> Is this why half my cars have disappeared since I last played this game early 2018?
That would be a new issue that I wasn't aware of. The problem is that EA/Origin changed the server so that it no longer sends out unlock messages to enable the Limited Edition content and any promotional items. This should only affect 3 cars (SIlvia, Giulietta, LP640), and 3 events (manufacturer showdown, old vs new, single type), plus any promotional cars like the Dr Pepper Camaro.
I don't know if other games content was disabled due to the EA/Origin server bug. It appears that Hot Pursuit Limited Edition does get it's Limited Edition content as soon as a player logs in for the first time to link the key with an EA account. I made a backup of the save files before logging in. On the very first log in, I was prompted to enter the game key, but starting over with a clean save and logging in again, the game didn't ask for the key again, as it already had linked it to my EA account.
I went back and looked at the EULA for Shift 2 Unleashed Limited Edition, it states that online play may be disabled with a 30 day notice, but there's nothing in the EULA that allows EA/Origin to disable content that was paid for, in this case the Limited Edition content. It's been about a year since this problem first started, and still there is no fix.
This is just a guess on my part, but looking at ea service_updates for shutdown dates, the only one I see near the time when the missing content bug started is:
March 15, 2018 - Need For Speed Network (website)
There is no mention of what this website does or how it relates to any of the Need For Speed games. Shift 2 online servers are still running, so it's not clear why the Shift 2 content unlock (Limited Edition stuff, Dr Pepper Camaro, ...) would be affected by Need For Speed Network website, but that's the only change I see in early 2018, which seems to correspond to the time that the content unlock stopped working. The data files for the extra content are there, but can't be accessed.
