PS3 News: Sony Announces End of Online Support for Several Games on Console

Since the launch of the PlayStation 4 in November 2013, many gamers who own the PlayStation 3 have been waiting for Sony to announce their removal of online support for titles on the PlayStation 3 so the company can focus on the new system and the games on it. Now, Sony has announced that several titles will go offline in 2014, and that fans will no longer be able to play these games online after that date.

The full list of games getting their online components removed can be found here. For the most part the games that will be shut down or have already been taken offline are first party Sony titles. One of the biggest titles that will no longer be playable online is Gran Turismo 5, which will no longer have online support after May 20, 2014. With Gran Turismo 6 now available, it makes since that Sony would give players the chance to play the previous game online for several months before pulling the pull on the game's online features.

The entire Resistance series, consisting of Resistance: Fall of Man, Resistance 2, and Resistance 3 will all cease to have working online modes after March 28, 2014. While Resistance: Fall of Man was one of the more popular titles for the PlayStation 3 in the console's early years, the series declined both in popularity and acclaim over time. This may signal the end of the series in general, as it seems as though the series is destined to fade out of memory.

Before Gran Turismo 5 and the Resistance series lose their online features, several Sony shooter games will be taken offline on Jan. 28, 2014. MAG, which was a highly hyped game when it was first announced due to the huge amount of players that could play the game's maps at once, will be taken offline at this time. SOCOM 4, also known as SOCOM: Special Forces and SOCOM: Confrontation will also lose their ability to use online modes on this date as well.

While most of these games have offline portions that players will still be able to play, two are completely online, so they will no longer function at all. MAG and SOCOM: Confrontation are the two games that as of Jan. 28, 2014 will no longer be playable due to this shutdown.
Companies shutting down a game's servers are nothing new, and fans of PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 games should expect more announcements like this in the future.