completely, PC players on Windows 10 and 11 will still be able to enjoy the multiplayer modes in these games for the time being. Though, given EA’s recent rush to shut down servers for many of its aging titles, this may not be the case for long.
