Changes

As the internet has become more readily available over time, a lot of companies have experimented with adding online services to their products (see [[Early Online Services]]). However, because of how dependent these features can be on a single company or server they are at high risk of disappearing once the service gets shut down. [[#Private Game Servers]], especially for MMOs are at risk as the entirety of the game is based on playing online. If the game has no way of allowing the user to host their own private server then once the service ends, so does the game. This will especially be a problem in the future as more and more games are becoming more dependent on online services. Other than MMOs, private game server revive projects particularly important for preserving online experiences in AAA games where publishers like [https://support.2k.com/hc/en-us/articles/360012369553-Which-2K-Games-Have-Servers-Online 2K], EA and Ubisoft are notorious for using intrusive [[Copy_protection|copy protection]], acquiring IPs and developers and then turning them to zombie, instead of using or turning their games to P2P-based online infastructure they are shutting down their own custom/private servers for older titles. Revival projects ensure these kind of online experiences, aren't lost to history. Depending on interest and importance, there has been a surprising amount of fans who have come together to keep a service and game alive, or even "revive" it, by creating their own functioning service.

These shouldn't be confused with [[#LAN_Tunneling_Programs|LAN tunneling or offline multiplayer gaming over a LAN]] (local area network) multiplayer games support (e.g. System Link for XBOX home console systems or third party tools and services such as XLink Kai etc). [[Wikipedia:Peer-to-peer|P2P infrastructure]] based games are included for informational purposes regarding their availability, even if the primary focus might be on the private servers. While some games listed below use [[Wikipedia:Peer-to-peer|peer-to-peer]] (P2P) infrastructure, they might have private servers for authentication phase. ;Remember, for games lacking official or private revival servers, LAN multiplayer can still be an option. If the game supports it, you can use [[#LAN_Tunneling_Programs|LAN tunneling]] software to play with your friends over the internet.