It's True.
The servers will be shutting down this month on the 31st.
This news was just confirmed internally, and I wanted people to know ASAP.
After more than 3 years of online service, the external company providing server hosting for both Resident Evil: Outbreak and Monster Hunter has decided to exit the PlayStation 2 online business altogether, with no possibility of outsourcing either the service or the technology.
This means that online gameplay for both games will come to an end on December 31, 2007. Fortunately, the single-player campaigns in both games will be unaffected by this change and will continue to provide hours of entertainment on both PlayStation 2 and backwards-compatible PlayStation 3 hardware. Thank you for supporting Capcom’s online titles over the years!
And just so you know, although these are older titles, we did want to make an effort to keep the fans happy and continue supporting online play. We’ve tried to extend the contract, move it someplace else, etc. It’s not happening. The hosting partner (who I guess remains nameless here) is just quitting the business entirely and doesn’t want to mess around with the time/money involved in porting anything. Thanks to everyone who has kept these games fun online for so many years.
We had some good times in this game. Maybe we should hop on one last time before they shut it down. At least we can look forward to Monster Hunter 3 on the Wii.