Every year (and every few months), EA shuts down online server support for a selection (and in same cases, an entire crop) of its games to make way for the support of future online-enabled titles, ostensibly to provide better features and support for the new blood.

Last year, the biggest shock was the discontinuation of server support for EA’s Lord of the Rings: Battle for Middle-earth strategy games, and this year the list of games set to be without official features includes games from the Battlefield, Need For Speed and Tiger Woods franchises, amongst others.

Here’s the message and new list of games from EA:

“The decisions to retire older EA games are 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. But as games get replaced with newer titles, the number of players still enjoying the older games dwindles below a point—fewer than 1% of all peak online players across all EA titles—where it’s feasible to continue the behind-the-scenes work involved with keeping these 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. We hope you have gotten many hours of enjoyment out of the games and we appreciate your ongoing patronage.”

As of August and October this year, the following games will no longer feature online support:

August 11, 2011 Online Service Shutdown

• ARMY OF TWO for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360
• ARMY OF TWO Demo for Xbox 360
• Battlefield 2142 Demo for PC
• Battlefield 2: Modern Combat for Xbox 360
• Battlefield 2: Modern Combat Demo for Xbox 360
• Medal of Honor Airborne for PlayStation Portable
• Medal of Honor Heroes 2 for PlayStation Portable and Wii
• NASCAR 09 for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 (North America)
• NCAA Basketball 10 for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360
• NCAA Football 10 for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360
• Need for Speed Most Wanted for PC and Xbox 360
• Need for Speed Undercover for PlayStation Portable;
• SKATE for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360
• Tiger Woods PGA TOUR 10 for PlayStation Portable, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and Wii
• Tiger Woods PGA TOUR 11 Demo for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360

October 1, 2011 Online Service Shutdown

• Madden NFL 10 for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360
• NHL 10 for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360

Source: EA.com