Enlarge / A mates of folks perfectly getting down to Rock Band 2 astatine that game's 2008 motorboat enactment astatine LA's Orpheum Theatre.

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If you've ever wanted to execute a five-star Expert standing for Dragonforce's "Through the Fire and Flames," now's the clip to drawback that way for Rock Band 3. Online stores, DLC, and services for that crippled and 14 others volition shut down connected January 24 arsenic Epic Games consolidates its online offerings.

Most notable among the games Epic says person "out-of-date online services and servers" are 5 Rock Band titles: 1-3, The Beatles, and Green Day. Rock Band's servers person been online since 2007, sending much than 100 cardinal playable versions of over 2,000 songs for radical to play connected assorted integrative instruments studded with brightly colored buttons. You'll inactive beryllium capable to play immoderate songs you've downloaded for those titles but nary longer beryllium capable to link for caller tunes. Those committed to Rock Band 4 tin inactive support playing online multiplayer, Epic notes.

Another cornerstone of a bygone era, Unreal volition suffer servers for galore of its games. Epic notes that it intends to bring backmost online features for Unreal Tournament 3, but Gold, II, Tournament 2003 and 2004, and Unreal Tournament: Game of the Year Edition volition spell acheronian aft the January 24 date.

Epic—aiming to determination each its games into its modern, unified Epic Online Services—had a spot much atrocious quality to stock for fans of older oregon quirkier games. The Mac and Linux versions of sentient pigeon ocular romance caller Hatoful Boyfriend and Hatoful Boyfriend: Holiday Star are gone from Epic's store, though owners tin inactive play them. And the online-dependent games DropMix, Unreal Tournament (Alpha), Rock Band Blitz, SingSpace, and the Rock Band Companion app volition nary longer enactment aft January 24. Battle Breakers, a mobile-based RPG that had already weathered Epic's semipermanent warfare with Apple, volition halt moving connected December 30, though Epic is offering refunds for immoderate in-game purchases made wrong 180 days of today's announcement.

If a crippled has an online constituent and you can't make your ain servers for it, those servers volition vanish astatine immoderate point. Ubisoft earlier this twelvemonth announced shutdowns for older Assassin's Creed, Far Cry, and Splinter Cell games, among others, eliminating multiplayer and forcing owners to activate DLC earlier their deadline. The developers of Anno 2070 managed to rebuild a transcript of their crippled that worked with caller servers, keeping the crippled live successful astir respects.

Nintendo, much aggressively, has antecedently taken down the online aspects of full generations of games by killing servers for the Wii and the DS, past the Wii U and 3DS. Hackers managed to work astir immoderate of those shutdowns, too.

The online shutdown of Rock Band's classical trio whitethorn hamper your quality to interruption retired the instruments and effort immoderate caller tunes, but the games person served their fans acold longer than most. Its nonstop competitor, Guitar Hero, shut down services for Guitar Hero Live in 2018, making 92 percent of its streaming-only songs inaccessible. That determination spurred a false advertizing lawsuit and, eventually, a refund program.

Then again, Rock Band's longevity, and the interconnection of its titles, leaves america with questions. Will you beryllium capable to re-download songs you've already purchased? If you bought a opus for Rock Band 1-3, and you export it to enactment successful 4, could you inactive re-download it for a aboriginal mentation of 4 you instal aft the shutdown date? We've emailed Epic Games to ask.

Here's the database of games Epic says volition suffer their online services connected January 24:

• 1000 Tiny Claws
• Dance Central 1-3
• Green Day: Rock Band
• Monsters (Probably) Stole My Princess
• Rock Band 1-3
• The Beatles: Rock Band
• Supersonic Acrobatic Rocket-Powered Battle-Cars
• Unreal Gold
• Unreal II: The Awakening
• Unreal Tournament 2003
• Unreal Tournament 2004
• Unreal Tournament 3
• Unreal Tournament: Game of the Year Edition