EA shuts down our childhood by sunsetting Need for Speed: Rivals
Published on Oct 09, 2025 at 10:40 AM (UTC+4)
by Jason Fan
Last updated on Oct 09, 2025 at 4:54 PM (UTC+4)
Edited by
Mason Jones
It’s official: EA has pulled the plug on Need for Speed: Rivals online servers, marking the end of an era for street-racing fans everywhere.
The news isn’t exactly shocking, but it still stings.
For over a decade, players have been drifting through Redview County, swapping between cops and racers in chaotic online chases.
Now, as of October 7, 2025, those wild multiplayer pursuits are gone for good.
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Can you still play Need for Speed: Rivals offline?
Released back in 2013, Need for Speed: Rivals was a stylish mashup of speed, chaos, and flashing sirens.
It wasn’t perfect, as early bugs had players spinning out for the wrong reasons, but over time, it became a fan favorite.
Rivals let players choose between being the cop or the criminal, and few things were more satisfying than outsmarting another human driver in a high-speed showdown.
That thrill, however, just can’t be replicated with AI opponents.
EA announced the shutdown earlier this year, grouping Rivals with a few other games set to lose online functionality.
And now, the date has come and gone.
You can still play the game offline, but there’s no more online multiplayer.
This means no more chasing friends through mountain passes, or slipping away with your last burst of nitrous.
It’s a lonely road out there now.
EA has been shutting down the servers for many of its games
Unfortunately, Need for Speed: Rivals isn’t the only EA classic getting the axe.
Later this month, Madden NFL 22 and FIFA 23 are also losing their servers, part of EA’s ongoing cleanup of older titles.
In fact, the company has shut down more than 60 games since 2023.
That’s a lot of digital memories gone in the blink of an eye.
Sure, server shutdowns are part of gaming’s life cycle.
But when it’s a game that defined so many late nights and rivalries, it hits differently.
As a gamer, what you can do now is continue waiting for the release of GTA VI.
Surely it won’t take much longer, right?
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Jason Fan is an experienced content creator who graduated from Nanyang Technological University in Singapore with a degree in communications. He then relocated to Australia during a millennial mid-life crisis. A fan of luxury travel and high-performance machines, he politely thanks chatbots just in case the AI apocalypse ever arrives. Jason covers a wide variety of topics, with a special focus on technology, planes and luxury.
