Enjoying the Death Throes of GameSpy? RockStar, Bohemia, & Volition Updates

There is some updated information on what games have solutions in place (or are getting closer to having something in place) to replace GameSpy's dying service. We'll continue to follow this to keep people up-to-date as companies announce their solutions. For our earlier coverage, check out the first article on GameSpy's death and the follow-up on Civilization and other games.

RockStar Games & GameSpy

Rockstar Games announced on 4/29 a list of how the shutdown will affect some of their older titles. To sum it up, the "Social Club" services are going to be discontinued for all of these titles (except for Max Payne 3), but online multiplayer gameplay should be unaffected except where listed:

• Max Payne 3 (multiplayer disabled for Mac version)
• Red Dead Redemption / RDR Game of the Year Edition / RDR Undead Nightmare
• Grand Theft Auto IV / GTAIV Complete / GTA Episodes from LibertyCity
• Midnight Club Los Angeles / MCLA Complete Edition (PlayStation 3 multiplayer disabled)
• Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars
• Beaterator (In-game Track Upload/Download disabled)
• Midnight Club 3: Dub Edition / MC3: Dub Edition Remix (No multiplayer)

Bohemia Interactive

If you're a fan of the Arma series, it was announced that Arma 2: Operation Arrowhead and Arma 3 are going to be migrated over to Steam. There are no plans for their other titles (Take On Helicopters, Arma 2, Arma 2: Free, Arma, Arma: Cold War Assault). They did state that direct IP connection to the servers should work once GameSpy is kaput.

Saints Row 2

In a forum post, the Saints Row folks break-down how the loss of Gamespy will affect play in SR2. Direct LAN will work for PS3 versions, but all online matchmaking and online play will cease to function. Xbox 360 is unaffected as it did not use GameSpy. PC versions (which is why you are here reading this, right?) will have the same interruption as the PS3. The team is currently trying to put together a step-by-step guide on how to connect via virtual LAN networks to keep online play alive; this can be done pretty simply using a service similar to Hamachi or other LAN emulators.

We'll keep you posted as the death date draws ever nearer. If you know of any games we missed, please let us know in the comments!

- Scott "Abibiliboop" Griffin.