GameSpy says “Thanks for a great ride!” as it shuts down

The venerable GameSpy game hosting service will shut down after 17 years in operation. A brief posting by parent company Glu Mobile noted that “effective May 31, GameSpy will cease providing all hosting services for all games still using GameSpy. Thanks for a great ride!” Hundreds of games on nearly every platform are affected by the closure, including popular titles on OS X, iOS, Android, Windows, Xbox 360, and Playstation 3.

GameSpy Technology, the Glu Mobile-owned service that provides multiplayer functionality for dozens of games on consoles, computers and mobile devices, will shut down as of May 31, according to the company’s website. “Effective May 31, 2014, GameSpy will cease providing all hosting services for all games still using GameSpy,” the statement reads. “Thanks for a great ride!” The company had already stopped licensing out its services to publishers as of Jan. 1, 2013. GameSpy Technology has existed in some form since 1997, when it debuted as a listing service for Quake server IP addresses. It is a separate entity from the gaming site GameSpy, which was shut down by its parent company, Ziff Davis, in February 2013.