EA pulling Battlefield: Bad Company games and 1943 from stores

Publisher Electronic Arts is pulling Battlefield 1943, Battlefield: Bad Company, and Battlefield: Bad Company 2 from online stores in April, developer DICE announced Tuesday. DICE said that the three games are being removed from digital storefronts like the PlayStation Store, Steam, and Xbox Games Store ahead of online services for those game shutting down in December.

The single-player components of Bad Company and Bad Company 2 will remain playable, DICE said. Battlefield 1943, a digital-only multiplayer release for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360, will not be playable after Dec. 8, when online services for those three games are shut down. Battlefield: Bad Company is the oldest of the games being shut down. It was released in June 2008.

“While these titles hold a special place in our heart, we’re now looking forward to creating new memories alongside you as we shift our focus towards our current and future Battlefield experiences,” DICE said.

Battlefield 1943, Battlefield: Bad Company, and Battlefield: Bad Company 2 will be delisted from storefronts on April 28.

DICE is currently developing the next games in the Battlefield franchise, following the cool reception to 2021’s Battlefield 2042, a multiplayer-only game that suffered from a variety of delays. The troubled release of 2042 led to leadership changes at DICE, and EA giving Vince Zampella, co-founder of Apex Legends and Titanfall developer Respawn Entertainment, oversight of the Battlefield franchise. Marcus Lehto, co-creator of Halo and head of a new EA development studio, will helm efforts to bring world-building and narrative into Battlefield, as EA and DICE plan to rethink the franchise’s development process “from the ground up.”

Update: After this story was published, DICE updated its announcement to remove Mirror’s Edge from the list of games being pulled from sale in April and taken offline in December. DICE said the inclusion of Mirror’s Edge was an error. “We currently have no plans to remove Mirror’s Edge from digital storefronts,” the developer said on Twitter.