This habit of game design sucks. So much so a movement has started: Stop Killing Games – Wikipedia
I have one to add to this, one of my gavorite games of to play “The Golf Club 2019 feature the PGA Tour.” The Golf Club 2019 can no longer go online because its servers were permanently shut down on October 30, 2025, as part of a “server sunsetting” process to focus on newer games. This means that after this date, all online features, including multiplayer, online courses, and in-game store purchases, are no longer available.
Now, I’m on the best pace ever on a PGA tour game, to find out randomly I can’t play my campaign cause it says I have to be online (to play an offline portion of the game).
As H8 Gamers states “Why does the PGA tour element of the game require an online server, I’ve only played a little of the game and thought only multiplayer required an online server to make it work. Now it will feel like a pointless purchase if there is no story mode, unless I don’t understand the tour mode correctly as I only played a few holes.”
I get discontinuing online servers to support legacy games becomes strenuous vs the amount of player (player base), but all offline features should be recoded with a last time update to release them from their coded dependencies on servers they know aren’t going to be online.
TLDR, this sucks, stop making games like this…. watch I bet they still have it listed for purchase on stream too… “Notice: The Golf Club™ 2019 featuring PGA TOUR is no longer available on the Steam store.” alright touche on that one.. but still… ****