EA did NOT shut-down Revive - they wanted to shut down

[Turbo Nozomix]

There's an important distinction here.

EA sent Revive a letter asking them nicely (though seriously) to remove all EA trademark branding from their website along with the cracked downloads of their copyright game from their website.

Judging by the letter, EA did not ask, or expect Revive to shut down its Battlefield 2 project. What EA appears to have expected was that Revive would remove their downloads of the cracked full game and instead offer their Bf2 Revive service as a patch to be applied to installed copies of the game people have on their PCs - exactly like Bf2 Hub handles the situation.

So, Revive didn't have to close down, but they chose to close down, and to present the situation as though they were forced to close down, maybe to make it appear dramatic, and as though the matter was out of their hands.

But all that needed to be done was stop providing and hosting a download of a cracked retail version of the game, and to remove any logos that implied Revive was officially associated with EA or the Battlefield franchise.

Revive had some clear options to keep their Battlefield 2 service running:

- Make all Revive content install via a patch which could be downloaded from Revive's website. The patch would require an existing copy of Battlefield 2 to be installed on people's PCs.

- Anonymously upload the entire Revive Bf2 package with the Revive patch pre-installed to various torrent-hosting sites.


That fact that Revive shut down their service following the EA letter strongly indicates that Revive wasn't enthusiastic about continuing to develop and host Revive Bf2, and was already looking for a way out of the project - which the EA letter conveniently supplied to them.




Here is EA's letter to Revive:


https://reviveheroes.com/notice/

Dear [REDACTED],

I write on behalf of Electronic Arts Inc. and its development studio DICE or, in other words, "those guys that make Battlefield."

We've noticed that Revive Network has several projects and websites devoted to being a Medic by "reviving" older Battlefield games, including Battlefield Heroes, Battlefield 2, and Battlefield 2142. It's great to see your enthusiasm for these titles. Not to brag, but we too get the nostalgia chills when booting up these classic entries in the Battlefield franchise.

We need a favor though: we must ask that you stop throwing down Ammo Crates. In other, more legal-styled terms, please stop distributing copies of our game clients and using our trademarks, logos, and artwork on your sites. Thing is, your websites may easily mislead visitors to believe that you are associated or affiliated with EA - we're the only ones that get to wear the "Official EA" dog tag. Since you're Battlefield community members, we know that you are smart and helpful, and will respect that we must protect our intellectual property rights in the franchise.

Please drop us a line to let us know you're on board with this. Should you have any questions regarding all this, please do not hesitate to contact me via e-mail at [REDACTED]@ea.com.

Thanks,

[REDACTED]
IP Counsel
Electronic Arts Inc.


---------------------------------------------------------


The letter made some simple requests that were easy to address without closing down the project. The only request in the letter is:

"please stop distributing copies of our game clients and using our trademarks, logos, and artwork on your sites"


There is nothing in the letter demanding, asking, or suggesting that the Revive project, the Revive development, the Revive hosting, or the Revive distribution of Revive patches cease.

EA was certainly not expecting them to close down the project. That was entirely an independent choice of Revive's.

[Bluescoutz]

I thought the same thing when it happened.

[Sir_0v3rk1ll]

I always used BF2hub anyway. I did support revive for BF2142 and gave a little donation of 50 dollars for that. They did a good job and they were doing a good thing. But, I think they thought the revive was going to bring back more people than it did. Truth is BF2 was already dying before gamespy shutdown. I never left but many people did. Im still playing wake island and have been since 2007. I remember my first favorite wake server was Axxium. They had battlerecorder on. Then after they closed it was Team America for many years to come. Then even TA closed and I did TBG for a breif moment and my last one was weekend warrior before even gamespy went down.