Breaking News: Ratchet & Clank PS2 Online Servers Terminated

[Viscosity]

To my knowledge, Midnight Club II is the only Gamespy game that connects to Gamespy and Gamespy only

THPS3 has no DNAS and that uses gamespy. It just needs a welcome message but that has been reverse engineered so technically thats online as long as gamespy is online.

[jacobgrocks]

To my knowledge, Midnight Club II is the only Gamespy game that connects to Gamespy and Gamespy only

THPS3 has no DNAS and that uses gamespy. It just needs a welcome message but that has been reverse engineered so technically thats online as long as gamespy is online.

And plus AFAIK GameSpy has been reverse engineered, so even if gamespy is down, expect those to remain up forever.

Also, I doubt it will go down anytime soon since:
1. It's still used in a ton of older (and newer) PC games, many with high playercounts, along with the DS, Wii, and PS3 and other newer consoles.
2. New games still ship with it. While it's not as common as it was several years ago thanks to Steamworks, many games still ship with it, along with rereleases of older PC games with still high playercounts.

If gamespy went down today, a shitton of games would be broken on various consoles, and there would be a huge backlash.

[Masquarr]

Yes, I was aware of that. That was why I specifically noted that Midnight Club II connects to "Gamespy and Gamespy only." THPS 3 is playable online, but not in the way it was originally intended to be played online. If you count unofficial workarounds like specially configured DNS servers, there'd be even more games to mention, like Tribes: Aerial Assault. Tribes Aerial Assault only uses a reverse-engineered server, and doesn't answer to Gamespy at all, so it'll be playable online for as long as the Gamespy games, if not longer!

There are even more games that will be playable online in the way that they were intended to be for years into the future, but that never used a central server at all. The Japanese versions of some of the early Armored Core games allow one to use a modem to dial directly to another user's modem, so the two can face off over their phone lines! Likewise, Age of Empires II has this feature, but that game didn't come out in America. I've heard that Age of Empires II also features a direct IP Address connection ability, but I don't know because I've never played the PS2 version of that game.

Anyway, back to games that require the use of a central server, (or servers,) that are under corporate control. The only games that I can say with certainty will make it to 2013 are the Gamespy games, (except for the THPS games, which already require a supplemental workaround.) Probably Final Fantasy XI and its expansion packs. Possibly Call of Duty 3. There are also game-hosting services that were only active in Japan. I've heard that all the KDDI games have been shut down already, but I don't know about the others.

Anyway, I also uploaded a bunch of the packet logs that Wawowe and I made: http://www.mediafire.com/?06j99i54du7dy Enjoy! Unfortunately, I couldn't find the first set of UYA logs, but when I find it, I'll upload it. In RCUYA_ignore_Troops, I chose to ignore a player named, "Troops." All the other files have descriptions.

[JamesCableCar]

I believe the COD games will make it. If one does go, it will be Finest Hour.

[Masquarr]

As jacobgrocks and I have said in previous posts, all Gamespy games answer to the same server, (or server farm.) Therefore, Gamespy won't single out Call of Duty: Finest Hour, and shut down only that one game. If Gamespy does take Call of Duty: Finest Hour offline, they'll take all other Gamespy games with it. Call of Duty 3, on the other hand, is hosted by DemonWare rather than Gamespy. Demonware actually does run separate servers for each game, and CoD 3 is the only one of their PS2 games that hasn't been shut down yet. That's why I think it might not make it to 2013.

[SG-17]

Many current generation games also use GameSpy for their lobby system. So, GameSpy games won't be down for a long time. As for the DNAS servers, that could be the only hickup when it comes to games like Star Wars: Battlefront I & II and Battlefield 2: Modern Combat considering that the actual play servers themselves are third party and can either be rented from a provider or hosted on one's own computer.

If someone could figure out a way to bypass DNAS on those three games, then they will be online forever. It could lead to cheating, yes, but with the SWBF games you can kick and ban players from the server control panel and in BF2MC players can be voted to be kicked.

[jacobgrocks]

Many current generation games also use GameSpy for their lobby system. So, GameSpy games won't be down for a long time. As for the DNAS servers, that could be the only hickup when it comes to games like Star Wars: Battlefront I & II and Battlefield 2: Modern Combat considering that the actual play servers themselves are third party and can either be rented from a provider or hosted on one's own computer.

If someone could figure out a way to bypass DNAS on those three games, then they will be online forever. It could lead to cheating, yes, but with the SWBF games you can kick and ban players from the server control panel and in BF2MC players can be voted to be kicked.

SWBF1/2 have Xlink Kai LAN multiplayer, so BF2MC is the only game with the DNAS problem then.

[SG-17]

Many current generation games also use GameSpy for their lobby system. So, GameSpy games won't be down for a long time. As for the DNAS servers, that could be the only hickup when it comes to games like Star Wars: Battlefront I & II and Battlefield 2: Modern Combat considering that the actual play servers themselves are third party and can either be rented from a provider or hosted on one's own computer.

If someone could figure out a way to bypass DNAS on those three games, then they will be online forever. It could lead to cheating, yes, but with the SWBF games you can kick and ban players from the server control panel and in BF2MC players can be voted to be kicked.

SWBF1/2 have Xlink Kai LAN multiplayer, so BF2MC is the only game with the DNAS problem then.

You can't use rented servers with LAN, so we'd end up having to rely on home internet to host 24 players. If there is a way to keep the online up as is, then that should be explored before using Kai.

[Viscosity]

I highly doubt you will get 24 players once the servers go down

[NoLimits]

I'm happy I got to enjoy Ratchet: Deadlocked online a few times before the servers went online. That game was very enjoyable despite the fact that everyone online completely trounced all over me. I'm surprised that multiplayer will be included in the HD collection for PS3, as previous bundles such as the Splinter Cell Collection did not include the multiplayer components. So that's a positive undertone to another disappointing server shutdown.