2K Sports has for several years maintained server support for All-Pro Football 2K8, NHL 2K10 and College Hoops 2K8. These game titles are all final edition of defunct series, Kotaku reported.
There was a strong community for College Hoops 2K8 that was "updating, re-rating and sharing rosters well into this year."
Online support for these game titles were pulled out this early this month.
The gaming titles that are confirmed of having online support are 2011's Top Spin 4, Major League Baseball 2K12, and NBA 2K13. All the games are 2K Sports gaming titles.
Kotaku checked and found the servers were offline. The shutdown of server means the end of the roster sharing community for College Hoops 2K8. The game was culled in 2008 but the online support for the game was continued.
Sports publishers have found the licensing for college basketball video games difficult.
"Though the NCAA has a billion-dollar television contract for its championship tournament and summons millions of viewers in North America in March, titles under its license released in November, typically at the end of the simulation sports publishing cycle, and were cannibalized by the professional basketball games. College sports simulations also face the threat of litigation; a lawsuit currently in U.S. federal court claims the NCAA and its licensed games publishers-i.e. EA Sports-unlawfully used actual amateur players' likenesses," Kotaku reported.
It's because NCAA was not willing to license the use of real names of athletes, EA Sports developed roster-sharing feature through its console games. College Hoops 2K8 too had similar structure of "roster share" feature.
College Hoops 2K8 was released on Nov. 19, 2007 for Xbox 360, PlayStation 2 and PlayStation 3.
