As is its wont, EA has announced this year’s list of online game servers to be shut down over the course of the next few months, starting with The Lord of the Rings: The Battle for Middle-Earth II for Xbox 360 on January 11th.

The discontinuation of EA’s support for Battle for Middle-Earth is interesting in particular, as the publisher notes on its official announcement site that the licensing deal with New Line Cinema (holders of the Lord of the Rings license) has expired, forcing EA to shut down online services related to its games:

“We hope you have enjoyed playing these games online,” writes the note, “and appreciate your patronage. There’s still time for one last epic tower rush!”

The announcement post also talks a little bit about the work that goes into keeping these online games running, and the decisions behind shutting down online support:

“As background information, the EA SPORTS games scheduled for shutdown in February and March 2011 represent roughly 1% of all peak online players across all EA titles. Despite some people’s perception, there is a lot of behind-the-scenes work involved with keeping these older games up and running.

“We would rather our hard-working engineering and IT staff focus on keeping a positive experience for the other 99% of customers playing our more popular games. These decisions to retire games is never easy. The development teams and operational staff pour their hearts into these games almost as much as the customers playing them and it is hard to see one retired.

“We hope you have gotten many hours of enjoyment out of the games and we appreciate your ongoing patronage.”

Here is the list of EA games that will no longer have official online support later this year:

Mar 1, 2011 Online Service Shutdown

• Tiger Woods PGA TOUR 09 for Wii

Feb 8, 2011 Online Service Shutdown

• FIFA 07 for Xbox 360
• FIFA 08 for PlayStation Portable, PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and Wii
• FIFA 09 for PC, PlayStation Portable, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and Wii
• FIFA 09 Ultimate Team for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360
• FIFA Street 3 for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360
• EA SPORTS FIFA Manager 10 for PC
• EA SPORTS Fight Night Round 3 for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360
• Madden 09 for PlayStation Portable (all regions), PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and Wii
• Madden 10 for PlayStation Portable (all regions), PlayStation 2 and Wii
• NBA LIVE 08 for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360
• NBA LIVE 09 for PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and Wii
• NCAA Basketball 08 for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360
• NCAA Basketball 09 for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360
• NCAA Football 07 for Xbox 360
• NCAA Football 08 for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360
• NCAA Football 09 for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360
• NCAA Football 10 for PlayStation 2
• NFL Head Coach 09 for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360
• NHL 08 for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360
• NHL 09 for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360
• Tiger Woods PGA TOUR 09 for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360
• UEFA EURO 2008 for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360
• 2010 FIFA World Cup for PlayStation Portable and Wii
• 2010 FIFA World Cup Demo for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360

Jan 17, 2011 Online Service Shutdown

• The Sims Carnival

Jan 11, 2011 Online Service Shutdown

• The Lord of the Rings: The Battle for Middle-earth II for Xbox 360
• The Lord of the Rings: The Battle for Middle-earth II, The Rise of the Witch-king for Xbox 360

Dec 31, 2010 Online Service Shutdown

• The Lord of the Rings: The Battle for Middle-earth for PC
• The Lord of the Rings: The Battle for Middle-earth II for PC
• The Lord of the Rings: The Battle for Middle-earth II, The Rise of the Witch-king for PC

Source: EA