Madden NFL 23's online multiplayer shuts down permanently on July 13 across all platforms — PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S. NHL 22 and NHL 23 follow on August 31. More than ten PS4 and PS5 titles lose online services through the end of the summer. [1]

When Sony halted new PlayStation disc production and began closing PS3 digital stores, this paper's frame held: buyers become licensees. The disc-cutoff announcement and the network-layer shutdowns are the same instrument. A buyer who purchased Madden NFL 23 on disc still has the disc. Starting July 13, a significant portion of what they purchased ceases to exist. The offline modes remain functional; the modes that made the title commercially relevant do not. [1]

The conversion is not new — EA and Sony have ended servers for dozens of titles over the past decade. What changed this summer is the simultaneity: ten-plus titles in eight weeks, timed to the same period in which new disc production ends for PS4-era games. The licensing frame is now structural, not incidental.

-- CAMILLE BEAUMONT, Los Angeles