Darkspore, for those that don`t know, was a funky game where you, without or without online mates, could do pvp or main part of the game, fight loads of mobs in a seemingly never ending series of glorious maps, with three characters of your choice (which you could swap for others between map areas for others).

These characters had an absolute bucket load of things you could equip to aid you in healing & fighting on your travels.

Welp, not any more...



"Electronic Arts has shut down Darkspore, a Sci-fi Action-RPG game from Maxis.

On the game's official forums, the publisher said they "will be closing the doors on Darkspore, effective March 1st, 2016" and reminded players that there are other games available on EA's Origin platform. The forums have since been brought offline, and Darkspore's website remains with a single page notifying visitors of the game's closure.

First debuted in 2011, the always-online game used the Creature Editing technology from Spore as the key selling point. The game promised unique customization options to create genetically altered heroes which were in turn used against a mutant horde that has terrorized the galaxy."


I only discovered this when I loaded Origin to play the game & it said "Expired".

This is a game that was lumbered with online only, despite the fact you could solo play the game. :$


"....and reminded players that there are other games available on EA's Origin platform."


Riiiiiiiiiiight, I am really going to spend money on a firm that has just stopped my access to a game I like.

DERP!

Thank fuck for the likes of GOG Bears.

Not too disappointed. It was stated clearly as online only game, so this is inevitable.

I think people need to evaluate their priorities and opinion. If it's online only, always be prepared to lose access.

If Diablo 3 ever shut down, I'm prepared. I knew it was online only, and despite that fact, I proceeded to buy and played it for like... 3000 hours?

I've got my money's worth.

Sorry you had to learn the hard way that you shall neither give money nor time to single-player games that require online connection :(

LGR did a thing on this a couple days ago.

Somewhere it was said that DarkSpore succeeded with a 0% piracy rate... meaning the game's pretty much dead for good. And a case like this really helps to how how piracy can preserve a game's existence rather than being in the sole hands of a greedy corporation.

That I doubt, it was such a horrible game (yes I bought it :P, as it came with another game I bought ) that I doubt anyone would want to pirate it. I remember getting mine when I bought Dragon age 2

Apparently this is the "future" of mainstream gaming. You rent games and when the publishers decide that you've played enouh then they shut it down so that you can rent the next. Look at the "bright" side though. Soon there will be no more backlogs as games won't be around long enough.

Do you want piracy?

Because this is how you get piracy.

Yep. It's kind of funny seeing this alongside the No Man's Sky pricing thread. Devs, publishers and distributors are apparently willing to bend over backwards to stop piracy (or at least sell more games in countries where piracy is rampant) by using ridiculous regional pricing schemes and all the while decisions like this are far more likely to turn legitimate buyers into pirates...

Never heard if the game, but it's a really bad sign for the future if this is what companies are going to do now when they can't be bothered to support a game any more...

No Man's Sky has been toted and shown off at E3 for like 3 years straight, with a few new features and extras each time. Last year i think they actually showed a randomly generated galaxy and landing on a planet, walking around, then taking off again.

With a $60 price point, i just have to shake my head. I'll play the game on my time, and buy it when it's within an acceptable price range. I'm sure quite a few people will do likewise.

Who knows maybe they'll drop the price a lot inside of 3 months... Although infinite digital copies vs physical copies, dropping the price on really bad games is a way just to get them off the shelves. With DD there are no shelves...

We will see.

No no no no no! That won't do! Don't spend a SINGLE DIME on leeches like EA! Only the fact that they buyout successful developer groups, rape their high quality products and then proceed to ruin devs and doom game itself, is reason enough to NOT SPEND A SINGLE DIME on them, ever again, sit back without ever dealing with them again, while hoping they somehow disband or something, go bankrupt, fall victim to a random terrorist bomber, etc. Even their free "gifts" require that sh*tty client, Origins and most importantly, unlike games purchased here, those/theirs are not supported any longer, or the oldies tweaked, to run in modern systems.

I myself still mourn the ugly and undeserving fates of C&C series/westwood studios, plants vs zombies/popcap and others that right now elude my memory.

DON'T ever buy anything off of them, ever again! Use your BRAINZ!, vote with your wallet's guts and don't throw them aimlessly around!

No one gave a shit about the game until now.

Don't forget market access. If something is on a shelf it only attracts those in the shop. The digital market place covers most of the planet, and a bit like a phishong scam, send it out to millions, you only need a few thousand daft enough to buy into it, and there is always a large percentage of people who will for one reason or another.

This was not the argument used before when some people have chosen to defend DRM (including its always-online variants). As in, it is just stupid to worry about whether or not you will have access to your single-player games also in the future. Of course you will, the services are not closing down in your lifetime (especially Steam), and even if they were, you just download a crack somewhere and keep playing, right?

I was expecting the goalposts to change with these arguments, and now it has clearly happened. So if and when people lose access to their Steam games in the distant(?) future, people will be saying:

"What exactly did you expect? It was stupid of you to think you could have access your Steam games forever. Of course the service would shut down at some point, and you wouldn't be able to play your Steam games."

Right, yet people would argue the opposite before... Good video... but I wonder if LGR is fine with e.g. Steam games which are married to the service, and can't be installed and played if and when Steam ever closes down?

Nothing lives forever.

Before Steam shutting down though, it would be GOG first. I'd worry about Steam shutting down in like... 20 years? Steam's demise and GOG's demise aren't different. Both are services, DDs. Whether you keep your DRM free games forever is irrelevant, it's the access that's gone.

And like you said, there'll always be crack and/or torrent.

I'm avoiding EA for different reason. I've never trusted them to begin with. At least when I created my Origin account a few years ago their bad rep for shutting down things were well known already.

I wonder if this game is still in people's Steam libraries, because if so, is it possible to request a Steam refund for it?