Star Wars: Battlefront II multiplayer ends with GameSpy, GameRanger comes to the rescue

On May 31, GameSpy's online matchmaking client will shut down, meaning the games that still use it will have to find a different solution or lose online functionality.

On May 31, GameSpy's online matchmaking client will shut down, meaning the games that still use it will have to find a different solution or lose online functionality. So far, publishers and developers responded well, migrating most of the games you care about to Valve's Steamworks. Today, we learned that Disney, which acquired LucasArts last year, will not do the same for Star Wars: Battlefront II. Luckily, GameRanger already has us covered.

“As of May 31, 2014, online functionality, including network multiplayer and wireless chat, will no longer be available for this title,” an update to Battlefront II's Steam page says. We regret any disappointment as a result of the shutdown of the services supporting these online features.”

But as GameRanger creator Scott Kevill explained on Reddit, the service already supports Battlefront II, so you can keep playing online by downloading the free client.

We are really learning to appreciate GameRanger since we got the news of GameSpy shutting down. Last week, it also added support for Halo: Combat Evolved, Halo: Combat Evolved Demo, and Halo: Custom Edition, which would have also gone offline otherwise.

If you're keeping count, so far the biggest casualties of the GameSpy shutdown seem to be the online multiplayer modes for Crysisand Crysis 2. If you're really upset by that, there's even an online petition you can sign.