15 'Always Online' Games That You Can't Play Anymore

12. Need for Speed: World

The Need for Speed franchise has had a rough go of it in recent years. Just when the franchise seems to have found its biting point, it proceeds to stall and let other games such as Forza Horizon overtake it. For every Need for Speed Unbound, there's a Need for Speed Payback. The series has struggled to find its footing since its peak with Need for Speed: Underground and Need for Speed: Most Wanted. 

Would you believe me if I said that in 2010, EA decided the best route to take with the franchise was a free-to-play MMO racing game that was only playable on Windows PC? Because that's exactly what happened. Need for Speed: World was the bold reinvention of the franchise that EA was hoping would boost the franchise ahead of its competitors and was seemingly part of EA's plans to introduce more iconic IPs to the free-to-play MMO world, as we saw FIFA World and Battlefield Heroes around the same time. 

Surprising nobody, Need for Speed: World failed to attract an audience big enough to sustain its servers, and in 2015, EA decided to shut the servers down for good, with the publisher saying that the game "no longer lives up to the high standard set by the Need for Speed franchise". Mind you, 2015 was the same year that the Need for Speed reboot came out, so those "high standards" must've been considerably lower than we all initially thought. 

 
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Hey, I’m Matt. I work full-time at WhatCulture's neighbours, MyVoucherCodes. I first joined MyVoucherCodes as a Deals Expert, scouring the internet, leaving no stone unturned in finding the best discount codes, sales and offers for our customers. Moving into my first home during the worst possible time (during lockdown), I understand the necessity of saving money when the purse strings are tight. Outside of saving money, I’m into video games, movies, books and music. I host and edit a video game podcast called The Retry Hard Podcast, where my friend and I go through news, reviews and video games in general. I love movies and watching how they’re made, and I’ve worked as a set decorator for a few months on His Dark Materials season 3, which gave me a massive insight into how it all comes together. I also put out music as a solo artist named Matt Kiano, where I won the award for Best Male Artist of 2025 for Radio Wigwam and have been nomiated for Best Live Act at the 2026 Radio Wigwam Awards.